Roadmap to Equality, Issue 18, July 2011

Date: July 20, 2011

Issue 18 | July 2011

Table of contents

Highlights
– Southern Africa: Towards the 7th Southern Africa Civil Society Forum

Governance
– Regional: Re-launching the 50/50 campaign
– South Africa: GL calls for legislated quota for women’s political participation

Economic Justice, Education and Training
– Mozambique: Girls absent from schools
– Botswana: Mohohlo suggests targeted budget allocation

Productive Resources and Employment
– Civil Society to come up with regional position on climate change

Gender-based Violence
– South Africa: Advisory council on violence against women

Health, HIV and AIDS
– Health and HIV and AIDS

Peace Building
– A peace building gender movement on the horizon

Media, Information and Communications
– Media Centres of Excellence: A first for the South

Tracking and Ratification
– Tracking the SADC Gender Protocol

SADC Protocol @ Work
– Case Study – Mauritius: Will we see more women than men in local government?

Gender Resources

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

Gender Champion

Helen Joseph

Because it is women’s month we feature someone from the past – a woman who fought for freedoms that South Africa currently enjoys, yet are largely unknown by many. A tireless campaigner for women’s rights and antiapartheid stalwart Helen Joseph (née Fennell) was born in Sussex, England, on 8 April 1905. She grew up in London and graduated with a degree in English from the University of London in 1927. She taught in India for three years, then came to live in Durban in 1930 where she met and married dentist, Billie Joseph. … Read more

Helen Joseph

Alerts

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

	Editor’s Note

A note from the editor By Loveness Jambaya Nyakujarah Welcome to the 18th edition of Roadmap to Equality! tracking progress towards the implementation and ratification of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. My name is Loveness Jambaya Nyakujarah and I am now the editor of this e-newsletter. It is good to be back as Manager of the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance after my recent maternity leave. I had a bouncing baby girl! Viva to more women power! August is just around the corner and it promises to be an eventful month on the gender calendar. South Africa will be celebrating women’s month while the Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance has many activities lined up in different countries ahead of the SADC Heads of State Summit scheduled for 17 August in Luanda. The Alliance will launch the 2011 SADC Gender Protocol Barometer, the third edition in an annual series of this publication. The SADC Council of NGOs will also be hosting a 7th Civil Society Forum from 8-9 August in Johannesburg, with a smaller caucus meeting in Angola on 13 August, with an open invitation to all members of civil society across the region. August will also see the exciting re-launch of the 50/50 Campaign to promote women in decision-making and a Gender and Governance cluster meeting in Harare from 4 -5 August. The Lesotho Alliance Network will host a similar event on 3 August in Maseru. Following these events, an Alliance meeting will be held from 10-11 August in Johannesburg … Read more
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	Highlights

Southern Africa: Towards the 7th Southern Africa Civil Society Forum The Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance will participate in the 7th Civil Society Forum slated for 8-9 August 2011 in Johannesburg with a smaller caucus meeting in Luanda on 13 August, ahead of the SADC Heads of State Summit. The Forum will be held under the theme: “Social Economic Justice for Poverty Eradication and Development”…. Read more
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	Alliance News

Alliance update The Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance will hold its annual meeting from 10-11 August 2011, ahead of the SADC Heads of State Summit scheduled for 17 August in Luanda. The meeting takes place in Johannesburg at a time that the country will be celebrating women’s month and it will bring together key members of the Alliance. These include the steering committee and strategic partners such as faith-based organisations, media practitioners and development partners. Six Alliance activities will take place during this period… Read more
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	Governance

Regional: Re-launching the 50/50 campaign The Women in Politics Support Unit (WiPSU), working with Gender Links in its capacity as Alliance Secretariat, will hold a governance cluster meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe on 4 August 2011. WiPSU is the regional Governance theme cluster leader of the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance. This meeting will culminate in a high profile re-launch of the 50/50 women in decision making campaign on 5 August. … Read more South Africa: GL calls for legislated quota for women’s political participation The 2011 local government elections witnessed a decline in women’s representation at the very moment South Africa should be redoubling its efforts to achieve gender parity. This underscores the need for a legislated quota for women in national and local elections. This is the conclusion reached by Gender Links (GL), the Johannesburg-based research and advocacy organisation following a gender analysis of the 18 May 2011 local government election results…. Read more
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	Economic Justice, Education and Training

Mozambique: Girls absent from schools Teresa Chivale is a 37-year-old mother of five girls who lives in Maputo’s Zimpeto suburb and works in a local market selling vegetables to supplement her family’s income. Her husband works from their home as a tailor and barely earns US$10 a day…. Read more Botswana: Mohohlo suggests targeted budget allocation Bank of Botswana Governor Linah Mohohlo has suggested targeted budget allocations for women in order to help redress constraints in the informal sector. Officiating at the 12th National Women’s Exposition, Mohohlo said women face the persistent constraint of limited or no access to bank finance for small businesses, partly due to inadequate property rights. … Read more
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	Productive Resources and Employment

Civil Society to come up with regional position on climate change The Apex Alliance will host a consultation meeting for regional civil society specialised in climate change to help come up with one position for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference (COP 17) to be held in Durban, South Africa in November, 2011. … Read more
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	Gender-based Violence

South Africa: Advisory council on violence against women Extra measures need to be taken to reverse the tide of violence against women and children in South Africa, says Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities Lulu Xingwana. One such measure will come in the form of an Advisory Council on Violence Against Women and Children, which will be established by her department…. Read more
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	Health, HIV and AIDS

Health and HIV and AIDS Having been brought up Catholic, I spent most of my adolescent years at a Zimbabwean mission school. I grew up thinking that contraceptive use before marriage and abortion were two topics those “properly brought up” girls like me would never discuss in public, let alone advocate for. At the innocent age of 13 my world was so idyllic that I never quite understood why a woman would opt for what is in most cases unsafe abortion when she could as easily keep the baby…. Read more
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	Peace Building

A peace building gender movement on the horizon The Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance, led by the Institute and Security Studies (ISS) as the Peace and Security theme cluster leader, is on the way to building a gender movement around peace building and conflict resolution in SADC. Three countries have already taken the bold initiative – DRC, Malawi and Zimbabwe…. Read more
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	Media, Information and Communications

Media Centres of Excellence: A first for the South Following its extensive work with the media in the last decade, Gender Links is establishing Centres of Excellence (COEs) in gender mainstreaming in both the media and media and journalism training institutions. The media department hosted two parallel meetings from 18 to 20 May 2011 in Johannesburg with media and journalism educators… 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 the 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 aligned to the Protocol. National Level Gender budgeting Gender ministers are invited to follow the example of Zimbabwe, which is building the capacity of Gender Focal Persons who act as liaison officers in the mainstreaming of gender in government sectors. The programme is based on the premise that gender responsive budgeting initiatives can be used as a vehicle to mainstream gender into development. At the centre of this is the use of the SADC Gender Protocol targets as an enforcement mechanism in government gender mainstreaming initiatives. … Read more
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	SADC Protocol @ Work

Case Study – Mauritius: Will we see more women than men in local government? Despite not being a signatory to the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, the fifty-fifty fever has left its mark on the island of Mauritius, which is set to adopt a quota for women’s political participation in local government. Mauritius has not signed the SADC Gender Protocol as the country’s Constitution does not allow for positive discrimination. … 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

Gender facts

– 80% of the 50 million people around the world who are affected by violent conflicts, civil wars, disasters, and displacement are women and children.
– In 76 countries, less than half the eligible girls are enrolled in secondary school.
– Women own only 1% of the world’s land.
– The two highest IQ’s ever recorded (on a standard test) both belong to women.
– In Kenya, where 38% of farms are run by women, those women manage to harvest the same amount per hectare (2.47 acres) as men, despite men having greater access to loans, advice, fertilisers, hybrid seeds, insecticides. And when women were given the same level of help, they were found to be more efficient than men, and produced bigger harvests.
– Over half a million women die in childbirth every year in Africa and Asia.
– According to the World Health Organization, 40% of girls aged 17 or under in South Africa are reported to have been the victim of rape or attempted rape. … Read more

Upoming events

– Reference group meeting and 50/50 launch Lesotho – 2 August
– Governance cluster meeting, Harare Zimbabwe – 4 August.
– Regional 50/50 re-launch, Harare, Zimbabwe – 5 August.
– SADC CNGO meeting Johannesburg- 8-9 August.
– Alliance annual meeting, Johannesburg – 10-11 August.
– Regional launch of the Barometer in South Africa – 11 August.
– SADC CNGO meeting and Alliance caucus meeting in Angola – 13 August.
– HOS Summit, Luanda, Angola, 17 August.
– South Africa Local Government Association (SALGA) 50/50 strategy meeting, Johannesburg 22-23 August.
– The war at home: Gauteng GBV Indicators Report Launch, 22 August.

Country News

Angola: PMA to become Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance focal point

Following a recent meeting to discuss the upcoming 7th Civil Society Forum the Platforma da Mulheres Accao (PMA) was elected to become the Alliance focal point…. Read more

Botswana: Village meeting opens dialogue

The Gender Links Botswana Office continues to conduct village meetings in local communities as part of a process of empowering rural women to claim their rights through the Gender and Local Government Programme. … Read more

Madagascar – Centres of Excellence

SAHA, a rural development association working with local councils, will be supporting the Gender Links Madagascar office in its roll-out of eight new Centres of Excellence on gender mainstreaming in local government. … Read more

Namibia: NANGOF hosts reference group meeting

The Namibia 2011 SADC Gender Protocol Barometer was reviewed at a reference group meeting held on 17 June 2011 hosted by the Namibia NGO Forum (NANGOF): the Namibia Alliance Focal Point. … Read more

South Africa: SA commemorates Women’s Month

The Department of Women, Children and People with Disabilities has kicked off preparations for Women’s Month in August. … Read more

Zambia Alliance national network revived

Zambia has revived its reference group on the SADC Alliance Protocol on Gender and Development with many new members coming on board. … Read more

Zimbabwe – Leadership and governance

The Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) is the focal point for Alliance work in Zimbabwe. WCoZ held a workshop on Leadership and Governance for its members on 14 June 2011. … Read more

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Roadmap to Equality, Issue 18, July 2011

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