Roadmap to Equality, Issue 17, June 2011

Date: June 18, 2011

Issue 17 | June 2011

Table of contents

Editor’s Note

Highlights
– Meeting of SADC ministers responsible for gender and women’s affairs

International News
– Gender wars, race, class, and international relations

Alliance News
– Alliance update

Constitutional and Legal Rights
– Mauritius: A quota for women’s representation at long last

Governance
– Re-launching the 50/50 campaign

Economic Justice, Education and Training
– Botswana government facilitates women’s cross-border informal trade

Productive Resources and Employment
– Stand up for Africa! Stand up for climate justice!

Gender-based Violence
– Measuring gender-based violence in Southern Africa

Health, HIV and AIDS
– South Africa: Clinics close in major AIDS shake-up

Tracking and Ratification
– Tracking the SADC Gender Protocol

SADC Protocol @ Work
– Zimbabwe: Women’s roadmap to election

Gender Resources

Giant Footprints: GL@10
SADC Gender Protocol 2010 Barometer – Madagascar
SADC Gender Protocol 2010 Barometer – DRC
Ratification Resource Kit

Gender Champion

Albertina Sisulu – Liberation struggle icon

Albertina Sisulu, the South African liberation struggle icon who died at 92 last week, was the matriarch of a political family whose influence on South African life is widely felt. Sisulu was co-president of the biggest internal anti-apartheid grouping of the 1980s, the United Democratic Front (UDF). Her husband, Walter, the man who brought Nelson Mandela into politics, served as secretary-general of the African National Congress (ANC) before going underground and hiding out at a farm at Rivonia, near Johannesburg, then being captured and sentenced to life imprisonment with Nelson Mandela and other ANC leaders. … Read more

Albertina Sisulu

Alerts

	Angola
	Botswana
	DRC
	Lesotho
	Madagascar
	Malawi
	Mauritius
	Mozambique
	Namibia
	Seychelles
	South Africa
	Swaziland
	Tanzania
	Zambia
	Zimbabwe

	Editor’s Note

Note from the editor By Mukayi Makaya Welcome to the 17th edition of Roadmap to Equality! tracking progress toward the ratification and implementation and of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. The most exciting gender achievement this month may very well be the legalisation of a 30% quota for women’s representation in Mauritius. After years of lobbying for greater representation in a country with just 6.4% women in local government, Mauritian lawmakers have agreed on a quota stating that at least 33% of candidates for local government elections (due later this year) must be women. While Mauritius has yet to sign the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, its leaders have made great strides to address many of its targets. As SADC Heads of State (HOS) prepare to meet during the August Angola Summit, a series of consultative processes have already begun. The Namibia government’s gender ministry hosted a regional meeting of gender ministers in late May. A key outcome is agreement on a roadmap for the implementation of the SADC Gender Protocol that includes alignment of country policies and action plans to the targets of the Protocol and a meeting in September to agree on a framework for doing so. … Read more
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	Highlights

Meeting of SADC ministers responsible for gender and women’s affairs The Namibian Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare (MGECW) recently hosted a meeting of SADC Ministers responsible for Gender/Women’s Affairs. The meeting took place in Windhoek from 30 May to 2 June and information was shared about progress made around issues such as cross-border trade. There was also a report back and creation of next steps on the SADC Women in Business Association Workshop, with Angola and Zimbabwe volunteering to host upcoming workshops. … Read more
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	International News

Gender wars, race, class, and international relations The group of chambermaids who jeered at Dominique Strauss-Kahn as he arrived at Manhattan criminal court to enter his plea of not guilty, demonstrates just how political this case is becoming. The hotel employees who responded to a call from their trade union shouted “Shame on you!” and told journalists that they and their colleagues were frequently subjected to unwanted sexual advances or worse, from rich and powerful guests. … Read more
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	Alliance News

Alliance update The Secretariat would like to thank all the members of the Alliance Steering Committee and Researchers who participated in the recent teleconference. The deliberations were fruitful and the forum was good for sharing information. We commend the good work done by our cluster leaders and national focal points and acknowledge the hard work done by our team of researchers in updating country Barometer reports. … Read more
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	Constitutional and Legal Rights

Mauritius: A quota for women’s representation at long last The struggle has indeed been a long one. We have fought for more than ten years. We went to nearly every village in Mauritius using the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development as a tool to tell men and women about the importance of having women in politics…. Read more
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	Governance

Re-launching the 50/50 campaign While the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development advocates for 50% women’s representation in all areas of decision-making, local government elections held on 18 May in South Africa saw a decrease in the percentage of women elected. The country dropped from 40% in the previous elections to 38%. This is 12 percentage points below the target of 50/50 by 2015, underscoring the importance of quotas to get women into decision-making positions. … Read more
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	Economic Justice, Education and Training

Botswana government facilitates women’s cross-border informal trade The Botswana government, with support from the United Nations, has launched a three-year project on informal cross-border trade to improve networking among women cross-border traders. The project will also increase the visibility of these traders and highlight their contribution to the country’s employment and economy. … Read more
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	Productive Resources and Employment

Stand up for Africa! Stand up for climate justice! From 24-26 May 2011, representatives of African trade unions, farmers, women and faith-based groups, as well as key African non-governmental organisations and networks concerned with the climate change crisis met in Johannesburg, South Africa to discuss shared strategies to confront this crisis and its root causes. … Read more
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	Gender-based Violence

Measuring gender-based violence in Southern Africa Inspired by the Southern African Development Community Protocol on Gender and Development, Gender Links, in collaboration with the Medical Research Council Gender and Health Research Unit, has embarked on the first comprehensive, community-based research study of the prevalence of GBV in the South Africa, Botswana and Mauritius. … Read more
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	Health, HIV and AIDS

South Africa: Clinics close in major AIDS shake-up Donor cuts and a shake-up in the HIV and AIDS sector are having a major impact on HIV and AIDS services countrywide. Many patients who previously got their antiretroviral (ARV) treatment from well-run non-governmental organisations are being transferred to already overcrowded public health facilities…. Read more
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	Tracking and Ratification

Tracking the SADC Gender Protocol Countries that have signed Angola, DRC, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe Countries that have not signed Botswana, Mauritius Countries that have ratified Angola, DRC, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zimbabwe Countries that have deposited instruments of ratification with SADC Secretariat DRC, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Tanzania, Zimbabwe Focus of advocacy efforts: Regional Level Gender Ministers are invited to support the development of a Regional Action Plan for the Implementation of the SADC Gender Protocol and standardised framework for developing costed national action plans that are aligned to the Protocol. National Level Ministers are invited to follow the example show by Namibia in revising and costing its national action plan, and incorporating the targets of the SADC Gender Protocol by the 2012 gender ministers meeting. … Read more
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	SADC Protocol @ Work

Zimbabwe: Women’s roadmap to election Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe have called on the Zimbabwean leadership, SADC leadership and the mediator, President Jacob Zuma to work towards the production of a gender sensitive Zimbabwe Roadmap to Elections. In a press release issued on 10 June Zimbabwean women said there is need to engender all transitional processes in the country to ensure meaningful gains and progress… Read more
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Explanation of the Barometer

The Roadmap to Equality:
Southern Africa Gender and Development Protocol Barometer is a regional e-news- letter that tracks the ratification and implementation of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. It is produced by Gender Links in partnership with the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance and the Gender and Media Southern Africa (GEMSA) Network with support from DFID and UNIFEM.

The Barometer will enable both state and non-state actors to track progress whether governments are on the way to meeting set targets in the Gen- der Protocol which provides a road map for achieving gender equality in the region.

The new and updated Baro- meter will focus on the articles of the Protocol namely Consti- tutional and Legal Rights; Gender and Governance; Edu- cation and Training; Economic Justice; Gender Based Violence; Health; HIV and AIDS; Peace Building and Conflict Reso- lution; and Media, Infor- mation and Communication.

It is essential that gender and women’s rights activists and governments track the impact of their work in order to measure whether or not they are making a difference. The Barometer is a tool that can be used firstly, to track progress in advancing gender equality in the region and also to hold governments in Southern Africa accountable to the commitments they have made to address inequality through their obligations to international and regional in- struments and in particular the SADC Gender Protocol.

Fact Box

Youth Month

The International Day of the African Child has been celebrated on 16 June every year since 1991, when it was first initiated by the Organization of African Unity. It honours those who participated in the Soweto Uprising in 1976 on that day in South Africa where thousands of black school children took to the streets in 1976, in a march more than half a mile long, to protest the inferior quality of their education and to demand their right to be taught in their own language. Hundreds of young boys and girls were shot down; and in the two weeks of protest that followed, more than a hundred people were killed and more than a thousand were injured…. Read more

Upcoming events

– Relaunch of the 50/50 campaign: Zimbabwe 5 August 2011

– 16 Days Of Activism against Gender Violence: 2011 Theme Announcement:
The Centre for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) is pleased to announce the theme for the upcoming 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign (2011): From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let’s Challenge Militarism and End Violence Against Women.

This theme announcement builds on the work of so many activists during the 2010 campaign. The five sub-themes will be:
1. Bringing together women, peace, and human rights movements to challenge militarism
2. Proliferation of small arms and their role in domestic violence
3. Sexual violence in and after conflict
4. Political violence against women ,including Pre/During/Post election violence
5. Sexual and gender based violence committed by state agents, particularly the police or military

Country News

Lesotho – Postpone local government elections

Political parties in Lesotho have called on the country’s electoral body to postpone local government elections due to logistical problems…. Read more

Madagascr – Regional body acts on Madagascar

SADC Heads of State and government recently ordered an urgent meeting with all Malagasy stakeholders at the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Headquarters in Gaborone, Botswana to try and bring peace to Madagascar…. Read more

Mauritius – Homophobia: one step forward, two steps back

For the first time a lesbian, coming from a well Known family, is on the cover of a Mauritian women’s magazine and is interviewed together with her lover. … Read more

Zambia – State committed to gender equity

Secretary to the Cabinet Joshua Kanganja has said the Government remains committed and has fully embraced the gender mainstreaming strategy as a means to achieving equitable development and ultimately as a key instrument to contribute to the achievement of Vision 2030…. Read more

Zimbabwe – A call for responsible, committed fatherhood

The SADC Protocol on Gender and Development recognises that the hardest place to tackle gender inequity is in the private lives and the local communities of its citizens. … Read more

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