Roadmap to Equality, Issue 29, December 2012

Editor’s Note

Highlights
–  DRC: Alliance concerned with massive rapes of women and children
–  Mauritius: Prime Minister calls on all Ministries to engage with the GBV indicators research findings
–  South Africa: Mossel Bay Municipality says no to violence
–  Regional: Cyber dialogues – Making IT work for gender justice
–  South Africa: CGE launches report on the 365 Days Action plan
–  Regional: Sexual harassment in institutions of higher learning
–  Botswana: Walking the talk during the 16 days campaign
–  Regional: Take control of technology to end violence against women
–  Lesotho: Journalists trained on GBV coverage
–  South Africa: Localities team up to take back the night

Alliance News
–  Regional: Fourth regional conference for African women in political leadership
–  Regional: SAfAIDS Executive Director’s Statement on World AIDS Day 2012
–  Gender ethics in journalism
–  GGCA COP18 priority actions for gender equality

SADC Gender Protocol 2012 Barometer
SADC Gender Protocol 2012 Barometer – Botswana
The War@Home: GBV Indicators project
SADC Gender Protocol 2012 Barometer – Zambia

I am a survivor of sexual abuse; when I was growing up, I was repeatedly sexually abused and once raped by my brother. In the community where I grew up, rape was not openly discussed; it was only when I was 29 years old that I had build the courage to discuss the issue with my family. Unfortunately, they were not at all supportive. I tried to seek legal recourse from my brother’s harassment, but my parents went as far as trying to get a court order to stop me from talking about the abuse I had suffered at the hands of my brother. Still, all the attempts by my family to keep me from talking didn’t stop me on my mission to seek justice…. Read more

Mauritius: Prime Minister calls on all Ministries to engage with the GBV indicators research findings
The Prime Minister of Mauritius,Navin Ramgoolam,has instructed his Ministers to engage with the key findings and to support initiatives that aim to stop gender-based violence following the release of the Gender Based violence (GBV) indicators study – War @ home: Mauritius country report. … Read more

South Africa: Mossel Bay Municipality says no to violence
Mossel Bay municipality recently broke new ground by being the first municipality in the whole SADC region to host a summit against gender based violence, replicating the GL regional Gender Justice and Local Government Summit. The town’s mayor, Lady Alder Marie Ferreira and other municipal dignitaries attended the five-day summit held from 19 – 23 November 2012…. Read more

Regional: Cyber dialogues – Making IT work for gender justice
Cyber dialogues are redrawing geographical boundaries within SADC during the 16 Days of Activism campaign against gender-based violence as partners link up during thematic discussions. Key partners this year include councillors, council officials, gender NGOs, media institutions, media practitioners, faith based organisations and community women and men…. Read more

South Africa: CGE launches report on the 365 Days Action plan
The Commission on Gender Equality launched a report, which reflects on progress on implementation of the 365 Days action plan of 2007 – 2011. The main message during the campaign is Say no to gender based violence – turn 16 days into 365 Days. The CGE held the launch on 23 November 2012 just ahead of the launch of the Sixteen days of activism campaign. … Read more

Regional: Sexual harassment in institutions of higher learning
Nine journalism and media education and training institutions of higher learning from across Southern Africa participated in a Sixteen days of Actvism cyber dialogue on sexual harassment. They discussed one area of gender violence that is sexual harassment in institutions.. The seminar topic was informed by the 2010 Gender in Media Education (GIME) research findings. … Read more

Botswana: Walking the talk during the 16 days campaign
The Voice newspaper of Botswana, one of the Centres of Excellence (COEs) for Gender in the Media is walking the talk of gender equality during the 16 days of Activism. The Voice had added a gender based violence (GBV) pledge on its Facebook page. … Read more

Regional: Take control of technology to end violence against women
Take Back The Tech! is a collaborative campaign that takes place during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence (25 Nov – 10 Dec). It is a call to everyone – especially women and girls – to take control of technology to end violence against women…. Read more

Lesotho: Journalists trained on GBV coverage
As part of the Sixteen Days of Activism journalists from the Informative newspaper received training on covering gender based violence and HIV and AIDS as part of the Media Centres of Excellence in gender mainstreaming project. The workshop aimed to broaden the journalists’ understanding on issues relating to GBV and HIV and AIDs… Read more

South Africa: Localities team up to take back the night
On the 23rd November 2012 Capricorn District Municipality and Polokwane Local Municipality hosted a combined event of the Take Back the Night March, to mark the beginning of the 16 Days of Activism against gender violence campaign. The march aimed to highlight issues of gender violence within the area. … Read more

Regional: SAfAIDS Executive Director’s Statement on World AIDS Day 2012
2012 has come and gone! We are now in December, the last month of 2012. As in past years, the 1st of December is a day when the whole world commemorates World AIDS Day. SAfAIDS joins the rest of the world in these commemorations. Let us continue to raise awareness about HIV and demonstrate our commitment and solidarity to all efforts in the global HIV response…. Read more

Gender ethics in journalism
The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) in partnership with the International Federation of Journalists has a unique resource kit to help build expertise in integrating gender ethics in their practice of professional journalism titled Learning Resource Kit for Gender-Ethical Journalism (2012)… Read more

GGCA COP18 priority actions for gender equality
Women are on the front line of climate change, yet too often are missing in key climate policy discussions, including at the UNFCCC. The Bali Action Plan (including the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action under the Convention (LCA)), which is due to close in Doha, has marked real progress in mainstreaming gender into the UN climate change negotiations, yet still women remain significantly under-represented in key bodies of the Convention. … Read more

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 GBV Indicators Research conducted in South Africa (four provinces, Mauritius and Botswana has established that at least one in four women (Mauritius) and up to two in three women (Botswana) have experienced GBV at some time in their life. Men corroborate these findings, sometimes even more strongly than what women report experiencing.

– Despite GBV being the most flagrant violation of human rights in the region, political leaders int he three countries refer to GBV sporadically in their speeches(6% to 15% of the time).

– Only three SADC member states have Domestic Violence legislation.

– Seven countries do not have sexual offences or anti human trafficking laws. Only South Africa has a specific Law on sexual harassment

– South Africa is still the only country that included the provision of post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) in its Sexual Offences Act.

– NGOs provide most of the shelters for survivors of GBV.

– A high proportion of women and men in the three countries covered by the GBV Indicatorsrsearch do not know anything about GBV campaigns.

– Eleven countries in the region have integrated National Action Plans to address GBV. In the other four countries these are in draft form.

– NAPS need to be strengthened through baseline data, targeted actions and costing. So far only limited budget allocations have been made to addressing GBV.

Hitting the airwaves just in time for 16 Days of Activism and World AIDS Day, Mahlabathe Speaks is a 13-part serial radio drama highlighting how HIV/AIDS and Gender Based Violence (GBV) are linked, in a way that is entertaining and understandable to the mostly rural target audiences…. Read more

Alliance forging ahead in Zimbabwe

Under the banner, “2015 yes we can, 50/50 yes we must: Woman you can, together we must!À faith based organisations pledged to take on the 50/50 campaign within its structures. This is one of the outcomes of a strategic communications capacity building workshop held for faith based organisations and the Alliance network in Zimbabwe from 26 À“ 28 November 2012 in Harare…. Read more