A team of Gender Links (GL) staff arrive an hour late for a meeting with the Chiredzi Centre of Excellence (COE) for Gender in Local Government, but the 46 women gathered under a tree continue with their monthly 50/50 campaign meeting. The community mobilisers in this sugar-growing hub of south east Zimbabwe are engrossed in the Shona and Ndebele pamphlet on the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development provided through DFID-funded GL programmes. … Read more
Welcome to the 27th edition of the Roadmap to Equality! Tracking progress towards the implementation and ratification of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.
The election of South Africa Home Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dhlamini-Zuma’s as African Union (AU) commission chair, the most powerful position in the grouping, is cause for celebration as August a critical month on the gender equality agenda approaches. It is a victory not only for South Africa or the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) but for Africa’s women.
She has continued to break new ground as she has served ministerial positions traditionally male dominated such as Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs in South Africa. This has seen her serve in SADC structures such as the organ on the Inter-state Politics and Diplomacy Committee (ISPDC) mostly attended by men. There are high expectations that she will carry the gender equality torch into this new space as she is known to do.
The countdown to the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance annual meeting scheduled for 14 – 15 August in Johannesburg begins. As per tradition, key issues of the agenda will include a SWOT analysis, reviewing the strategic plan, planning for joint campaigns and strengthening of institutional mechanisms. This year, one of the sessions will focus on reviewing the Network’s legal status.
The Alliance will launch the 2012 edition of the SADC Gender Protocol Barometer, an annual publication of the Network on 15 August 2012. There are two new features to look forward to. The first is a section on gender and climate, which attempts to look at where women are in decision making in that sector and other qualitative indicators based on a draft Addendum on gender and climate change developed by the Alliance as part of a campaign for SADC leaders to add this to the 2008 SADC Gender Protocol.
Lesotho: Cabinet appointments fail the 5050 by 2015 test The recently announced cabinet appointments for Lesotho shortly after the national elections were a major disappointment as the count down to 2015. There was a significant drop in women representation by 15 percentage points from 37% in 2011 to the present 22%. This means the country has failed the test to meet the 5050 by 2015 target. … Read more
South Africa: Women’s month approaching, show us the money for gender equality? South Africa is gearing up for commemorating women’s month during August and the 9th of August is set aside as National Women’s Day. It is time to take stock of whether women have much to ululate. The country seems to be taking one-step forward and two steps backwards in terms of achieving gender equality. Progressive laws and policies are in place but the gap lies in implementation and allocation of human and financial resources…. Read more
Zimbabwe: Men must create a “new” generation of men My daughter turned six years on 15 June and I am over the moon. As I celebrate this landmark event in every proud dad’s life, I shudder as I reflect on the society that my lovely daughter and other girls her age find themselves in. Many women and girls have been denied opportunities because of their sex…. Read more
Regional: 2012 Barometer at an advanced stage, to be launched in Maputo ahead of HOS The production of the 2012 edition of the SADC Gender Protocol Barometer is at an advanced stage. Gender Links led the Alliance in conducting an extensive monitoring and evaluation exercise to come up with the Citizen Score Card, an understanding of whether gender attitudes are changing and to gauge whether knowledge of the SADC Gender Protocol in the region is increasing…. Read more
Regional: Count down to the Alliance annual meeting to be held in August The count-down begins to the Alliance annual meeting to be held in August in 2012 in Johannesburg. The meeting will take place from 14 – 15 August on the backdrop of the 8th Civil Society Forum and parallel to the Heads of State Summit to be held in Mozambique…. Read more
Regional: The Alliance participates at the first civil society networks consultation held in Abuja The Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance was represented at the first ever civil society networks consultation held in Abuja from 30 May – 1 June 2012 in Abuja.Centre for Citizens’ Participation on the African Union (CCP-AU) convened the meeting in collaboration with the Open Society Foundation, Representatives of the African Union Commission (AUC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)…. Read more
Zambia: Mulungushi Women’s Constitutional Declaration – No referendum, no constitution; No women, no constitution! The NGO Coordinating Committee continues to lead activists in keeping gender high in the constitution making process. The just ended Women’s Constitutional Conference held from 13 – 15 June 2012 came up with the Mulungushi Women’s Constitutional Declaration and a mobilisation plan for inclusion of women’s constitutional rights. … Read more
Zambia: Gender activists criticise first draft constitution Gender activists in Zambia have criticised the first draft of the proposed new country constitution, saying it still lacks provisions to protect women rights. The Chairperson of NGOCC Beatrice Grillo announced the declaration of women rights in the first draft constitution at Mulungushi conference centre…. Read more
South Africa: Traditional bill ‘dead in the water’ Most of the provinces either rejected the Traditional Bill or asked for massive changes. In what can be described as a victory for rural women, who have waged war against the bill since it was tabled in 2008, the department of justice will have to go back to the drawing board…. Read more
Southern Africa: “Sexually Transmitted Marks” – who is to blame? The latest “trend” from institutions of higher learning is that students and lecturers are exchanging a lot more than knowledge and information. It is ‘alleged’ by some students that lecturers are soliciting sexual favours from students in exchange for better academic pass marks in their respective courses…. Read more
International: Rio conventions launch brochure on gender mainstreaming On the sidelines to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) launched a joint brochure outlining gender mainstreaming in the three Conventions, and describing challenges and opportunities for synergistic action…. Read more
Zimbabwe: Cases of domestic violence on the rise Cases of domestic violence are on the increase in Zimbabwe as in the space of one week in the month of June alone at least seven people were killed by their partners in separate incidents in 149 cases of domestic violence recorded countrywide…. Read more
Zimbabwe: Government scraps maternity fees Maternity fees will be scrapped at all government hospitals beginning next week as the government moves to improve maternal and child health care and end the detention of new mums at some across the country for failing to pay the fees…. Read more
Mauritius: Working for a better future for women It is not every day that one comes across an NGO that deals with controversial subjects like sex and sex related problems in Mauritius. ‘Femmes Engages pour un Meilleur Avenir’ (FEMA) works to attain the goals of Articles 11 & 20 to 26 of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development…. Read more
Global: 20 years of service by and for women in the HIV epidemic 2012 marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW). Coincidentally, the International AIDS Conference is back to the United States after 22 years. It was at this conference 20 years ago that the ICW was formed…. Read more
Africa: A new look at women and organised crime The control of women’s bodies and women’s work is very lucrative, big, business for organised crime syndicates. Violently affirming dominance over women is often considered central to maintaining gang identity…. Read more
South Africa: Surviving the trade in newsrooms I vividly remember 18 years ago, when I joined a big daily newspaper in the centre of Johannesburg, South Africa as a news reporter. A woman photographer bounced up to me with an unusual introduction: “You have a little baby, don’t you?” I said yes…. Read more
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
Business Women’s Census report A radical mind shift. That’s what we need in South Africa is to shift gear from the slow, incremental changes in the numbers of women at executive levels to a dramatic increase in the way we perceive, promote and protect women in corporate South Africa…. Read more
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.
– The proportion of women in economic decision-making has increased by 6% from 18% in 2009 to 24% in 2011. There is only one woman finance minister (in Namibia) in the SADC region but women hold several influential positions. – The Gender Protocol is being used to conduct an analysis of South Africa’s new economic policy – the New Growth Path. Business Women in South Africa continues to use the gender protocol to benchmark progress in achieving gender parity in the private sector. – Time use studies have only been conducted in four out of the 15 SADC countries. These are necessary to calculate the contribution of women’s non-wage labour to national GDP. – Several SADC countries are involved in Gender Budget Initiatives (GBI) and there is a regional network led by the Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Network and Centre (ZWRCN). In Tanzania this initiative is now bearing tangible results. – Trade policies are mostly gender blind. Only a few procurement policies make specific reference to women. Women continue to predominate in the informal sector. They constitute the majority of the unemployed in all SADC countries. – Women still struggle to access credit although most SADC countries now have programmes of one kind or the other to assist women in accessing credit. Mauritius has an especially strong programme for empowering women, articulated in its 2011 budget. – Figures on land ownership are patchy, but range from 11% to 46% (in Botswana). A gender analysis of agriculture projects in Botswana shows that women constitute the majority of beneficiaries. – Zambia has broken new ground with a land policy that requires that 30% of all land be allocated to women. – All SADC countries have maternity leave but only 40% have paternity leave. – The Gender Protocol offers an entry point for SADC member states to begin addressing climate change and its effects on women more robustly. Momentum is mounting for an addendum to the Protocol on Gender and Climate Change.
23 – 27 July, Johannesburg Gender and Media Diversity Centre advisory meeting
9 August 2012, Maputo Mozambique Alliance Network meeting
14 – 15 August 2012, Johannesburg Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance meeting
8 August 2012 in Maputo and 15 August 2012, Johannesburg Launches of the 2012 SADC Gender Protocol Barometer
20 – 30 August 2012 Sonke Gender Justice Network, the MenEngage Africa Network and the Women’s Health Research Unit at the University of Cape Town are proud to host the first ever MenEngage Africa Training Initiative course: ‘Masculinities, Leadership and Gender Justice in Sub-Saharan Africa’, to be held at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
19 – 22 September, Windhoek The 5th Africa Conference on Sexual Health and Rights –
In just a few weeks Banyana Banyana, the women’s football team in South Africa, head off to London to compete for Olympic gold. It is a moment of great national pride; only two African women’s teams are among the 12 nations competing, all of who have beat out strong competitors on the long road to qualification…. Read more
The Portfolio Committee of Women, Children and People with Disabilities are up in arms. They deplore the continuing exclusion of people with disabilities from the formal employment sector despite commitments by government and business to aggressively empower people with disabilities and put them to work in the economy. … Read more
Comment on Roadmap to Equality, Issue 27, July 2012