SOUTHERN AFRICA: SADC Women Representation Dwindling

Women representation in Parliament and Cabinet positions has regressed in most Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries since the 2009 elections.

In Namibia, gender representation at that level has decreased from 30.8 percent to 22 percent, and in Botswana the numbers have dropped from 11 percent to 6.5 percent.

After the elections in Mauritius in May this year, these figures have similarly slid from 17.1 percent to 16.6 percent, and in Zambia they have gone down to 14 percent after a Cabinet re-shuffle.

In other countries, however, an upward trend was registered.

In South Africa, women representation has gone up to 45 percent, ranking it the third highest rate of representation in the world after Rwanda and Sweden.

In Malawi and Mozambique, these figures have also gone up to 22 percent and 39 percent respectively.

All countries have, however, not yet reached the 50/50 gender parity in political and decision-making representation as was promised by heads of state in 2005.

SADC head of the gender unit, Madeline Mathiba-Madibela, said member countries have missed the opportunity to increase women representation, and where countries have made strides, it was mainly due to their electoral systems like the proportional representation and legislated quotas.

Only six SADC countries have legislated quotas – DRC, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, and South Africa – and Mathiba-Madibela said political parties could implement such a quota system to achieve gender equality in all political positions.

To facilitate the achievement of the gender parity goals, SADC has developed a regional framework for gender equality acceleration to achieve the 50/50 target.

She, however, commented that there is need for more sensitivity and political will to bring about gender parity.

The challenge, she said, is the regression of representation and the slow pace of implementation of targets following the signing of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development in 2008, which was signed by 13 countries.

But only two countries – Namibia and Zimbabwe – have submitted their instruments of ratification.

Tanzania, Mozambique and Angola are reported to have ratified the protocol, while others are at different stages of ratification.

All SADC member states are party to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which came into force in 1979.

This is an agreement by governments to incorporate principles of equality of men and women in their legal systems, to abolish all discriminatory laws, and adopt appropriate legislation prohibiting discrimination against women.

All SADC countries have constitutional provisions to ensure gender equality, and most have recently been involved in constitutional reform processes and debates targeting women and children's rights.

All countries except the Seychelles have a dual legal system with a formal, or general, law that operates in conjunction with customary and religious laws.

This plurality of the legal systems, said Mathiba-Madibela, means that some social issues – like crime or commerce – fall under the general laws, while family issues fall under both general and customary law.

“This means that some legal rights for women are available but some are not,” she said.

This also means that the application and implementation of protective rights remain problematic, she added.

Mathiba-Madibela said although most countries have made notable achievements in legislation against gender-based violence, the prevalence thereof remains disturbingly high, with many reporting increased violence against women and children.

She said sexual violence is widespread and poses serious concerns to countries that are already grappling with crippling HIV/AIDS figures.

The region is now in the process of developing a SADC effective law enforcement response to gender-based violence, a tool to train law enforcement officials with information that will help them to recognise and identify elements of this.

Another instrument being developed aims at combating human trafficking.