Namibia: Country Meets Target On Gender Balance

By Petronella Sibeene

May 8, 2008 – (New Era) Namibia has become the fourth country within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to attain the target of 30 percent women representation in the National Assembly, finally fulfilling the quota set by SADC.

Namibia joins Tanzania, South Africa and Mozambique in fulfilling this quota.

SADC governments committed themselves to have women occupy at least 30 percent of positions in political and decision-making structures by 2005.

Southern African leaders made this commitment by signing the SADC Gender and Development Declaration in 1997.

The number of female legislators against the total of 78 members of the National Assembly stands at 24, which translates to 31 percent in accordance with the 1997 SADC declaration.

Recently, the nation witnessed the swearing in of Juliet Kavetuna, former Secretary General of the National Youth Council. She took up the post formerly held by the late Minister of Regional and Local Government, Housing and Rural Development, John Pandeni, who died in a car accident in March.

Also appointed was Liselotte Kaveri Kavari of the Congress of Democrats who replaced late Reinhard Kalla Gertze. Anna Beyer replaced the former Minister of Safety and Security, Peter Tsheehama, who resigned on health grounds.

SADC chair, Zambian Minister of Gender Affairs, Patricia Mulasikwanda, in an interview with New Era commended Namibia for the achievement, adding that the four countries that have reached the target should act as mouthpieces advocating for recognition of women in the other 10 countries lagging behind.

She said political parties should ensure that women are also included in the party lists to give them a fair chance to participate in decision-making areas.

Also, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Sirkka Ausiku, described the attainment of over 30 percent as a great achievement.

"We appreciate what these political parties have done in reaching the 30 percent as per the 1999 gender declaration," she said.

She shared the same sentiments with the Zambian Minister of Gender Affairs in saying that political parties should include women during elections.

"It will be bad if this number does not go up but instead drops. Women can retain their seats if they are given a chance. It is time we took gender issues seriously," she said.

Social activist, Rosa Namises, feels Namibia has done well in terms of the number of women in the National Assembly but the challenge lies in the quality.

According to her, "the big question is: Do these women have voices that are strong enough to bring out issues concerning women?"

Namises further queried whether the chosen would be able to bring to the fore issues on women empowerment, gender-based violence as well as the budget vis-à-vis wo-men's status in the country.

Carola Engelbrecht from the Citizen for an Accountable and Transparent Society (CATS) who regarded the addition of three women to the National Assembly as positive, says appointment should be based on merit.

She said the nation is yet to see the contributions the newly appointed will make.

"Political parties should look at the calibre of women who understand issues of the day; women who would have the courage to say what the party might not necessarily be in agreement with," she added.

Environment and Tourism Minister, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, in a Nampa report also commended the National Assembly and political parties for their efforts that have made the House attain more than 30 percent women representation. She says the nation should now work hard towards reaching the 50 percent women representation as recommended by the African Union (AU).

Ausiku yesterday told New Era that the recently reviewed draft protocol on gender and development likely to be adopted by Heads of State during the August summit in South Africa, highly recommends a 50 percent women representation by 2025.

Nandi-Ndaitwah also said there have been some positive developments in efforts towards making sure more women take part in decision-making, adding that many boards of private sector institutions now have more women, which was not the case before, the Nampa report says.

Both the Speaker of the National Assembly, Theo-Ben Gurirab, and Prime Minister, Nahas Angula, during the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Conference said 20 years since the signing of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, women's participation especially in the political arena has been low.

"The challenge that we all have is to increase women's participation in politics," the Premier said.

In 2005, SADC Heads of State agreed to increase the target for women at all levels of decision-making from 30 percent to 50 percent. But by 2005, Namibia had only reached the target at local government level with 42 percent representation.

From:http://allafrica.com/stories/200805080477.html