With only a few months before 2005, the year marking the 10th anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women, which was held in Beijing, China, in 1995, processes to review the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) are gaining momentum.

Recently, a southern African intergovernmental Sub-Regional Meeting for the decade review of the BPFA was held in Lusaka, Zambia, from 26 to 28 April 2004 under the auspices on the southern Africa Office of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in collaboration with SADC.

Prior to the sub-regional review meeting, representatives of women's human rights, women's empowerment and gender and development non-governmental organisations from eleven countries in the met in Lusaka, Zambia on 25 April 2004, at a special session devoted specifically to reviewing the achievements, challenges and opportunities in the implementation of BPFA.

The objective of the working session which was convened by the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC), Women in Development Southern Africa Awareness programme (WIDSAA) in collaboration with the Non Governmental Organization Coordinating Council (NGOCC) in Zambia, was to consolidate the civil society input to the intergovernmental decade review meeting.

The NGO meeting achieved their objective by producing a communiqué, which was presented to the sub-regional intergovernmental decade review meeting. The communiqué outlined constraints and challenges encountered in implementing the 12 critical areas outlined in BPFA.

While acknowledging the region’s progresses, the Gender NGOs expressed deep concern about the rapid spread of HIV infection in the SADC countries and the millions of deaths caused by AIDS which they described as a testimony to the continued unequal power relations between women and men in our societies.

The communiqué highlighted several constrains and challenges hampering the implementation of the 12 critical areas of concern outlined in the BPFA as obstacles to the advancement of women and gender equality.

Key among the constraints is the failure to operationalise the established gender equality frameworks and implement the national and regional policies. Majority of the countries in the region have adopted national gender policies and developed attractive strategic plans for their implementations, but these have remained un implemented. Reasons included the lack of financial and human resources.

The established institutional mechanisms for the advancement of women have also been less productive due to unclear mandates and operational procedures, understaffing and limited skills in gender mainstreaming. It was highlighted that only a few experts in the national gender machineries have the requisite gender competencies and awareness on gender equality instruments to implement policies and assist in mainstreaming of gender.

In some countries gender machineries are given broad mandates that required them to be “jacks of all trade” while they lacked the requisite capacity. The institutional gender machineries at both the national and SADC regional levels are generally understaffed, inadequately funded and most of them are not strategically positioned within the government structures. This made it difficult for coordination, monitoring and evaluating progress in gender mainstreaming in other line ministries.

Further, the lack of gender specific job descriptions, and the limited knowledge on gender issues coupled with low working morale defeated the good intention behind the established gender focal points in the sectoral ministries in most SADC countries.

Gender focal points personnel are usually overburdened by other responsibilities, and in some cases lacked gender-mainstreaming skills, thereby rendering them unable to influence policy changes in their respective sectors. These problems are compounded by the high turnover of gender specialists.

The meeting noted that only a few experts in the national gender machineries have the requisite gender competencies and awareness on gender equality instruments to implement policies and assist in mainstreaming of gender.

Another major concern was the misconceptions surrounding gender mainstreaming, which was reported to be hindering the promotion of gender equality.

To clear the current misunderstanding of the concept of gender mainstreaming, the NGOs in their communiqué called for a strong review of 'gender mainstreaming' at the continental, regional, national and civil society levels within countries and for the development of approaches that result in transformation, rather than mere reform, of the patriarchal structures.

“Gender mainstreaming has been simplistically defined as the social roles of women and men without any analysis of the unequal power relations within structures, which hinder women's effective participation. This interpretation of the approach has led to situations where gender mainstreaming is viewed as the sole responsibility of women, and it is seen as a 'favor', rather than as a strategic means to bring about gender justice and equality.

“We note with grave concern the misconceptions that have arisen around 'gender mainstreaming' as the identified approach to give women equal access to opportunities in all sectors. Some governments have interpreted the approach to mean mainstreaming 'traditional gender roles' whereby women are still unable to break through the 'glass ceilings' into decision-making positions,” read part of the communiqué.

Gender experts define gender mainstreaming as the (re) organisation, improvement, development and evaluation of policy processes, so that a gender equality perspective is incorporated in all policies at all levels and at all stages, by the actors normally involved in policy-making.

Gender mainstreaming means that gender equality is part of common policies and thus it (gender mainstreaming) implies a broader and more comprehensive definition of gender equality, giving value to differences and diversity. In stressing the need to (re) organise, improve, develop and evaluate policy processes, gender mainstreaming must be able to challenge the male bias that characterises society and the structural character of gender inequality. Mainstreaming also must take gender equality issues out of the isolation of gender equality machineries and involve more and new actors in building a balanced society.

Recommendations regarding the other priority areas of concern in the BPFA were as follows:

• In order to effectively reduce the prevalence of HIV and AIDS, governments must make gender equality central to all strategies, polices and programmes.
• Declining economies and poverty remain big challenges for the region. It was recommended that by December 2006, all countries in the SADC region should conduct a time-use study and develop indicators to account for the work performed by women as unpaid care work in the national accounts; that women form no less than 50% of all bodies that make decision on economic policy; and enact laws that guarantee that women from no less than 50 percent of the beneficiaries of land redistribution schemes and have access to, control over ownership of land in their own right.
• Recognising the high maternal mortality rates in the sub-region, provision of quality reproductive health services is paramount. It is recommended that user fees for all women including pregnant girls seeking health services be removed; that a broad range of female controlled protective devices such as microbicides and condoms be provided as contraception and protection from HIV and STIs and legislative reforming permitting access to safe and affordable delivery and abortion be effected.
• On gender violence, it was recommended that all SADC countries provide post sexual violence medical therapies for women and girls and especially those therapies that prevent and reduce the transmission of HIV and STIs; all countries enact legislation that criminalizes domestic violence and sexual offences committed in both the public and private spheres; all SADC countries ensure that they make and protect budgetary provisions for implementing measures to protect women and girls from violence; that governments enact stiffer penalties for all forms of sexual violence against girl-child including trafficking, and protect girls from child labour.
• Concerning national machineries responsible for gender it was recommended that governments rebuild the institutional mechanisms for advancing gender equality to well-resourced and well-staffed offices placed at the level of full ministries or in the President's Office by 2006. Progress in this regard should be checked at the SADC Annual Heads; and provide a certain fixed percentage of the national budgetary allocations for the institutional mechanisms, and this percentage should be protected and guaranteed by an act of Parliament.
• On women in decision-making positions, it was recommended that governments adopt measures within the framework of the elections which are unfolding in the region over the next 18 months, to fulfil the commitment of reaching the target of a minimum of 30 percent women in strategic political and decision making positions by December 2005; domesticate all regional and international instruments that are legally binding, and transform declarations entered into by SARDC countries into Protocols; and amend all constraints urgently to eliminate the provisions that currently exist for the discrimination of women and girls through customary and personal law.
• While recognising the growing acceptance of women’s participation in decision-making, the NGOs recommended that government make a concerted effort to: meet the African Union's target of 50% women in managerial and decision-making positions in all parastatals, public institutions, regional bodies, media institutions, the judiciary, the public service and trade unions; and enact special measures to increase women's participation in structures and policy-making processes at all levels.
• On women in the media, government and media were recommended to set targets for the advancement of women in the media; and set up independent regulatory media authority to monitor the implementation of these targets. The media were also urged develop editorial and employment policies, which prohibit discrimination against women in the workplace, and ensure their promotion to key positions. It further recommended that policies, which mitigate against sexist stereotypes, negative portrayal and the absence of women’s voices and perspectives in the media be developed and implemented.
• On women and the environment, the recommendation was for governments to make financial and human resources available for the involvement of women in environment and natural resources management, and establish official channels to give women a voice in environmental decision-making.

Southern Africa, and the African continent must begin to operate on a new gear, which ensures that all commitments agreed upon, including protocols, and declarations signed are adhered to. As the continent prepares for the African Union meeting in July, governments and heads of states that have not signed, ratified or acceded to the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa must do so. Only few countries have so far signed, ratified or acceded to the Protocol which holds lots of opportunities to squarely address a number of interconnected issues on violence against women, based on African women’s experiences. The Protocol is crucial for enacting gender sensitive legislation that are rooted in local experience and responds concisely to women’s lived realities.

Barbara Lopi is Project Manager/Editor the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre, Women in Development Southern Africa Awareness (SARDC WIDSAA) programme