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New year promising for gender equality in Africa

Ruth Butaumocho African Agenda Feedback:chinhemaruva@gmail.com

AFRICA is faced with hope and a possibility to redeem its position in the involvement of women in continental governance, amid revelations that 26 African countries will next year hold elections in a show of democracy.

The continent could next year find itself on chasms of victory, rewriting a historic and plausible gender narrative should the electorate in half of the continent turn up in their numbers to vote for women for various portfolios.

Of the 26 countries, 13 of them will hold presidential elections, while the remaining half will be electing leaders in local government and national assembly seats.

Some of the countries that are expected to hold elections next year include Benin, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon Mauritania, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan, South Sudan, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

If these countries succeed in increasing the percentage of women in politics, representation will go up not only in Africa, but across the world, where women currently constitute 26 percent of the elected Members of Parliament.

Campaigning in some of these countries have already gathered momentum with hopes that the political transitions and the election of new leadership will usher in diverse, but progressively political ideologies in different nations.

Hope and debate around the involvement of more women in continental governance has also been renewed, based on the commitment of political parties to field more females as well as the need by Governments to fulfil legally binding statutes that call for gender equality in politics.

However good, as this may sound, critics say unless both political parties and Government make deliberate decisions to address challenges that hinder women from participation in politics, 2023 will also go in the annals of history as yet another year, where Africa lost a historical opportunity to include and elevate women in politics.

Unless political parties remove structural barriers that hinder progressive participation and inclusion of women in politics, the year 2023, could pass like any other year, and could probably be worse off than 2020, where no single woman made it as head of state in all the 12 African countries that held presidential elections.

In addition, there was even a marked decline of women who participated and were subsequently elected in office from all the 22 African countries that held election in 2020.

It is now widely known that two main obstacles prevent aspiring female politicians from participating fully in political life.

These are structural barriers, where discriminatory laws and institutions still limit females’ ability to run for office, and capacity gaps, which occur when women are less likely than men to have the education, contacts and resources needed to become effective leaders.

Campaigning for elections is a capital intensive exercise that requires one to dole out money for fuel, campaigning material, feeding the campaigning team and a host of other activities where resources are critical.

Systematic gender bias against female leadership, entrenched in socio-cultural and religious values that strongly assert that a woman’s position is in the kitchen contribute to challenges females face across Africa.

All forms of violence and lately cyber bullying are hindering the participation of women in politics.

History has also shown that the dynamics between women’s capabilities and ambitions on one hand, and the political will and political power of the “gatekeepers” of the parties on the other, determine the extent to which women can participate in local politics.

However, political parties can obliterate most of the challenges that women face, once they decide to holistically support aspiring female candidates.

This they can do, through supporting them financially, mentoring, promoting female candidacy within their own parties and fielding them in constituency where they have everyone’s support.

Participants to the recent public hearings on matters of regional interest and concern conducted by the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF), under the regional women parliamentary caucus made a clarion call to political parties to create room for female inclusion and participation.

Most participants concurred that the decision by political parties to rally behind women in politics remains the biggest missing link to harness “pockets of efforts” being made towards the involvement of women in politics.

“We call on SADC to develop legislation common to all political parties to encourage compliance with gender parity, their constitution, structures and nomination of candidates,” said Mr Munetsi Madakufamba executive director of Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) , while contributing to the public hearings.

Speaking on the same forum, UN gender specialist, Maureen Shonge reiterated the need to ensure gender balance in politics and address existing inequalities in political governances across the globe.

“Women are still under-represented in the world as there are only 21 ministers who are women in the world, 26 percent of women worldwide are national parliamentarians and 34 percent elected for local government seats,” she said.

Those numbers may be a thing of the past, once political parties holistically rally behind the participation of women in politics, instead of paying lip service to the involvement and participation of women in politics.

In her foreword in the Africa Barometer 2021, titled “Women’s Political Participation,” former president of Malawi, Dr Joyce Banda noted with concern the failure by political parties to promote the ascendancy of women in politics, saying the parties were largely responsible for the decline of female participation in politics.

“The key arena of the political structure is the political party. Here too, we are presented with the deeply troubling picture of only 12 percent of women represented at political party top leadership positions across the 54 African countries.

“Without a change of mind-set and political party constitutions at this level, there will be fewer possibilities of women being elected in political decision-making positions.”

Notwithstanding that deficiency, the call to include more women in politics is not misplaced nor is it a flawed or tired argument, but a strategic and important decision to ensure balance and diversity in political, social and economic solutions.

Women’s equal participation in decision making is not only a demand for simple justice or democracy but remains a necessary condition for their interests to be taken into account.

Achieving the goal of equal participation of women and men in decision-making will provide a balance that more accurately reflects the composition of society and is needed to strengthen democracy and promote its proper functioning.

Looking into the future, the gender equality issue is a trajectory that Africa cannot continue to ignore, but should strive to push from all directions.

Next year’s elections should bring the transformation that Africa has been yearning to see, through the involvement of more women than before.

The chance to prop up women should not be ignored because their involvement in politics, apart from being a human right presents certain common life experiences and “interests” that need to be brought into, and enrich political decision-making.

Because of these different life experiences, the argument runs, women are likely to shed different perspectives on all mainstream political issues, such as crime, transport, and the economy. Their absence in politics is not a sign of deficiency of their capabilities, but a structural omission, which political parties would need to address.

Africa has many women who are capable of occupying high political offices and positively contribute to the development trajectory that the continent is working on.

Positive strides have already been made in several African countries where a growing number of states are now appointing women to head defence ministries-long considered to be a forte’ for men.

Defence ministries for six countries, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Tanzania, Togo, South Africa and South Sudan are being headed by astute women, which is an affirmation that women are as good as men in their performance.

The year 2023 could probably be the miracle year the continent has been waiting for, to rewrite a beautiful gender narrative, where more women will sit on the same table with men to chart the course for continental governance.

National News

en-zw

2022-12-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-08T08:00:00.0000000Z

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