The long march towards gender equity in SADC

In June, the UN General Assembly held a Special Session to assess the progress made by countries in fulfilling their commitments made at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. In this brief report on the session, Diana Mavunduse focusses on the progress made by the States which constitute the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

MORE than 10,000 women from all walks of life converged on New York in early June for the Beijing+5 Review process under the theme ‘Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21^st Century’.

The 23^rd Special Session of the UN General Assembly presented an ideal opportunity to assess how far countries have gone towards fulfilling the promises made at the Fourth World Conference on Women held at Beijing in 1995. The special session also sought to address shortcomings, face new challenges and reaffirm commitments since Beijing.

‘Women are bringing their unique concerns to the attention of their governments for action. These concerns include domestic violence, lack of access to land and property, unequal pay for work of equal value and negative portrayal of their roles in society,’ said  Theo-Ben Gurirab, president of the UN General Assembly, who is also Namibian Minister of Foreign Affairs, in an address to delegates.

Five years ago, 189 governments, including all those from southern Africa, committed themselves to advancing the goals of equality, development and peace for all women around the world by adopting the Beijing Platform for Action (PFA).

The PFA called upon governments to take action in 12 critical areas of concern identified as barriers to women’s empowerment, which are:  poverty, education, health, violence, armed conflict, the economy, power and decision-making, institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women, human rights, media, environment, and the girl-child.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) heads of state and government have since shown their commitment to the PFA through the signing of the Gender and Development Declaration (1997) and its addendum on the eradication of violence against women in 1998. These have become the yardstick by which women in the region continue to measure change.

Spirit of 1995

‘A large number of SADC member states have taken the conclusions and experiences of the 1995 conference to heart and are applying them in formulating national programmes and progressive legislation,’ said Indira Thacoor Sidaya, chairperson of the SADC committee on gender/women’s affairs, in addressing delegates during the special session. Thacoor is Mauritian minister responsible for women, family welfare and child development.

Instruments have been put in place to track and monitor developments. SADC’s Gender Plan of Action spells out the terms of reference and roles for the different players to avoid duplication and overlap and ensure that they complement each other. It says ‘governments have a primary responsibility for implementing the sub-regional plan of action.’

Progress has indeed been made in its implementation. There is an increase in the number of women Members of Parliament and cabinet ministers in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa, following elections in 1999, although the increases have been marginal in some of the countries. SADC has an average of 17.9% women in parliament, which is higher than the continental and global averages of 11 and 13.4% respectively.

‘The examples symbolise the significant strides women in the SADC region have made in the past five years towards eliminating gender discrimination,’ says Janick Bru, Seychelles director-general for the ministry of social affairs and manpower development.

Gap between paper and practice

However, there is still a large gap between agreements reached on paper and day-to-day realities in all countries.

A major challenge for the region remains on the issue of women’s human and legal rights. While almost all SADC countries have ratified the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), laws that affect women directly, such as customary law, remain incompatible.

After exhaustive negotiations at the General Assembly, delegates reached the much-awaited agreement on an ‘outcome document’ that will accelerate international efforts towards achieving women’s equality and advancement.

The document also calls for national laws to eradicate such traditional practices as forced marriages and so-called honour killings of women considered by families and communities to have committed acts that disgrace their names. These practices are now defined as violations of women’s rights.

The document calls on national governments to set 2005 for the elimination of the gender gap in primary and secondary education.

However, African NGOs expressed fears that issues of concern to African women such as education, the girl-child, and AIDS - also mentioned as critical areas in the PFA - still getting too little commitment by governments.

‘There is need for clear political commitments by our governments, so that we move to action,’ said Amelia Zambeze, a delegate from Mozambique.

The Assembly also made progress by calling for tougher measures to combat domestic violence and trafficking in women and tackling the impact of HIV/AIDS and globalisation on women.

The special session came to a realisation that ‘not only do women belong on this planet, but that the future of the planet depends on women’, said  UN  Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, in addressing delegates.                                            

The above is a Southern African News Feature (SANF) produced by the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) P O Box 5690, Harare, Zimbabwe. Tel: (263-4-738694/5/6) Fax:  (263-4-738693) Email:  sardc@sardc.net Web:    www.sardc.net