Namibia Gender Justice and Local Government Summit calls for more accountability around the targets of the SADC Protocol

Namibia Gender Justice and Local Government Summit calls for more accountability around the targets of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development and stronger collaboration from civil society to assist in ending to gender violence

“365 days of local action to end violence and empower women”
11 – 12 April 2012 at Polytechnic of Namibia

Namibia, 13 April: Delegates to the first Namibia Gender Justice and Local Government Summit have called on the government and civil society organisations to take special measures to ensure more accountability in reaching the 28 targets of the SADC Protocol of Gender and Development that Namibia is a signatory to. 2015 is around the corner and the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development has only been introduced to some of Namibia’s regions through the work that Gender Links does at the local level.

At the close of a two day summit that show cased 34 best practices of local efforts to end violence and empower women, delegates expressed dismay that at the very moment that Namibia should be accelerating efforts to meet the 2015 targets of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, there has been regression on some fronts as national government and civil society are not collectively thinking of ways of taking the Protocol to the masses and are not combining their efforts to that more impact and ensure targets can be met.

The summit, convened by Gender Links, Konrad Adenuaer Stiftung KAS, Association of Local Authorities ALAN and Namibia Association of Local Authority Officers NALAO ended with awards to 14 individuals and organisations who have demonstrated commitment to local action to end gender violence and empower women. The winners of each category (see Annex A) will go on to the regional Gender Justice and Local Government Summit in Johannesburg from 23-25 April.

The SADC Gender Protocol, to which Namibia is a signatory and they have also ratified, also calls for gender parity in all areas of decision-making by 2015. Currently in Namibia the number of female mayors are at 33%, deputy mayors are at 56% females, female councillors are at 42% and female CEOs are at 13%. Although the delegates acknowledges the small victories (54% female deputy mayors at the first day of the summit, the 61 delegates (20 men and 41 women) unanimously said that more needed to be done to ensure equal representation at the decision making levels. With its next elections in 2014, Namibia has an opportunity to work towards reaching the SADC Gender Protocol target.

Another key target of the SADC Gender Protocol is to halve gender violence by 2015. In his speech that was read by the Honourable Mayor of Windhoek, Honourable Mayor Elaine Trepper, at the awards ceremony last night, the Minister of Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, Honourable Minister Jerry Ekandjo said that “while we are celebrating our efforts as Local Government in mainstreaming gender at the local level, we have to also note with sadness the ever escalating cases of Gender Based Violence. For example, just yesterday morning a 27 year old pregnant woman was set alight by her partner.

These statistics are disturbing and that is why Gender-Based violence remains an issue of concern and hence the need for us as the Ministry of Local Government to play our role in whichever way we can in alleviating or addressing this challenge. It is through the Ministry of Local Government, that our citizens interface with their Government. This therefore makes us strategically placed to reach out to our communities in giving the message about the importance of combating gender based violence and hence our deliberate effort to mainstream Gender Based Violence in our day to day work activities in a quest to combat it”, the minister encouraged all delegates to not give up on the fight against gender violence and said that more needs to be done to address gender based violence in Namibia.

Examples of local level action shared at the summit include Ellie Nowases’ good practise on local economic development and Elizabeth//Khaxas’ good practise on harmful cultural practises. The summit also show cased progress made by the 14 Councils that have joined the Centres of Excellence for Gender Mainstreaming programme (Witvlei, Gobabis, Mariental, Swakopmund, Outjo, Otjiwarango, Arandis, Keetmanshoop, Okahanja, Aroab, Rehoboth, Usakos, Windhoek and Karibib) run in Namibia by GL and ALAN and NALAO.

For more information visit the Gender Links website or contact: Sarry Xoagus – Eises +264 81 2209216, email: namlocalgvt@genderlinks.org.za.

ANNEX A: LIST OF WINNERS PARTICIPATING AT THE REGIONAL SUMMIT: 23 À“ 25 APRIL 2012