WALVIS BAY – Namibia cannot continuously speak about gender equality in politics and decision-making without walking the talk.
This view was expressed by the Minister of Gender Equality and Child Welfare, Rosalia Nghidinwa, during the opening ceremony of the Conference on Women in Politics and Decision Making that was held last weekend in Walvis Bay.
The workshop on equality in politics and decision making started on Friday and ended on Sunday.
According to Nghidinwa, there is no way that change can be avoided in the country.
“We have even made it clear internationally that we are committed to gender equality hence we must deliver,” stressed the minister.
Addressing over 60 women from all political backgrounds, Nghindwa said the conference which was held to deliberate on the importance of achieving gender equality and women empowerment in Namibia, came at the right time as Namibia prepares for the general and presidential elections in 2014.
“It should be regarded as a major step in the right direction to ensure that all political parties have drafted women in their party list from the top and not just somewhere at the end of the list. Gone are the days when men put themselves on top of the list and leave women at the lower end and unable to make it anywhere,” she explained.
She said in many cases where parties do not get many seats, women are often left out and only men make it to parliament.
She went on to say that the government is committed to achieve gender equality for the benefit of women and even for the country.
“The Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015 also promote empowerment of women and equality between men and women and the African Union Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality.
“In terms of Article 144 of the Namibian Constitution these instruments are binding and they form part of the laws of Namibia. This shows that all legal frameworks are in place and all we need is to put them into practice,” she said.
She went on to say that Namibia was doing very well until the last elections when the number of women in parliament dropped from 30 percent to 25 percent.
“Therefore we have to work very hard to ensure that Namibia adheres to the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development that we willingly signed on 17 August 2008, which requires women in leadership and decision-making positions to be at 50 per cent.
“This is not negotiable. At least 51 per cent of Namibia’s population are women, yet despite this they are still poorly represented in all state elected structures even though Namibia has a progressive law on affirmative action, which positively discriminates in favour of women appointments. If women are excluded from decision-making, their needs and their families are not catered for,” said the minister.
Meanwhile, Nampa quoted the deputy regional director of the United Nations (UN) Women Southern Africa, Dr Sadiq Syed, as saying a lot still needs to be done to promote equal representation of women in politics and decision-making positions.
Speaking during the official opening of the three-day Conference on Women in Politics and Decision Making at Walvis Bay on Friday, Syed said despite international conventions and constitutional guarantees which ensure equality, huge disparities still exist.
He noted that 30 percent is widely considered as the critical mass mark for women’s representation.
“As of July 2013, 35 countries including nine in Africa had obtained this benchmark. In countries with proportional electoral systems, women hold 24.6 percent of the seats. This compares with 18.5 percent using the plurality-majority electoral system, and 21.5 percent using a mixed system,” the deputy director said.
Syed indicated that only 20.9 percent of national parliamentarians were female as of July 1 2013, which depicts a slow increase from the statistics of 1995 where this figure stood at 11.6 percent.
As of June this year, eight women served as head of state and 13 served as head of government.
Syed however noted that statistics show that there is still much to be done to increase percentages on the equal representation of women, and pointed out the importance of partnership agreements in reaching gender equality goals and promoting women leadership.
“The United Nations Women and Global Compact are also advocating to corporate and other entities in adapting the ‘Women Empowerment Principles’ to promote equal participation of women in the workplace,” he said.
Global Compact is a United Nations initiative to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation.
Syed stressed that concerted and sustained efforts should be made so that higher numbers of women can access political leadership positions in the 2014 elections.
The conference was hosted by the Ministry of Gender, Equality and Child Welfare in partnership with, amongst others, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Spanish Cooperation, and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA).
It was attended by Southern African Development Community (SADC) members of parliament and representatives of regional councils and local authorities, and provided a platform to reflect on the importance of 50/50 gender representation, particularly in view of Namibia’s 2014 general elections.
The key focus of the conference was how women can build on already secured spaces within parliament and political parties for effective representation and participation in politics across parties
By Eveline de Klerk