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Farirai Machivenyika, Senior Reporter
Government is looking at modalities to ensure equal gender representation at political party level as part of efforts to increase women participation in governance, Vice President Kembo Mohadi said yesterday.
VP Mohadi made the remarks while officiating at the inaugural high-level women in leadership summit held in Harare.
Currently, the law provides quota systems for women representation in the National Assembly and local authorities.
“While we have put in place measures to support women political participation at national level, Government will look into the possible modalities that provide gender equality in participation at political party level.
“It is critical that the different political parties uphold the principle of gender equality as this will ensure full participation of women at national level. In addition, the Government will continuously engage political parties to ensure there is equality in access to campaign resources,” he said.
VP Mohadi also said Government would also ensure that gender equality becomes central in everyday life and would strengthen the legal framework to address some of the shortcomings.
“I acknowledge the call that has been made to have a standing law that addresses gender equality and sexual harassment. The Government will ensure that gender equality becomes a key element of all of the work we do.
“As such we shall work closely with the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development and the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to ensure that our laws are responsive of this critical component of development. We shall be looking holistically into our legal framework to identify gender equality gaps and provide legal and policy solutions for closing such gaps,” he said.
The Vice President added that Government would enhance the participation of women in various economic sectors, through supporting their access to productive resources such as land, capital, skills and machinery.
“The economic status of women is key in determining their elevation to leadership positions and at the same time provides a bigger shield against abuse,” he said.
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Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Minister Senator Monica Mutsvangwa congratulated President Mnangagwa for successfully hosting the SADC Summit and his assumption of the organisation’s chairmanship saying they would take advantage of this to drive issues of gender equality across the region.
“My ministry works with all women from all backgrounds across the country to ensure that no one is left behind in line with the President’s mantra of leaving no one and no place behind,” she said.
Sen Mutsvangwa said plans were afoot to establish a national gender academy at one of the country’s universities to streamline gender issues in education.
“We need to educate our children even starting at early childhood development level. They need to understand gender issues,” she said.
In a communiqué issued at the summit, the women noted that despite the various measures put in place to advance gender equality and women empowerment, women are still under-represented in key leadership positions in both the public and private sectors, have limited access, control and ownership of the means of production, and still face gender-based violence.
“To address the above challenges, the inaugural high-level women in leadership summit recommended that-: the gender equality law to advance gender parity at all levels and in all sectors be expeditiously enacted, gender responsive frameworks be put in both the public and private sectors to increase awarding of contracts to women-owned businesses and that capacity-building and networking programmes for women leaders, aspiring women leaders and women in business be up-scaled,” reads part of the communiqué.
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