Political parties urged to increase women participation and representation

By Tendai Chisiri

Multi-Party Gender Conference organized by the Zimbabwe Gender Commission in partnership with the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Civil Society Partners and UN Women was held at a capital hotel on Thursday with focus to increase women participation and representation in politics.

Driven by mutual interest in enhancing the participation of women in political decision making, the conference was convened with the objectives to share the legitimate call for increased representation of women in the upcoming 2023 harmonised elections and to garner renewed commitments by political parties on enhancing women’s participation and representation to ensure the achievement of gender equality.

Chairperson of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, Commissioner Margaret Mukahanana-Sangware in her welcome said among its functions, the Commission is charged with monitoring compliance to gender equality provisions in the Constitution and other regional and international instruments that Zimbabwe is party to.

“The Constitution of Zimbabwe in Sections 17, 56, 67 and 80 clearly supports the equal participation of women in Political and other decision-making positions”, she said.

” Further, various regional and international instruments collectively acknowledge the need for equal participation and representation of women and calls upon member states to ensure the establishment of supportive structures and institutional mechanisms to guarantee an even playing field for men and women in the political sphere”, she added.

She bemoaned the low women representation in politics.

” It is however worrying to note that statistics from the 2018 harmonized elections reveal regressing low women representation with 48% in Senate, 31.5% in the National Assembly (85 women, 60 of them being under the quota making it effectively 11.9% against 185 male MPs) and a mere 13.3% in Local government.”, she added.

The 26 March 2022 by-election results further reinforce the position that men are the main actors in electoral processes. Out of the 28 parliamentary seats contested only five women won while at local government level, only 19 females were elected as councilors against 103 elected male counterparts.

On comparison with other countries in the region, the state of women political participation in Zimbabwe reveals the country is not doing well compared to countries like Rwanda with 61.5% and South Africa accounting 46.35 representation of women in Parliament.

These countries have become shining examples as they have consistently been ranked first and second respectively over the past decade based on the Ibrahim Index of African Governance.

A number of barriers continue to hinder women’s full and effective participation in politics and public life. In 2019, the Commission with support from HIVOS commissioned a Gender Audit of the three Main Political parties in Zimbabwe.

The Gender Audit noted that persistent under-representation of women in politics and decision-making is influenced by various factors which range from legal, structural and administrative barriers entrenched in patriarchal norms and values.

Chief among the barriers are gender blind political parties’ constitutions, processes, policies and structures.

“This conference will see the presentation of a Women’s Charter for the 2023 harmonised elections. The Charter presents a legitimate call to all political parties on the need to increase women’s participation and guarantee a conducive environment for women’s participation in the 2023 harmonised elections”, she revealed.

Franck Porte, Head of Cooperation European Union Delegation to Zimbabwe said the conference had come at an opportune time when the country was preparimg for the 2023 harmonised elections.

“Women have always had to fight for the same rights as men…at home, at work and in politics. They are stigmatised, underestimated, judged and discriminated against. This is not normal! We are all human, we should not define someone based on their gender, we should consider their abilities, their skills.. But unfortunately our world, doesn’t think like that…Mind-sets are changing of course, but rather slowly”, she lamented.

” The pledge that will be signed at the end of the conference is indeed a significant development.Gender equality is a core value of the European Union and women’s empowerment is essential in building equitable, inclusive, prosperous and peaceful societies everywhere”, she added.

Women’s political participation and leadership is crucial in the fight for gender equality, as it has an impact on development outcomes at all levels of society: the more women in decision-making positions, the more gender-sensitive the policies are.

Women and girls need to participate equally in the public and private spheres in order to achieve a functioning democracy and economy and to uphold human rights for all.

They should be able to exercise their democratic rights to vote and stand in elections without hindrance and the Constitution of Zimbabwe rightfully guarantees this.

“We are walking the talk! In our new programming cycle (2021 -2027), we have committed that all our projects will have gender equality as a principal or significant objective. An ambitious target you might say but one that we are determined to achieve”, she added.

Working collectively as Team Europe, and in line with the National Development Strategy 1, the EU has taken this commitment further and identified gender equality and women’s empowerment as a key area of engagement with the Government of Zimbabwe.

“We will channel our support through the Team Europe Initiative on gender equality and women’s empowerment with a collective contribution of over 200 million Euros. Supporting gender equality in politics and decision-making is one of the objectives under the TEl”, she revealed.

UN Women country representative Ms Fatou A. Lo, speaking at the conference said political parties will make a difference in the upcoming elections and enhance by implementing and promoting the actions that are well articulated in the Charter on Women Political Participation and Decision Making that was presented.

“UN Women believes that the equitable participation of women in politics and decision making is the essence of sustainable democracy”, she said.

” As such, women must be equal partners in the democratic process as activists, elected officials and constituents, because their contribution is crucial to building a strong and vibrant society”, she added.

“Women’s equal political participation and representation is key to unlocking the transformational change we need to achieve a sustainable future. Numbers are extremely important in challenging stereotypes, changing mindsets and negative perceptions”, she elaborated.

“In addition, women leaders must aim to wield influence, use their voice and platforms to transform systems and help build more gender equal societies.”, she added.

“It has been shown that countries with a higher level of female political influence, record lower levels of gender discrimination in social institutions, less discrimination in the family code, and greater access to rights, to assets and to financial services for women and girls”, she revealed.

From the local to the global level, women’s leadership and political participation is restricted. Women are underrepresented in leadership positions in all spheres.

Only 21% per cent of government ministers globally are women, with only 14 countries having achieved 50 per cent or more women in cabinets. At the current rate, it will take another 50 years to achieve gender parity in ministerial positions.

Only 26% of all national parliamentarians globally are women and only 32 countries in the world have over 40% women representation in parliament, five of which are in Africa. At the current rate of progress, gender parity in national legislative bodies will not be achieved before 2063.

Data from 136 countries shows that women constitute 34% of elected members in local deliberative bodies. Only 22 countries have reached 40 per cent representation of women in local government. In Sub-Saharan Africa women’s representation in local deliberative bodies sits at 25% as of January 2022.

This low political representation of women remains a significant setback to the achievement of democracy and a failure to adhere to international and regional normative standards on gender equality as articulated in CEDAW, Beijing Platform of Action, Maputo Declaration and SADC Protocol among others, of which Zimbawe has committed to uphold.