SADC Gender Protocol 2012 Barometer

Woman-power swept onto the Southern African scene in a visible way in 2012. First, Joyce Banda unexpectedly assumed the post as the first woman President of Malawi, and first woman SADC head of state in April. Next, South Africa’s former Minister of Home Affairs Nkosozana Dlamini-Zuma worked her way through several barriers to become the first woman chair of the African Union Commission after a tough fight in July.

These developments gave an outward show of progress, but only thinly masked the rising anxiety as the clock clicks louder in the count down to 2015. For every step forward, activists counted one-step backwards in collection of data from the fifteen countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that informed this overview report (see Table one). For example in South Africa, while the women’s ministry championed a bill for Gender Equality that covers many key provisions of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, a Traditional Authority Bill that gives sweeping powers to customary courts has prompted women’s rights groups into protest action.

Click below for the executive summary and exerpts from the Barometer.

Download : Exerpts from the SADC Gender Protocol 2012 Barometer