WINDHOEK – Government has more female employees than male ones, with the former constituting 57 percent of the entire workforce, Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila revealed yesterday.

The PM commended the statistics, saying they were demonstrative of government’s commitment to ensuring lasting gender parity and equal opportunities between women and men.

She said out of the 113 659 workforce of central government, 64,237 are women and 44 percent are of women at management level. Kuugongelwa-Amadhila made this revelation at the opening of the meeting of secretaries of wings of former liberation movements in Southern Africa that started in Windhoek yesterday.
She said these are latest statistics from the Employment Equity Commission.

“In the recruitment of staff members in the public service, when competing with men counterparts, and meet and score passing marks in interviews, women candidates are provided preference over the men counterpart,” Kuugongelwa-Amadhila told fellow women leaders from Southern Africa.

To put the application of the gender parity policy into context, the gender statistics within an office, ministry and agency of government is considered before preference over a female candidate is applied, so that the men counterparts are not disfavoured.

However, she said, representation of women in the private sector employment is still lagging behind than in the public sector, with the proportion of female employees standing around 42 percent. 

This, she said, demonstrates that Namibia have a long way to go to promote gender equality in the private sector.  

The PM said through the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, government ensures that all offices, ministries and agencies adopt and implement gender responsive programmes. 

“It is for this reason that, a number of legislation and polices are put in place to promote gender equality,” she said.

She said the gender responsive budgeting entails ensuring that, not only in employment, but is all activities of the offices, ministries and agencies, the aspects of gender parity are upheld.

Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said all government ministries when preparing their annual budgets and their medium term plans are compelled to adopt gender responsive budgeting. 

Furthermore, Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said the Swapo Party also cemented its commitment to gender equality, by changing the party constitution to embrace and adopt a zebra style in the election of members of the central committee and politburo. 

Therefore, she said, the party now has an equal number of elected women and men in these senior structures of the party.

The same approach, she said, is also adopted by the party, in electing its representatives to the National Assembly (NA). 

“Through this deliberate policy, the Swapo Party has significantly catapulted women into national leadership positions, especially in the legislature. Of the total 146 Members of Parliament in both Houses, there are 58 women, representing a ratio of 39.7 percent,” she said while highlighting her party achievements in terms of women representation to Secretaries of Wings of Former Liberation Movements in Southern Africa.
 
She said of the total number of 42 Members of Parliament in the National Council, 10 are female. 
Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said the NA has a higher ratio of women parliamentarians, standing at 48 women out of the total 104 members, or 46 percent. 

The PM said the Namibian Cabinet comprises of 25 full ministers, of which four are female while of the 25 deputy ministers, 15 are women.