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Gender Links (GL) this week hosted Media and SRHR Policy and networking dialogues in Tanzania and Democratic Republic of Congo. Over 70 participants took part in these face to face dialogues in the two countries.

GL as the secretariat of the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance engaged members of the media cluster of the Alliance  to conduct policy dialogues in their countries on pressing and emerging SRHR issues that need prioritization and media’s attention.

These dialogues are part of key interventions for the UNESCO funded project on Strengthening women’s voice and choice through media reporting and networking which GL is implementing across the region. This regional project fits into the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) results area on Strengthening media institutions and capacities in developing countries through trainings, network building and advocacy.  The policy dialogues were  convened following a regional media SRHR training  conducted by GL in November- December 2022 which trained 19 journalists from Botswana, DRC , Lesotho , Eswatini , Malawi, Namibia, South Africa Tanzania and Zimbabwe .

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GL joins the world in commemorating World Press Freedom Day. This year is the 30^th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day and is  being observed under the theme “Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights”

GL believes that Press freedom and gender equality intertwine: one cannot exist without the other. The idea of gender equality and equality of all voices exists implicitly in the notion of a pluralistic press, which should reflect the widest possible range of opinions. The fact that women’s voices make up only one fifth of the views and voices that citizens read, hear and see in the news media is clear evidence that SADC media reflects only a fraction of the region’s reality. Gender censorship remains a glaring reality in this absence of diverse voices. Underrepresentation of women’s voices systematically silences and sidelines women from conversations about issues that concern them.

Furthermore,  women journalists and media workers across the world are facing  increasing offline and online attacks  a situation which produces harmful outcomes that undermine the health of a democracy  .

The 2023 World Press Freedom Index, compiled annually by Reporters Without Borders (RSF),which is a barometer on the environment for journalism in 180 countries reveals that no Southern African country ranks among the global top 20. Of the 16 Southern African countries, Namibia continues to be the country with the strongest press freedom environment in the region, ranking 22nd in the latest index, while South Africa  sits in 25^th  position and Seychelles is at 34^th position in the global ranking.  DRC (124), Angola (125), Zimbabwe (126), Tanzania (143) sit among the worst global performers.

Through its gender media and ICTs work, Gender Links continues to advocate for increasing women’s voice in both editorial content and institutional practices . GL is currently working on enhancing women’s political participation through media  as well as focusing on improving gender responsive coverage of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.

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Gender Links is hosting a week long  Women’s Political Participation (WPP) Academy in Maun, Botswana from 8-12 May. The academy aims at enhancing the inclusion and effective participation of women in political decision-making with a strong emphasis on local government.

This is the fourth in the series of academies that Gender Links is hosting in Botswana since the start of the Enhancing Women’s Political Participation in Africa project. The first three cross-generation training academies were conducted in Palapye, Francistown and Gaborone in the first phase of project between 2020 and 2022.

Gender Links is conducting this work as part of the International Idea-led consortium of six organisations implementing the: Enhancing Women’s Political Participation in Africa project.The five other organisations in the consortium are FAWE, FEMNET, IFAN – Gender Laboratory, PADARE, and WLSA. The consortium focuses on African countries namely Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The project is funded by the Embassy of Sweden in Ethiopia, with  the overall goal to increasing the political representation and participation of women in the SADC region and in Africa in line with the Maputo Protocol of 2003, the revised SADC Protocol on Gender and Development of 2015, various sub-regional protocols and standards and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Read more about this project here

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Type of Contract: Consultancy

Based in: Botswana

Consulting days: 10 days

Assignment duration: 28 February 2022- 11 March 2022

Application Deadline: 28 February 2022

Gender Links (GL) Botswana and Boys for Gender Equality (MBGE) have been implementing a two-year project with the financial support of the Delegation of the European Union (EU) Botswana. The overall objective of the project was to promote and protect women and girls’ rights through local action to end violence and empower women. This was to be done by enhancing the capacity of local government and local communities to respond to both the community engagement in ending violence and economic empowerment of women and girls though an integrated partnership between local governments, the Botswana Association of Local Authorities (BALA), Gender Links (GL) and Men and Boys for Gender Equality (MBGE).

The overall objective of the project was to contribute to gender justice through acceleration of transformative gender policies, strategies and legislation, prevention of GBV and advancement of economic empowerment of women and girls.

1. Background and Objectives

GBV remains a substantially damaging aspect of human rights violations against women and girls. More robust measures to tackle GBV at community level are urgently needed.  GBV is complex and requires many levels of engagement to address the scourge. At GL, work is rooted in GL’s Theory of Change which posits that of all the sources of inequality and exclusion across the globe, gender is the most cross-cutting of all. Reinforced in formal and informal ways, gender inequality begins in the home; is perpetuated by the family; schools; work place; community, custom, culture, religion and tradition. To tackle GBV it is necessary to acknowledge and address a multiplicity of interventions at the individual, close relationship, societal and ultimately the public space.

This project thus sought to advance GLB and MBGE’s endeavours to tackle GBV in a multi-faceted and community centred approach strengthened by the element of male engagement. This element will ensure that men play a significant role in GBV prevention in solidarity with the feminist movement. Men’s roles in GBV prevention include those of perpetrators, victims, witnesses and men as agents of change. Men have the potential to change attitudes and behaviours, negative power relations and violent masculine identities that create and sustain GBV.  It is therefore an important window of opportunity to engage men and boys in gender transformative ways to deal with GBV prevention. Working with Men at local government level is a strategic approach since communities are close knit and influential to culture, norms and practices at family and societal levels. In the spirit of Botho (humaneness) as per Botswana culture, ‘Kgetsi ya Tsie e kgonwa ke go tshwaraganelwa’ (Unity is strength) towards the realisation of gender equality and elimination of GBV working with men.

GLB and MBGE will also use this action to further cascade the End Violence, Empower Women Sunrise Campaign, cascaded in Botswana with the support of the EU, for finding sustainable solutions to ending GBV through the economic empowerment of survivors of GBV. GLB has brought together its work on gender responsive local governance and ending GBV in an innovative project for empowering the survivors of violence with entrepreneurship and life skills.

The project will therefore create a concrete link between national policy initiatives and practical implementation mechanisms to promote women’s political and socio-economic empowerment and address GBV in communities. The specific objectives of the Programme are to:

• To popularise the GBV indicators research undertaken by Gender Links Botswana (GLB) with the Government of Botswana, launched in May 2019.
• To support 365 Day Flagship Programmes to End Gender Based Violence (GBV) developed by 16 Centres of Excellence for Gender in Local Government.
• To give effect to these plans by working with councils to offer entrepreneurship training to survivors of GBV as part of GL’s “Sunrise Campaign” for empowering women and ending violence.
• To engage men as partners in the campaign.
  1. Description of the Intervention

  This two-year project named “Ending GBV Community by Community in Botswana” was implemented nationally and in 21 local authorities that are already part of the COE programme including Gaborone, Francistown, Lobatse, Sowa Town, Jwaneng, Selibe Phikwe, North East, South East, Chobe, Tsabong, Hukuntsi, Ghanzi, Mabutsane, Goodhope, Moshupa, Okavango, Maun, Palapye, Bobirwa, Tonota and Tutume. Below is the project matrix showing the overall objectives, activities, target groups and expected results;

1. Purpose and use of the evaluation

The Delegation of the European Union in Botswana has established a bold investment in women’s rights, testing a more focused and better-resourced modality for catalyzing and sustaining gender equality and efforts. The project agreement sets forth the EU’s mandate to track, assess, and widely share the lessons learned in this two- year programme and to contribute to global know-how in the field of gender equality. Undertaking Strategic Final Evaluations of projects are a vital piece of this mandate. The main purposes of this final evaluation are the following:

Accountability:

• Provide credible and reliable judgements on the project results, including in the areas of programme design, implementation, impact on beneficiaries and partners, and overall results.
• Provide high quality assessments accessible to a wide range of audiences, including EU donors, women’s rights and gender equality organizations, government agencies, peer multi-lateral agencies, and other actors.

Learning:

• Identify novel/unique approaches to catalyse processes toward the development of gender equality commitments.
• Identify particular approaches and methodologies that are effective in meaningfully and tangibly advancing women’s economic and political empowerment. 

Improved evidence-based decision-making:

• Identify lessons learned from the experience of grantees in order to influence policy and practice at the local government, national, regional and global levels.
• Inform and strengthen the EU’s planning and programming by providing evidence-based knowledge on what works, why and in what context.

Final evaluations are summative exercises that are oriented to gather data and information to measure the extent to which development results have been attained. However, the utility of the evaluation process and products should go far beyond what was said by programme stakeholders during the field visit or what the evaluation team wrote in the evaluation report.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL CALL FOR EOIs

The deadline for submission is Monday, 28 February 2022

Proposals should be emailed to botsmanager@genderlinks.org.za

Queries? Gender Links Botswana Manager on botsmanager@genderlinks.org.za

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Harare, 20 September 2021: The process of operationalising the recently adopted quota for women in local government in Zimbabwe is now in full swing, following the successful campaign for the inclusion of women in this vital sphere of governance.

Speaking at a meeting of the Women in Local Government Forum this month, Minister of Local Government and Public Works July Moyo explained that the 30% seats for women in local government to be distributed among parties on a Proportional Representation (PR basis) are in addition to the existing 1958 wards in Zimbabwe.

He urged all the women councillors who had won elections under the prevailing First Past the Post (FPTP) system not to abandon those seats. “Go and defend those seats, so that whatever comes is an addition to the 30% quota”, he said.

The local government quota for women passed into law through the Constitutional Amendment Bill no.2 Act of 2021 will see an additional 587 seats added to the existing 1958 council seats bringing the total number of council seats to 2545.

The PR seats constitute 30% of the current number of council seats (1958). However, 587 out of 2545 means women only have a guaranteed 23% of the total number of seats – still higher than the current level of 14% but a far cry from 50%. This would require that women win at least 27% of the FPTP seats, which is almost double the proportion of women who won through this system in the 2018 elections.

Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution introduced the mixed FPTP and PR seats for women only to increase women’s representation at the national level. Until the recent changes, the system did not extend to local government. When parliament voted to extend the 30% PR quota beyond the 2023 elections (when it was due to expire) at the national level, WLGF petitioned President Emmerson Mnangagwa, with the support of Gender Links, to ensure that the same provisions are extended to the local level.

Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairperson, Justice Priscilla Chigumba reiterated that, “the 30% quota will not be the same for all local authorities but will need to be determined for each local authority depending on the number of wards in the local authority, which is different from parliament”. There is need for political parties to work within the law.

Following the support of the 30% quota by government the Constitutional Amendment Bill no.2 under section 277 on elections for local authorities now reads that (“Elections to local authorities”) is amended by the insertion after subsection (3) of— “(4) An Act of Parliament may provide for the election, by a system of proportional representation referred to in subsection (5), of at least thirty per centum of the total members of the local council elected on ward basis as women).

The Minister of Women Affairs, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Sithembiso Nyoni, said that, “the government of Zimbabwe has taken progressive steps in amending several laws that promote women’s rights as per the Constitution of Zimbabwe”.

Zimbabwe is signatory to various regional and international protocols to promote gender equality including the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, among others. Whilst highlighting the underrepresentation of women in the political sphere, Nyoni reiterated the need for the implementation of the local government quota. She emphasised, women’s meaningful participation in all sectors and in particular in decision-making as a key driver to development at the local, national and global levels.

The “nuts and bolts” meeting raised concerns about whether women PR councillors will have the same voting powers in councils as those who come in on the FPTP ticket. The Deputy Attorney General, Nelson Dias highlighted that women should and will have voting powers when the quota is implemented at the local level.

The biggest challenge now is to ensure that political parties embrace the quota and continue to field women in the FPTP seats where they need to double the current level of 14% to add to the 23% PR seats in order to attain parity.  More thought will also need to be given to how local authorities will adjust, given that this will have budgetary implications.

For more information contact Priscilla Maposa on zimmanager@genderlinks.org.za/ +263772732722 OR visit our website and Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.   

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