By SUNDAY BWALYA –
THE Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number five demands the full and effective participation of women at all levels of decision making in political, economic and general public life.
SDG number five also ensures equal opportunities for women in leadership.
With good balanced representation of women and men, people with disabilities, youths and seniors in Government planning and decision making, better decisions and outcomes are made and realised.
To actualise the need to have women and girls from marginalised groups such as those with disabilities and in remote communities, Partnerships for Municipal Innovation Women in local Leadership (PMI-WILL) was launched in Zambia recently.
PMI-WILL is a six year project worth more than US$27 million designed to bring about enhanced enjoyment of human rights for women and girls, in particular those from marginalised groups in Zambia, Benin, Ghana, Cambodia and Sri Lanka.
To achieve this goal, the project will seek to create an enabling environment for increased participation of women in local governance instructions and processes as well as improved delivery of inclusive gender responsive municipal services.
Intermediate outcomes or objectives are to increase participation of women as leaders and decision makers in the country’s local governance.
Another objective of the PMI-WILL project is to enhance capacity of local authorities in delivering inclusive, gender responsive Municipal services in the country.
The project envisages to increase the number of women who can run for local elected offices and perform their duties effectively as well as broaden the networks of women elected officials in the local government gender equality committee.
To witness the official launch of PMI-WILL project at Raddisson Blue Hotel in Lusaka recently was Canadian High Commissioner to Zambia, Tanzania, Seychelles and Ambassador to Comoros, Pamela O’Donnell who outlined why Canada chose to fund the project in Zambia.
Ms O’Donnell said her country chose to fund the project and work in partnership with the local government Association of Zambia and the federal of Canadian Municipalities after seeing slight improvements in women participation in Mayoral and Council Chairperson races in the last general elections.
She noted that last year’s general elections had only 10 per cent of women in Zambia who won Mayoral or Council Chairperson races and only 14 per cent women were elected as local Councilors.
At national level, things were not good as only one female candidate ran for Presidency and 13 per cent elected Members of Parliament (MPs) were women.
“While these numbers are difficult to hear from Canada’s perspective, these are exactly the kinds of challenges we like to tackle with our partners,” She said
Ms O’Donnell believes that for the country to develop to its full potential and take services to everyone’s door step effectively, there was need for all members of society to be involved.
The Canadian High Commissioner to Zambia further noted that there was need to have different voices and vantage points to be considered as well as for people with wide range of backgrounds and experiences to be involved in decision making.
Canada is impressed with the Government of the Republic of Zambia’s interest in providing gender-responsive and inclusive services to the people.
She also congratulated Government for significantly increasing the allocation of Constituency Development Fund (CDF) in this year’s national budget to K25.7 million from K1.6 million per constituency.
Ms O’Donnell noted the increase in CDF meant that Government was committed to the decentralisation agenda which would bring planning and decision making down to the local level.
She added that for the CDF funds to be put to good use, the issue of women representation needed to be addressed.
“We need more women in Local government and we need more representation of people with disabilities as well as voices of youths and other community members to be heard,” she said.
Thus, Canada is confident that PMI-WILL project will contribute to the objectives given the experience and commitment of partners, the local government Association of Zambia and the federal of Canadian Municipalities.
The Canadian Municipalities that have partnered with the Zambian ones are the City of Edmonton, the City of Comox and the district of Suamish.
For some time, Canadian Municipalities have been working and partnering with International Municipalities such as local authorities in Jordan and Ukraine, and has also announced its presence in Africa, Zambia in particular.
She said cities and councils in the mentioned countries have reached 50 per cent representation of women where they had designed specific programmes to ensure women’s social, political and economic equality was achieved.
“We trust this partnership will form long lasting relationships and we are hopeful to see the outcomes of this initiative and a strengthened bilateral relationship,” she said.
Local government Association of Zambia (LGAZ) Lusaka Province Vice President, Christopher Habeenzu, who spoke on behalf of his President Vincent Lilanda, described the partnership with Canadian Municipalities as a step in the right direction in gender equality in councils.
Mr Habeenzu said the project would benefit all 116 local authorities in Zambia.
The project brings an enormous contribution towards the advancement of the Association’s strategic interest in gender equality in local Governance.
He further noted that the Association remained deeply concerned about the low proportion of women in elected office of Councilors who constitute a paltry eight percent of 1,974 total seats of Mayors and Councilors combined.
“As LGAZ, an Organisation of and for all local authorities in Zambia, there is still room for all of us as collective to improve the situation to create a conducive environment for women to have equal representation with men in councils,” he said.
LGAZ as an umbrella organisation brings together individual local authorities with all their differences, trying to combine their common experiences, potentials and shared interests.
He said the administration needs to explore the possibility of introducing a quota system which will contribute to resolve barriers that hinder women participation in politics.
Mr Habeenzu observed that the Association was concerned about the low numbers of female officers being appointed to key managerial positions in local government, despite the legal guarantees of equal opportunities and non- discrimination.
Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Gary Nkombo, said his Ministry was charged with the responsibility of promoting a decentralised and good local governance system.
Mr Nkombo noted that coordinating rural development and facilitating delivery of quality Municipal services in order to contribute to inclusive, sustainable social economic development.
It was therefore the obligation of the Ministry to ensure that local authorities were working towards improving the quality of life of women, girls’, boys’ and men through delivery of quality services to communities in the respective districts.
“We are therefore grateful to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for coming on board with the partnerships for Municipal Innovation Women in local Leadership (PMI-WILL) project,” he said.
The Minister was on firm conviction that equitable representation of women and men in Local Governance could lead to improved Municipal services delivery by bringing different perspectives when framing local policies and development plans and allocating budgets.
Lusaka Mayor, Chilando Chitangala, paid tribute to Canada for the launch of the PMI-WILL project aimed at enhancing the enjoyment of rights of women and girls in decision making.
“As a female elected leader, I am interested in participating in this PMI-WILL project as it will increase more women in Local leadership, so let us see change in Municipalities after this launch,” Ms Chitangala said.
She expressed worry at the low numbers of women in local Leadership, citing Lusaka City Council as one good example with low women in leadership.
Ms Chitangala appealed to the local government fraternity and Mr Nkombo to elevate women to leadership roles in the Ministry starting with Municipalities in a bid to promote women participation in decision making.
The Lusaka Civic leader expressed hope that the narrative would change for the better following the successful launch of the PMI-WILL project.
The importance of women in local Leadership cannot be overstated.
This is because women are key stakeholders in decision-making in an equitable manner with men as expressed by the SDG number five.-ZANIS