Women in politics and the media workshop manual

The elimination of all forms of discrimination against women is a key challenge for democratic processes and human rights movements in Africa. While African governments have taken take steps to address women’s lack of political, economic and social rights, the pace of movement towards achieving full equality is characterised by a series of ‘stops’ and ‘starts’, and there are often many mixed signals. For example, while the African Union and SADC region has committed itself to the target of 50% women in decision-making positions in all of its structures, the representation of women in government, parliament, local government and other political spaces in Africa is still low.

For example, women comprise only 17.3% of the members of parliament in Sub- Saharan Africa. The 15 countries that comprise the Southern African Development Community (SADC), on their own however, have an average of 21.9% women in parliaments, making SADC second in regional rankings across the globe, second only to the Nordic countries.

Download : Women in politics and the media workshop manual