The three-day workshop hosted by Women's Academy for Africa (WAFA) in Gaborone ended yesterday.
The workshop, which was attended by member states from Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and South Africa resolved that women be trained more in politics to empower them in decision-making in their political parties and governance. According to Daisy Bathusi, of Botswana Congress Party, the workshop focused mainly on political education because they have realised that women lack confidence and political education.
"WAFA stresses that women be empowered to have confidence and education in politics, hence decision-making in governance and their parties," she explained. She also said they taught women how to interact with the press when holding public office and how to deal with the media. They also equipped the participants on how to deal with general elections as well as strategies that can be used.
Other important issues discussed included political party systems as well as electoral systems, what influences these and the role of women in political participation. Bathusi revealed that comparatively, women in all the four member states (Botswana, Zimbababwe, Mozambique and South Africa) are still the same in terms of low numbers in political representation. "This is still a major challenge in all the countries," she stressed.
She added that WAFA aims to see more women participating in politics in all the four African regions where the workshops will be held. So far one has been held for Western African countries and the one in Botswana was the second.
She also said that the 30 percent quota talked about in BCP is still a dream and is only sitting there in the BCP constitution since it was set up in 2004. "There is no move since its set up in 2004 and it is just sitting there in the constitution."
She argued that Botswana is worse because there are few women in Parliament unlike in South Africa which has surpassed its targeted quota. "The ANC in South Africa managed to overcome that because we see more women in politics, hence decision-making and governance," she said. Bathusi further said women can participate in decision-making positions as long as they are equipped with education and confidence. "It is high time our women stop shying away from politics, be bold and show what they are capable of.
We cannot have few women in politics when Batswana women constitute 53 percent of our population, according to the last population census," she lamented. She explained that WAFA's way forward is to hold workshops in the remaining regions.
"This is a regional thing and as a sub committee that attended, we will therefore present whatever we resolved to the main committee in the next workshop and hence a way forward." She said in the next workshop they will delve deeper into the topics proposed at the Gaborone Sun workshop.
Each individual party is therefore expected to look at what can be adopted from the learnings of the participants.The Botswana Congress Party women's league members met at Gaborone Sun later in the afternoon to consolidate the messages from the workshop to increase women participation in the 2014 general elections.