By SALOME PHIRI –
THE Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocol on gender and development that was adopted in 2008 is a unique sub-regional instrument that brings together African and global goals on gender equality.
The protocol enhances these through targets and timeframes.
The protocol is aimed at promoting women empowerment in order to eliminate discrimination and achieve gender equality through gender-responsive legislation, policies, programmes and projects.
Conversely, the SADC gender protocol was only enforced in 2013 following ratification of the instrument by the requisite two-thirds of the regional body’s member states.
SADC is comprised of 15 countries and it is essential that all the member countries sign the reviewed protocol.
In August this year, SADC Gender Protocol Alliance launched the 2017 SADC Gender Protocol Barometer entitled “50-50 by 2030; Stepping up for gender equality”.
The report brings together progress and implementation gaps in the 11 key areas of the revised protocol and makes a strong call for radical action to transform economies, institutions and society to make gender equality in the region a reality by 2030 (Gender Links 2017).
According to Gender Links, the Gender Protocol Barometer highlights progress using two yardsticks of measuring gender equality; the empirical SADC Gender and Development Index (SGDI) and the perception based Citizen Score Card (CSC).
The two yardsticks will make it easy for countries to see the pace at which they are moving to attain the 50-50 gender parity.
For Zambia, which is a member of SADC, and through Government’s efforts to foster gender equality, President Edgar Lungu signed the gender protocol during at the Heads of State and Government Summit in South Africa recently.
Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) said the SADC Gender Protocol Barometer is timely as it will be a tool that will help monitor how the country is moving towards achieving gender equality in Zambia.
WLSA Gender and Governance Programs Officer Rudo Chingobe Mooba said the protocol also looks at the gender disparity and benchmarks on levels of gender equality in the SADC region.
“It looks at the barriers of gender equality, what needs to be done and areas of concern that countries should focus on to attain gender equality,” she said.
She described the barometer as a provision that sends benchmarks in terms of attainment of gender equality in the region.
But some people might wonder why there this need to reach 50-50 gender parity.
According to goal number five of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which focuses on gender equality, women and girls represent half of the world’s population.
This also represents half of the world’s potential.
Therefore, it is essential that this population participates equally with the menfolk in decision making processes in all sectors of society.
Ms Mooba said  sometimes, one would use the radical term “the Law is Male” because of what women have to pass through to access social justice.
“Women pass through different barriers to access social justice compared to men but this should not be the case hence the need to attain the 50-50 gender parity,” she said.
One of the organizations that have expressed happiness over President Lungu’s signing of the gender protocol is the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA).
YWCA Executive Director Patricia Ndhlovu said signing the SADC Gender Protocol was an important decision.
She said the signing of the protocol shows that Zambia recognizes the importance of accomplishing gender equality.
Nonetheless, Ms Ndhlovu said the country still has a long way to go in order to achieve the 50-50 gender parity.
“Currently, we are only 29 women out of 158 Members of Parliament. We need to recognize this imbalance and ensure an improvement in women participation,” Ms Ndhlovu said.
She called for implementation of more policies that can promote women participation in decision making.
Ms Ndhlovu said issues such as gender based violence and child marriage need to be addressed in order to achieve the 50-50 gender parity.
As part of WLSA’s responsibility to ensure that the law benefits both women and men and also reach the 50-50 parity in Zambia, the association has come up with different activities aimed at helping women.
WLSA wants to ensure that the Government is involved in most women welfare activities. The organization runs an established legal team that receives cases of gender based violence.
The organisation also ensures prompt reporting of such cases to the police Victim Support Unit (VSP).
The association has also taken up the responsibility of training some tradition leaders on statutory law for them to have a clear understanding of what the law entails as opposed to leaders focusing on customary law only.
Currently, only nine of 15 countries have signed the reviewed gender protocol.
This shows that a lot still needs to be done to ensure that all SADC member countries sign the protocol.
Zambia was ranked on 7th in the 2017 Gender Barometer in the SADC region, which shows an improved commitment towards Government attaining gender mainstreaming both in the private and public sector.
This is despite women’s participation in decision making is still low at only 18 per cent.
SDG number five emphasizes that; women’s and girls’ empowerment is essential to expand economic growth and promote social development.
Hence the full participation of women in the labour force would add percentage points to most national growth rates—double digits in many cases.
Having a 50-50 gender parity will not only add to the number of empowered women but also push Zambia to more social, political and economic development.
Therefore, the responsibility of both private and public sectors to see to it that the country attain the 50-50 gender parity even beyond 2030.– ZANIS.