Sadc gender summit: 2015 — Yes we must!

equality.

With the slogan “2015, yes we must!” the Sadc Gender Protocol@Work regional summit followed 12 national summits held in different countries that involved 1 484 participants, of which 69 percent were women and 31 percent were men, yes men of quality who are not miffed by issues of equality!

Although some of the resolutions from the regional summit are still trickling in, it is clear that the deliberations were spot on, on a number of pertinent issues that have been hogging member countries and are as old as human kind.

Some of the issues that needed to be discussed included women’s participation in the political and economic field, empowerment in all spheres of life, domestic violence and abuse.

The Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance that campaigned for the Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development convened all these national summits in partnership with Gender Links, which coordinates the Alliance.

It is important to note that the Sadc Gender Protocol comprises 28 targets to be achieved by 2015, as well as the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals that individual countries have started working on, albeit a number of challenges they are facing.
Globally, debate has already started on the post-2015 agenda.

The Alliance is insisting that Southern African governments must make a concerted effort to meet the agreed targets for gender parity in all areas, be it in politics, social and economic arenas by 2015.

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While some significant progress has been made towards achieving some of the Millennium Development Goals that include universal primary education for everyone, improvement of maternal health, combat HIV and Aids, malaria and other diseases, the issue of gender equality in all sectors continues to be a grey area.

Some of the critical areas of MDG’s on gender that needs attention include elimination of gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by half, and to all levels of education no later than 2015, increase the participation of women in decision-making in all sectors and at all levels and reduce poverty levels among women by 2015.

While other countries like South Africa and Mauritius are slowly edging towards some of the agreed targets, it has proved to be a Herculean task for other countries — Zimbabwe included — whose development has been further hampered by lack of resources, lack of will power by the implementers and in some instances stereotyping.

One of the biggest challenges that have slowed down progress towards the attainment of some of these goals is bureaucratic bungling at implementation level, that has resulted in some sections of society getting much more than what is due to them.

Looking at the issue of economic empowerment, there is no doubt that Government has put in place a number of programmes aimed at empowering the majority of women across the political and social divide, but sadly enough, the funds and resources have found their way into the bosom of few individuals, either by default or by design.

For me, the issue is not really about how many women have benefited from the empowerment programmes that our Government has made available since independence, but who has actually benefited in terms of social ranking.

Was it the whole group in Kitsiyatota in Mount Darwin or Tyunga in Binga that reaped the profits of economic empowerment, or it was the parliamentarian, who diverted the resources for his or her own personal enhancement and used the funds to buy yet another pimped up vehicle at the expense of the whole village?

Or did the funds took longer than necessary to be distributed to the needy populace merely because one individual was failing to sign the necessary papers, while the whole village further sank into unimaginable levels of poverty?

Probably the biggest dilemma that the country continues to face is the bureaucratic bungling that makes it practically impossible for information to cascade to the relevant constituencies so that people can partake and benefit from the process.

It is the same bungling that have seen a few individuals benefit from resources meant for the majority because of social and political differences.
If my memory serves me right, a lot of economic empowerment programmes meant for women have been unveiled since independence up to this day, but there are not many who have got anything to show for it, expect for a bunch of narratives explaining how very few — well connected individuals got funding to do some poultry project or hijacked sewing machines meant for the whole village.

Others were daring enough to form family projects from funding meant to benefit groups of women, so much that the beneficiaries have even lost hope of ever accessing public funding, let alone ever access anything.

It is within the same background and from the same women that the nation expects to attain the goal of gender parity and be counted among the nations that have worked to attain theirs, yet the ground remains rather slippery and has not been favourable for women.

Those women who have dared push the boundaries in either politics or economics have been labelled heartless, uncouth, unwomanly and women of loose morals, who dare challenge the status quo, at a time when they are expected to be submissive, womanly and good natured.

Unless and until, the society appreciates that women are as good as men, have the same dreams and aspirations to contribute towards nation building and unless people vested with the power to empower women turn a blind eye to their concerns, fears and insecurities, then Zimbabwe might just as well kiss goodbye its good intent of edging closer to the Millennium development Goal of gender parity in all the sectors.