adminannual meeting of ministers responsible for gender and women affairs in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) region, held in Mozambique in mid-February, 10 Member States have ratified the protocol.
These are Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
“The meeting applauded Member States efforts in depositing instruments of ratification that has subsequently led to its entering into force,” said the communiqué.
The meeting re-iterated the importance of ensuring effective implementation of the Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development. This requires the domestication of the Protocol into national law.
The process of approval of a regional legal instrument requires, first, signing, and then ratification, a process that differs from country to country.
The protocol “enters into force” following ratification by two-thirds of Sadc member states. This advances the regional law from being a stated intention to actual application.
The objectives of the Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development are to provide for the empowerment of women, eliminate discrimination, and achieve gender quality and equity through gender-responsive legislation, policies, programmes and projects.
The targets include, among others, the achievement of 50 percent representation by women and men in politics and decision-making by 2015, in line with the decision by Sadc Heads of State and Government and the African Union. The ministers also approved the proposal to develop an Addendum to the Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development to accommodate gender and climate change.
This is in response to the concern that the impacts of climate change affect women and children disproportionately in the region.
Meanwhile, Mozambique is nowhere near reaching the gender parity target laid down in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) protocol on gender, according to the Mozambique News Agency (AIM) on Friday. AIM quoted the latest research on the subject launched in Maputo on Friday as stating that the research was undertaken by the Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa (EISA), in collaboration with the consultancy company Gender Links.
AIM said EISA examined about 2,000 leadership and decision-making positions in eight private and public sectors. – [email protected]/Xinhua.
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