Southern Africa is making marked progress in terms of both the number of women in security service institutions and the number of women deployed in UN peace missions. Although there is only one country in the region, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with a UNSCR 1325 national action plan, countries have been developing gender mainstreaming strategies for their respective security institutions.
The inauguration of Joyce Banda as President of Malawi on 7 April 2012 changed the status quo of gender representation in the regional security architecture. As the first woman ever to be president of a country in this region she simultaneously becomes the first to be part of the SADC decision-making institutions, namely the SADC Summit and the SADC Organ. Moreover, South African Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma also made history when she, as the representative for Southern Africa, was elected as chair of the African Union Commission in July 2012. A known advocate for gender equality, she will reinvigorate discussion, policies and programmes related to gender in the AU.
In 2011, through the work of the SADC Gender Unit and SADC Organ, SADC developed a Framework for Mainstreaming Gender into the SADC Organ and a Strategy for Combating Sexual and Gender Based Violence in Conflict and Post-conflict Situations. It is our hope that the SADC Summit, to be held this August in Mozambique, will endorse these far-reaching policies, which provide guidance on the legal and institutional reform measures needed to engender the security sector. Much of the legislation governing the security sector in Southern Africa is dated and therefore not gender sensitive, making national level reviews necessary. In addition, the need for vigilance remains in countries that have gender-sensitive policies. The recently released draft Defence Review of South Africa highlights this necessity, for we were suddenly confronted with a document in which the references to women were in relation to their impoverishment and victimization - a far cry from the widely acclaimed gender-sensitive Defence Review of 1998.
It remains difficult to access information on the human resource component of the security sector in Southern Africa. As such, data remains incomplete and highlights the urgent need for a substantive database on gender and the security sector, both regionally and continentally. We cannot adequately monitor progress and compliance to protocols, resolutions and declarations on gender peace and security with a continued climate of secrecy in this sector.
The available data, however, is beginning to paint a picture of increasing numbers, but stark unevenness between the different security sector institutions. Women have greater representation in the police services. They are also slowly making inroads into the defence sector. The regional information on correctional services, however, is too scant for us to be able to make a call on progress.
For policing, Seychelles is leading the way with a 38% representation of women, followed by South Africa with 32,5%, Namibia with 31%, Zimbabwe with 25% and Botswana with 24%. The DRC, Mauritius and Mozambique are below 10% and we still do not have information on Angola and Swaziland. Women are primarily located at the lower levels, but some progress is recorded at decision-making levels. For example, this year South Africa appointed its first female national police chief, Mangwashi Victoria (Riah) Phiyega.
For defence, South Africa leads the way with a 27% representation of women, closely followed by Namibia with 26% and the Seychelles and Zimbabwe at 20%. The DRC has approximately 7% and Malawi and Mozambique are at 5%. Botswana, in 2008, opened its defence gates to women, but has made year-on-year substantive progress. We still do not know the number of women in the Angolan, Lesotho, Swaziland, Tanzanian and Zambian defence forces. South Africa saw a reshuffle in ministerial portfolios with Lindiwe Sisulu being moved from Defence to Public Service and Administration and Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakulu shifted from Corrections to Defence. South Africa has one woman as Major General (2%) and 31 women (18%) as Brigadier Generals. Namibia has 2 women Brigadier Generals and the Deputy Minister of Defence, Lempy Lucas, is a woman.
Thus far, we only know the representation of women in the correctional services of six Southern African countries, namely Seychelles (52%); South Africa (28%); Lesotho (26%); Madagascar (16%); Malawi (15%); and Mauritius (8%).
The data for women in peacekeeping is easier to access, as UNDPKO has started to disaggregate its statistics for its respective peace missions by gender. It provides this information on a monthly basis and one then has to calculate a yearly average. The compilation of this data indicates that South Africa deploys the majority of women in terms of numbers, but as a percentage of overall deployments, women peacekeepers averaged around 14%-15% for UN missions in 2011. Namibia at 54% is doing very well in terms of the percentage of women deployed, but has a relatively low number of peacekeepers deployed. Zimbabwe, too, is doing well averaging at 31%.
The above data shows that we are making inroads into creating a more gender-representative security sector in the region. However, the translation of representation into gender sensitivity and gender responsiveness has yet to be validated. Clearly there is much more needed than the inclusion of women in the security sector to create a more secure environment for women. Numbers are important, but they have to be accompanied by a transformation of the patriarchal and sexist culture of the security sector and their inclusion must lead to real changes in response to the security needs of both men and women. It is to the latter aspect that much of our attention on gender and security sector reform should be refocused in the coming years.