News Features
Winners and Losers in the New SADC Free Trade Area
Improving Disaster Preparedness in SADC
Gender Equity is a Challenge not a Threat
Racism and Xenophobia Debate Gains Momentum

Documents
GAD Exchange, Issue No.22, October 2000
DRC Chronology, August 1998 - September 2000

   The effectiveness of Africa's development efforts and the ability to sustain them are dependent on the full utilisation of all human resources, regardless of gender. Yet in many countries there is a continued under-utilisation of women despite the fact that they constitute more than 50 percent of the population.

    Although women -- especially in southern Africa where some governments have made deliberate empowerment policies -- are slowly breaking the barriers that have for a long time hindered their effective participation in the decision-making process, there are still some societies that view gender equity as a threat.

    However, "gender equity is a challenge, not a threat," as highlighted at a recent conference held in Douala, Cameroon. The conference, organised by the African Caravan For Peace and Solidarity was on "Women's reality in Africa".

    The conference theme was explained by Suzanne Kalla Lobe, a Cameroonian journalist. She said, "Gender is a challenge, not just in terms of numbers, but equally and more importantly, the contribution this would make to the removal of silent discrimination enabling African women and men to be equal partners in the process of providing development assistance."

    The conference provided an opportunity for African women to share and discuss gender policies, strategies, mechanisms, modalities and possible networks throughout Africa. Participants represented governments, women NGOs, academic institutions and the media from Cameroon, Gabon, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

    The issue of violence against women took centre stage. Delegates realised that most women do not know that they have the right to report their husbands to the police if they are battered. The blame was laid on women NGOs that do not educate women about their rights.

    "Women NGOs only wait for an issue to get to the courts and then that is when they start advocating for our rights," said Louise Yanga a delegate from Cameroon.

    Additionally, systematic gender biases often exist in the form of law and customs that impede women's access to property ownership, credit, productive inputs, employment, education information and medical care.

    In Cameroon, there are about 260 tribes with different beliefs and attitudes towards women, which pose a greater threat to gender parity, where women from the different tribes do not support each other, be it in the rural areas or the urban areas.

    "The beliefs are still instilled in us women, where we still think we are under our husbands, we do not air out our views and we don't support each other," said Yanga. Having realised that women do not support each other, delegates at the conference agreed that gender sensitisation is very important, and that it should begin with the women themselves before they turn to men.

    The conference also recommended women to link with other countries, since a wide gap was noted between central Africa which is predominantly francophone and southern Africa which is anglophone.

    Women were also encouraged to make use of the media in their respective countries, as it helps to highlight and share ideas on gender related issues.

    Emalda Chanda-Ngosa, a representative from Zambia, gave an example of southern Africa, where regional meetings with the media are encouraged by the SADC Gender Unit which is based at the SADC Secretariat in Botswana.

    Concerns were also raised in the political arena, whether southern Africa, and indeed the continent at large, will reach the 30 percent target of women representations in decision making positions by year 2005.

    An example was given from the June 2000 Zimbabwean parliamentary elections, where the number of women MPs dropped from 22 to only 12.

    Cameroon, with a population of about 15 million, has got 180 parliamentarians and only 10 are women.

    A recommendation was passed that women parliamentarians should be trained on how to support and articulate gender issues in parliament. It was also recommended that women parliamentarians in Africa should meet twice a year and hold training workshops to share ideas on different issues.

    Unlike SADC which has got a gender unit that co-ordinates women organisations in southern Africa, the Economic and Monitoring Community of Central Africa (CEMQ) comprising of Cameroon, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, is only two years old, and does not have a gender coordinating unit in the organisation.

    Participants urged the economic groupings such as SADC and CEMQ to pay more attention to gender analysis and mainstream gender in development programmes, appoint gender focal points and harmonise specific working objectives and policies.