At the close of a two day summit that show cased 32 best practices of local efforts to end violence and empower women, delegates expressed dismay that at the very moment that Zambia should be accelerating efforts to meet the 2015 targets of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, there has been regression on some fronts.
The summit, convened by Gender Links and the Local Government Association of Zambia (LGAZ), with the support of UNICEF ends with awards to ten individuals (seven women and three men) and organisations who have demonstrated commitment to local action to end gender violence and empower women.
The winners (see Annex A) will go on to the regional Gender Justice and Local Government Summit in Johannesburg from 23-25 April 2012.
The SADC Gender Protocol, to which Zambia is a signatory, calls for gender parity in all areas of decision-making by 2015. In the last elections, the level of women in politics dropped from 18.2 % to 11%, and of women in local government from 7% to 5.9%. There are only a handful of women mayors and deputy mayors.
"The representation and participation of women at the local level is key to democracy and prosperity," noted the 74 delegates (23 men and 51 women) from nine (9) local councils around the country. "There are many examples of SADC countries that are redressing the gender gap in politics. We cannot afford to be left behind."
With its next elections in 2016, Zambia has missed the mark for the SADC Gender Protocol target. But delegates urged that "drastic measures" need to be taken before the 2016 elections to bring Zambia in line with its SADC neighbours. "If other countries can find means to increase women's representation, it is not beyond our collective will and capacity to do so," the delegates said.
Lesotho, which also has a first past the post system, adopted a system of reserved seats for women at the local level in the 2006 elections. Following resistance to one third of seats being reserved for women only, Lesotho changed to the Tanzania model in the 2011 elections.
This allows for open competition between women and men in the constituencies, but adds 30 percent seats that are distributed using the PR system among political parties. While Lesotho experienced a drop from 58% women to 46% in the 2011 elections, this is still close to the parity target. Lesotho has the highest level of women in local government in SADC.
Mauritius, which next to Zambia has the lowest level of women in local government, has adopted a quota for women in the coming 2012 elections. This law resulted in an amendment to the Constitution that has opened the door for Mauritius to become a signatory to the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.
Another key target of the SADC Gender Protocol is to halve gender violence by 2015.
The Zambia Police Services recorded 8673 cases of GBV in 2010. The Zambia Demographic Health Survey found that 47% of women have experienced some form of violence in their lifetime and 33% in the last year.
"Gender violence is the most flagrant human rights violation in Zambia at the present time," the delegates noted. "Women cannot be empowered to claim their rights unless we allow them to be making decisions on what concerns them and this means we need to implement the SADC Gender Protocol targets."
Examples of local level action shared at the summit include HIV and Aids and care work, local economic development, gender based violence (GBV), prevention, support, gender and governance and leadership.
The summit also show cased progress made by the nine Councils that have joined the Centres of Excellence for Gender Mainstreaming programme namely; Chongwe District Council, Kafue District Council ,Kabwe Municipal council, Luanshya Municipal Council.
Others are Ndola City Council, Kapiri Mposhi District Council, Katete District Council, Chingola Municipal Council and Mazabuka, District Council run in Zambia by GL and LGAZ.