WOMEN AND THE ANTI-CORRUPTION DEBATE
By Idaishe Chengu & Maud Mukwamba

April 11, 2004 – (Zimbabwe Standard - Harare) "Countries that promote women's rights and improve their institutional frameworks have seen a marked decrease in corruption and their economies have actually boomed " says Idaishe Chengu and Maud Mukwamba.

While corruption is evidently the talk of the day and infuriating everyone given its socio-economic implications, what is not easily appreciated is the fact that women and children are more affected by the scourge. Women are short changed in aspects of service delivery as they do not have the same economic clout to negotiate for qualitative services as their male counterparts.

Ironically this falls against a background where women have been shown to be less corrupt than men, at least not the insidious acts that can ruin a nations' social and economic fabric as shown by the unraveling cases of corruption reported in the local press.

While the nation at large has benefited greatly from Transparency International-Zimbabwe's (TI-Z) efforts to mainstream anti-corruption dialogue into the national agenda, there has been a notable gap on issues for discussion and this relates to how corruption impacts on gender relations and linkages of issues of good governance and the attainment of a satisfactory framework for women's human rights in Zimbabwe. TI-Z acknowledges that the exclusion of this very crucial dimension has tended to narrow perspectives on developing sustainable strategies to combat corruption.

Developments globally and locally have prompted TI-Z to seriously consider spearheading formally, the debate on the impact of corruption on gender relations and good governance in Zimbabwe. Globally major trends thrust towards the exploration of the link between high corruption levels with a poor structural framework for the realization of women's social and economic rights. Several countries have already undertaken researches to establish the link with the hope of recommending appropriate national structural reform programmes.

Locally, the content of the subject, and issues for recommendation have remained largely couched in neutral language, with the assumption that corruption impacts on all sectors of the society in the same way. As such not much has been done to actively seek and incorporate the contribution of women as a separate constituency.

The call is to shift from neutral centered approaches in the anti corruption struggle has been influenced by the findings of international institutions such as the World Bank which has commissioned surveys to establish how nations can improve on governance issues in relation to issues of corruption.

The World Bank report "Engendering Development-Through Gender Equality, Rights, Resources and Voice (March 2001) reveals the link; that in nationalities were there are gender disparities in national and legal frameworks, good governance was better achieved by narrowing gaps in the positions of men and women. Countries that promote women's rights and improve their institutional frameworks have seen a marked decrease in corruption and their economies have actually boomed.

If a country were to lobby for the inclusion of more women in the economic and social participation of a country, that is if women constituted a larger proportion in parliament and public and private offices, then that country would experience lower levels of corruption since women have higher standards of ethical behaviour.

Where the influence of women in public life is greater, the levels of corruption are lower. Women in business are less likely to succumb to bribery, perhaps because women have higher ethical standards. According to local press reports monitored since January 2004 only one woman has so far been implicated in all reported corruption cases compared to males. If the statistics are anything to go by then there is a definite need to review the place of women in governance. Therefore a fully-fledged anti corruption strategy that would include the mainstreaming of gender by clearly articulating these links would be a powerful strategy to improve national governance.

Another interesting link that is influencing the anti-corruption debate to actively promote and prioritise the gender dimensions of the phenomenon is the need to compliment the efforts of the women's civic groupings to fight for a more enabling framework for the accessing of women's rights.

It is increasingly clear that while women are less involved in corruption themselves, they are even more disadvantaged from consequences of a corrupt system. Research shows that that corruption decreases national budgets. Where there are not enough resources, the government is less likely to spend on health and social security which affects women and children more.

A gender sensitive budget analysis of most developing countries reveal that men actually profit more from public expenditure than women. Therefore apart from the fact that the allocation for programmes focusing on women is only a fraction of the of the total national budget, a cut in public spending caused by corruption means that maternal and child health services are more likely to be worst affected.

Corruption pervades every aspect of women's rights and since it impacts on men and women differently on law enforcement mechanisms, a corrupt legal system for instance reinforces existing gender discrimination in many countries.

In Zimbabwe for instance, women's civil rights are grossly unfair with regards to marriage/divorce, family, child custody, financial independence and inheritance and property rights. Therefore as in other developing countries, it is often the norm that those that win cases, usually men tend to bribe judges and prosecutors.

At a time where political instability and polarization has not been seen to be promoting good governance, TI-Z intends to maximize on the experience of other jurisdictions and actively promote the eradication of corruption whilst at the same time actively supporting the cause for women rights.

Transparency International Zimbabwe has established a gender desk, which will come up with a conceptual framework or needs analysis on which direction the gender dialogue should take and how it should address the needs of the Zimbabwean situation. At the moment the initiative is unique in that this is the first attempt by civil society to link a weak framework of women's rights to high corruption levels and the existence of high corruption levels to a lack of participation by women in governance issues.

From: http://allafrica.com/stories/200404120333.html