Southern Africa: More women in government, please

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MASERU, Aug 20, 2006, 2006 (IPS/GIN via COMTEX) -- The annual summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) wrapped up Friday with a call to more quickly include women at all levels of government in the 14-nation body.

"By the time we meet in Maseru again, say in 10 years, I would like to see at least three or four women heads of state among you," Lesotho's monarch, Letsie the Third, told a banquet for the all-male SADC leaders held in the capital of Maseru, where the two-day meeting took place. Female delegates responded to his remarks with deafening ululation.

SADC had set 2005 as the deadline for having 30 percent of decision-making posts in member states occupied by women, reflecting demands in the Platform of Action developed at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in the Chinese capital of Beijing in 1995.

While not all countries achieved this goal, last year's summit -- held in Botswana's capital, Gaborone -- set a goal of 50 percent representation in line with African Union targets.

"We noted the slow progress made by member states in attaining the set target and urged member states to strive towards the attainment of the 50 percent representation of women in these positions as approved by Summit 2005," Tomothy Thahane, Lesotho's foreign affairs minister and chairman of the SADC Council of Ministers, told journalists.

According to the June edition of the "SADC Gender Monitor," published by the Harare-based Southern African Research and Documentation Center, "Southern Africa has experienced a greater increase of women in decision-making positions since the Beijing conference than anywhere else in the world.

"The average representation of women in the parliaments of the region now stands at 20 percent, with Mozambique and South Africa having reached 30 percent or above," noted the document.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe also weighed in on the issue.

"We don't just need women presidents because they are women, but we need good presidents. We have a number of women vice presidents in this region; maybe one day women presidents would emerge out of them," he said.

This was in reference to Zimbabwean Vice President Joyce Majuru, and South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka. Luisa Diogo was appointed Mozambique's first female prime minister in 2004.

A communique issued at the end of the summit further reaffirmed SADC's commitment to 50 percent women's representation in decision-making posts.

There was disappointment in the organization's record on other issues.

"In (the SADC summit) in Mauritius in 2004, I explained then that I was an old man in a hurry. I am now an older old man in a greater hurry than was the case in 2004. You will therefore appreciate why I am perturbed by the slow rate of implementation of our programs," outgoing SADC chairman Festus Mogae, the president of Botswana, said at the summit.

"The implementation of our programs does not show that we remain committed to the achievement of the milestones towards the attainment of SADC's full integration, namely the free trade area, customs union and common market," he added.

The organization has pledged to institute a free trade area by 2008, a common customs union by 2010, a common market by 2015, monetary union by 2016 -- and a single currency by 2018.

In addition, Southern Africa -- home to about 230 million people -- faces a massive hurdle in the form of the AIDS pandemic. According to the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, almost a third of all HIV-positive persons live in the region.

"We still remain the epicenter of HIV and AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, which together with food insecurity are amongst the major challenges of our region," observed Mogae.

"Last year alone, 3 million HIV- and AIDS-related deaths were recorded, 2 million of which were in the SADC region. Food insecurity no doubt compounds the infection rate."

Mogae also lamented that the construction of new premises for the SADC secretariat in Gaborone, and recruitment of staff, was being accomplished some five years behind schedule. Building is due to start in March 2007.

In its final communique, the summit noted that while SADC recorded overall growth of 5 percent in 2005, the region remained below the 7 percent target set by the United Nations for developing nations to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Eight goals were agreed on by global leaders at the U.N. Millennium Summit in 2000, in a bid to tackle the leading causes of under-development by 2015.

The MDGs aim at halving extreme hunger and poverty, achieving universal primary education, reducing maternal and child mortality, and promoting gender equality.

The goals also focus on reversing the spread of AIDS and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability and creating global partnerships to tackle issues such as unfair trade rules.