Botswana to host gender protocol preparatory meeting
11 Feb 2013
Botswana will host a two-day Southern Africa gender protocol preparatory meeting from March 18 to 19.
The meeting would be part of the 11 preparatory country summits in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The summits would be in preparation for the main regional summit scheduled for South Africa from April 22 to 24.
The country summits would be under the auspices of Gender Links, Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance, local government associations, gender and media (GEM) networks and media development institutions.
This was said by Southern African Development Community (SADC) gender protocol alliance manager, Ms Loveness Nyakuyarah, at the SADC Gender Protocol summits planning meeting recently.
Ms Nyakuyarah said the summits which would be held under the strapline: “Yes We Must” were meant to gather evidence of the SADC Gender Protocol at Work in order to make a concerted call for increasing the momentum of member states on implementation as well as the run up to achieving each of the SADC Gender Protocol’s 28 targets by 2015.
She also stated that the SADC and Gender Protocol summits were meant to take stock and turn up the pressure for implementation and accountability in the two years to the 2015 deadline, and bring together all key stakeholders to share strategies and good practices for achieving the 28 SADC targets of the SADC Gender Protocol in the count down to 2015.
She added that the summits also aimed to profile and affirm the work of media and local government Gender Centres of Excellence and create synergies between their efforts, build linkages between the media and local government work on the ground as part of the broader objective of gender responsive governance and accountability and develop a critical citizenry around the SADC Gender Protocol and the MDGs.
So far, she said, Botswana and Mauritius have not signed the SADC Gender Protocol, but barely two years from now governments would have to account for actions taken to meet the 28 targets of the “unique sub-regional instrument that encompasses commitments made at all regional, global and continental instruments for achieving gender equality.”
The Protocol, which was adopted by SADC Heads of State at the 2008 summit, aims to ensure that women take an active role in national development by occupying half of the decision making positions in all structures of society.
It also covers constitutional and legal rights, governance, education and training, productive resources and employment, gender based violence, health and HIV/AIDS, peace building and conflict resolution as well as media, information and communication.
It also provides a roadmap to equality, because it sets 28 measurable targets with timeframes and indicators for achieving gender equality in line with the third MDG by 2015. ENDS
Source : BOPA
Author : Lorato Gaofise
Location : GABORONE
Event : Interview
Date : 11 Feb 2013
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