Chronicle Editor
Imali Ngusale and Dorothy Otieno
IN the arena of political participation, African women in all their diversities are often perceived as “mere” voters “unsuitable” to lead key political processes.
Seemingly, African politics has been synonymised as a male-oriented and male-dominated enterprise, yet women are integral players in the mass mobilisation and campaigns agenda setting.
“As an African, I think it is very important for us to look at Agenda 2063 of the African Union and have shared values of inclusive governance fall into place,” said Dr Tobe Sharamo, incumbent IDEA and West Asia regional director.
“Women in Political Participation gives us an opportunity to implement strategic partnership in Africa.”
It is this conviction that is the heartbeat of the Women in Political Participation in Africa (WPP) project that is supported by International IDEA and the Embassy of Sweden in Addis Ababa. The project encompasses six partner organisations: The African Women’s Development and Communication Network (FEMNET), The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), Gender Links, Universite Cheikh Anta Diop’s Gender Laboratory (IFAN), Padare/Enkundleni Men’s Forum on Gender and Women and Law Southern Africa (WLSA).
The novel project is in its second phase of implementation and its strategy is deliberate about changing the course of political leadership and governance in Botswana, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe with a scale-up to regional and global policy spaces towards enhancing gender equality and women’s political participation in line with existing frameworks such as the Maputo Protocol and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
“For us to ensure women’s meaningful participation and equal opportunities in decision making, we must institute a deliberate effort in amplifying women’s voices in the political processes, push for gender-responsive policies and hold governments accountable on legal frameworks on gender equality,” remarked Ms Dorothy Otieno, FEMNET’s WPP Co-ordinator and expert in transformational leadership.
Women’s political participation in Zimbabwe has been shrinking over the last few years despite local, regional and international policies aimed at bridging the gap between them and their male political counterparts.
As the 2023 election draws nearer, there are growing calls from the political front to clear the hurdles by implementing policies that promote equality.
The drive for increased women’s political participation dates back to September 1995 when the fourth world conference on Women’s participation convened in Beijing, China with a view to improve gender equality and empower women globally.
At the conference, 189 government representatives made a historic agreement which became known as the Beijing Declaration that identified and resolved to take measures to ensure women’s equal access to and full participation in power structures, decision making and increasing their capacity to participate in decision making.
Zimbabwe was among the governments undertaking to fulfill these objectives, among them reviewing and where necessary reforming electoral systems to encourage women’s electoral participation.
The declaration was buttressed by the Sadc gender protocol and of late the 2013 Constitution which according to Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly, Honourable Tsitsi Gezi legally provides a women’s quota in the National Assembly under Section 120 and proportional representation in the Senate under Section 124.
“We are committed to ensure that African women are empowered to be transformative agents of positive change in our political arena,” said Emebet Regassa, regional gender advisor in the Embassy of Sweden in Addis Ababa.
Speaking with the same tone, Ms Rama Kubi, Gender Links executive director, said, “We are intentional about strengthening the capacity of African women to engage in politics.”
Ms Kubi said African women should be granted the opportunity to constructively contribute to the democratic process and should not be limited or undermined.
Retrospective to her sentiments, intentionality is the only move that will propel African governments to be explicit about affirmative action interventions particularly in political institutions and processes to favour women’s participation.
Taking into consideration that we are only seven years shy from reviewing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Africa needs to embrace women’s leadership as a norm. Whereas it has been widely argued and demonstrated empirically that gender equality is progressive, the reality at hand shows that there are impediments that warrant attention and revision.
Ms Mildred Ngesa, a renowned Pan-African Media and Communications Specialist said, “Women’s participation in African politics will start making sense when we first decry the persisting litany of patriarchal manels sitting at the African Union.”
She said, “Women deserve to occupy those top seats just as much as the men!”
It is clear that African women’s participation in politics is still decades behind schedule. The Africa Barometer 2021, notes that women’s political participation in Africa accounts for only 24 percent with countries such as Nigeria trailing at 6 percent.
This year alone, over 20 African countries; Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Eswatini, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Liberia, Libya, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Somali, South Sudan, Togo and Zimbabwe are gearing for elections in a political arena that superficially addresses gender equality.
In seeking to rectify this anomaly, we should first start by normalising inclusivity to ensure that we accommodate all African women and girls in all their diversities. For women to fully engage in the political process, they must be given equal opportunities in the election process and also in the decision-making process. — FEMNE
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