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Women on the rise in politics
Leaders for the new Southern African Millennium
14 December 1999, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague 		Women on the rise in politics close

Conference Report

Leaders for the new Southern African Millennium
Women on the rise in politics

14 December 1999
10.00 - 16.30 hrs.
ISS, The Hague

 

This conference was organised by the Netherlands institute for Southern Africa NiZA) in co-operation with the Institute of Social Studies (ISS). With financial support of NCDO, European Union and HIVOS.

 

Background

1999 and 2000 heralded elections in South Africa, Namibia, Malawi, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Tanzania, thus continuing the process of democratisation and political participation in Southern Africa. But what about women's political participation?

During a national convention on gender and empowerment in 1996, former South African president Nelson Mandela stated: "Just as the fight against apartheid liberated all South Africans - Africans, Coloureds, Indians and Whites - the struggle for gender equality will benefit both men and women".

Gender activists aim to translate this into an increase in the political participation and decision-making of women. Which developments open up new perspectives and opportunities for women in the countries of Southern Africa? Which initiatives empower the women and increase their political participation?

The Netherlands institute for Southern Africa (NiZA) wished to inform the Dutch public about these topics by organising the conference "Leaders for the new Southern African Millennium: Women on the rise in politics".

Although in recent years efforts were made in Southern Africa to fulfil the right of equal treatment for both sexes, in practise women still often play an inferior role. NiZA supports several initiatives that aim to remove obstacles on the path to women's political participation and create new opportunities for increasing women's influence in decision-making. The conference offered participants the possibility to meet the people behind these initiatives, to listen to their life-stories and commitment to their projects, and to discuss possible ways of supporting the initiatives.

 

Opening

In her opening speech, plenary chairperson Caroline van Dullemen underlined the importance of the ongoing struggle for gender equality in the 20th century, referring to it as one of the defining movements of the last century.

She stressed the point that gender equality can be purchased at all income levels. This means that it is not a mere technocratic goal, dependent on economic wealth, but a highly political process, which requires firm political commitment and action.

Facts and Figures

Dr Ineke van Kessel from the African Studies Centre Leiden gave a general overview of the political participation of women in parliament in Southern Africa. In the past ten years most of the countries in this region embarked on a process of political liberalisation, resulting in the introduction of multi-party politics and more open political competition.

These developments inspired Van Kessel to question what the democratic transition (multi-party elections or non-racial franchise) meant for women in Southern Africa. When the countries in Eastern Europe adopted multi-party politics, the percentage of women in parliament dropped dramatically. The tendency in Southern Africa, though, is towards better representation of women. Van Kessel explained that the reserved seats for the women's organisation of the Communist Party were responsible for the relative high representation of women.

Dr Ineke van Kessel concluded that the crucial factor in securing the presence of a high number of women in parliament is the electoral system. The four countries in the Southern Africa region with the highest percentage of women in parliament, the Seychelles, South Africa, Mozambique and Namibia, have a system of proportional representation in common. Van Kessel explained that, in a majoritarian system, the party can nominate only one candidate per district. It will therefore choose a candidate who can appeal to a broad range of voters. Because of existing conventional stereotypes of women's roles, their choice will more likely be for a male candidate. In systems of proportional representation, on the other hand, the parties are able to balance their party list and accommodate various sections of the electorate. Including a female candidate on the party list might attract more votes from women and at the same time it doesn't have to scare male voters off.

 

Discussion

After the lunch break, some participants wanted to come back to Van Kessels lecture. She mentioned also quotas and reserved seats as an instrument to boost the participation of women in parliament. As she indicated, quotas are contentious, also among the Southern African guests. Dr Vera Chirwa from Malawi and Grace Bwalya from Zambia stressed the importance of qualified women politicians and warned against token women politicians. Keboitse Machangana from Botswana, on the other hand, underlined the importance of having a high quantity of women politicians in order to make a difference. In her view working on quality can be done with the help of women's organisations before and after the elections.

 

Life Story Dr Vera Chirwa

Dr Vera Chirwa's life story is a particularly moving example of the hardship women have to endure and the determination women need in order to earn an influential decision-making position. Chirwa talked about her firm commitment to justice for all during the colonial period in Malawi and later during the autocratic Banda regime.

Her involvement in the opposition resulted twice in imprisonment for a total of 12 years. This didn't keep her from making plans for a better future. When she was released in 1993, she founded the Human Rights organisation CARER and the women's organisation Women's Voice. Dr Vera Chirwa said that she believes the lack of knowledge about their rights prevent the Malawi people to make a stance against power abuse. With Women's Voice she promotes women involvement in politics and she organises political education workshops to improve the political skills of women candidates.

 

Parallel Sessions

The sessions provided participants an opportunity to get a deeper insight on the issues addressed.

1. Education for rural women in politics

Grace Bwalya used the deprived position of rural women as the starting-point of her presentation. Traditional laws and customs keep them in an exploited and dependent situation. What they need is a fair deal from the government, but unfortunately, government policies lack insight, if there is a policy on rural women at all.

According to Bwalya this is due to the fact that male politicians are insensitive and that also the few women politicians don't understand the real issues that affect the development of rural women. Political education for women, rural women in particular, is therefore very much needed. The focus should be on gender sensitive issues in order to make women understand the importance of more gender sensitive women in politics.

During the discussion several ideas about the promotion of women's representation emerged. It was stated that to identify women candidates it is worthwhile to target local initiatives. Furthermore, to be able to campaign and compete with men, these women candidates are in need of a Women's Fund. It was also concluded that there is a need to monitor the implementation of the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development and that it is important to change the political structures to make them more conducive to women's participation.

2. Women's Voice

Dr Vera Chirwa narrated her recent work for Women's Voice: the organisation of a workshop for women chiefs on gender issues. She explained that chiefs play an important role in Malawi. Next to a formal democratic power structure, Malawi, like a lot of other African countries, has a traditional power structure as well.

Chirwa emphasised the importance of not only paying attention to the formal structure, but enlightening the women chiefs as well. She told that the turn out at the workshop was remarkably high. The women chiefs did really appreciate the initiative and were pleased with the information.

Dr Vera Chirwa also reflected on the need to educate men so that they will accept women as their equals. It is no use training women in leadership skills if no men will take them seriously.

3. Representing the women's movement and NGO's

The presentation of Keboitse Machangana illustrated how a women's organisation can reduce the gap between the women's NGOs and women politicians. Her organisation Emang Basadi (Stand up Women) brought them together by developing a Women's Manifesto in a joint effort. This document summarises Botswana women's issues and demands and is a lobbying and advocacy tool, which is now produced every five years.

Keboitse Machangana told that the co-operation with and strengthening of women's wings of political parties resulted in a change of leadership of the women's wings. Instead of spouses of male politicians, women with real political ambitions occupy these positions now. The women's wings also changed from being welfarist to advocating for women's rights and their inclusion in the decision-making structures within the party.

Emang Basadi furthermore facilitated the formation of a women's inter-party caucus, which is now registered as an independent organisation that trains its members on leadership skills, effective representation and team building.

Both the women's NGOs and the women politicians acknowledge the benefits of their co-operation, such as providing each other with information and having an opening to the decision-making platforms. Although it is difficult for women politicians to vote indepently from their party, Keboitse Machangana stated that it is better for women's organisations to keep supporting them instead of castigating them.

In her final remark Keboitse Machangana addressed the funding problems in Botswana. With donors moving away to "more deserving countries" the NGOs in Botswana are faced with funding problems for their future activities.

4. Women's Budget

Imraan Valodia discussed how one could use the Women's Budget as an advocacy tool for gender equality. He explained that the Women's Budget reflects the differential impact of the government budget on women and men. The analysis of the budget enables one to expose how tariffs, industrial relations, taxation, education, employment, or industrial policy impact on women.

Valodia emphasised that the Women's Budget Initiative (WBI) moves beyond merely exploring monetary allocations. It just analyses the gender impact of the programmes, policies and performance that lie behind these monetary allocations. He illustrated this with the example of the General Export Incentive Scheme. Although this instrument absorbed a substantial part of the budget of the Department Trade & Industry, it is unlikely to have had any impact on women's employment.

Due in part to the WBI, the South African government has started its own in-government women's budget. According to Valodia, the success of the WBI is based on the co-operation between parliamentarians and NGOs. The NGOs provide the parliamentarians with analyses, which they can take forward politically. Increased transparency and accountability are additional benefits.

5. Policy and resolutions on women's leadership in Trade Unions

Former trade unionist from South Africa, Fiona Dove, together with Annette Tesselaar from FNV International Desk, discussed the experiences during the first decade of COSATU in relation to women's issues and gender equity, and the role of the FNV in supporting these initiatives.

Although women's issues are taken far more seriously than before, Fiona Dove pointed out that prejudices about women's roles still exist. In spite of the many women's committees and special education and training programmes, the system of electing a shop steward is still not conducive for women and affirmative action is out of the question. More domestic support is needed as well.

Fiona Dove remarked that the South African trade unions are now having difficulties in changing their opposition role into a constructive one. The challenge is to achieve a sort of Dutch "Poldermodel" in which trade unions, employer organisations and the government convene collective consultations.

 

Conclusions

In her closing speech, Caroline van Dullemen reflected on the changes by referring to Mamphela Ramphele, a "radical left wing African woman", who has become vice-president of the World Bank. The question for the future is if and how the women politicians made a difference in the new Southern African Millennium.

Women are gaining power in Southern Africa, slowly but decisively. Because of the consistent pressure of many women's organisations the importance of women's representation and gender equality has been put on the political agenda. With the signing of the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development, the SADC governments committed themselves to an active contribution towards the emancipation of women.

But it is clear that the patriarchal culture is persistent in Southern Africa. Sometimes it is reflected in the formal power structures that are not conducive for women's participation. Educating men, making them more gender sensitive, is one solution to change the political culture. It was mentioned that some women politicians lack insight in women's issues as well.

Dr Ineke van Kessel showed that a system of proportional representation is more conducive for the participation of women than a majoritarian system. She remarked that it is easier to change the electoral system than the political culture. But in spite of a discouraging environment the struggle of women's organisations for gender equality has resulted in successful initiatives, like the Women's Manifesto in Botswana and the Women's Budget Initiative in South Africa. The co-operation between women's NGOs and (women) politicians turned out to be an important factor in their success.

 

Annex 1: Programme

Plenary chairperson: Caroline van Dullemen, Board member of NiZA, Executive Secretary of the Commission on Development Co-operation of the Advisory Council on International Affairs.

Programme:

10.00 hrs. Registration, coffee

10.30 Opening

11.15 Life-story

by Dr Vera Chirwa (Malawi)

11.45 Coffee break

12.00 Parallel sessions

Lunch break
Parallel sessions

16.15 Conclusions

by Caroline van Dullemen

Reception

 

Annex 2: Summary parallel sessions

 

During the parallel sessions a Southern African guest spoke about her work and personal involvement in the cause of women's political participation. A discussant based in the Netherlands responded, asked questions and gave her view on possibilities to learn from each other's experiences and how to give support to the guest's work.

  1. Education for rural women in politics. Political awareness is the first step for (rural) women to support women candidates and get involved in politics themselves. Grace Bwalya from Zambia discussed the need to inform rural women that politics is more than voting.
  2. Women's voice. The political arena requires specific skills. Often women need to be trained to be able to compete with men in politics. Dr Vera Chirwa from Malawi shared her experience about preparing women candidates for politics.
  3. Representing the women's movement and NGO's. Is there a gap between women politicians and NGO's? What can be gained by co-operation between the two? And how can co-operation be effectuated? Keboitse Machangana answered these questions from her own experience in Botswana.
  4. Women's Budget. In several Southern African countries the government budget is being examined in order to determine its differential impact on women and men, boys and girls. Imraan Valodia discussed the benefits of the Women's Budget for women's emancipation.
  5. Policy and resolutions on women's leadership in Trade Unions. Through a number of resolutions COSATU developed a comprehensive strategy to build women's leadership and empowerment. How successful is this strategy? What is the connection with the co-financing programme on Women and Development of the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation FNV? Fiona Dove discussed these issues from her own experiences.

 

Annex 3: Short CV's Southern African guests

 

Grace Bwalya is a practical instructor and lecturer at the Development Resources College in Lusaka. She is involved with the Development Support Communication for Rural Women in Zambia, an organisation that aims to increase the political participation of rural women by giving political awareness training.

Dr Vera Chirwa is a Barrister-at-Law and veteran politician from Malawi. Among other things she is the founder of CARER, a human rights NGO, and the founder of Women's Voice, a women's organisation that organises Leadership Workshops for women candidates. In 1998 the Geuzen Hero's Medallion (Geuzenpenning) was presented to her in the Netherlands.

Keboitse Machangana is the Executive Director of Emang Basadi (Stand up Women), a women's organisation in Botswana. The organisation started a political empowerment programme that involves sensitising women in politics on the role they can play in the women's empowerment movement.

Imraan Valodia is at the School of Development Studies, University of Natal. From the beginning (mid-1995) he has been involved in the Women's Budget Initiative in South Africa. He has written several chapters in the different books on the Women's Budget.

Fiona Dove is the director of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. She was involved in the trade union movement in South Africa until 1994. During that period she co-ordinated the women's programme of SACCAWU nationally and served on the COSATU National Women's Committee.

14 December 1999, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague
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