THE Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) has called on women to participate in the electoral and democratic process of the country.
WiLDAF chairperson Pricilla Chileshe said that women must be encouraged to engage in national developmental programmes through active participation in party politics.
Ms Chileshe, who is also Zambia Association for Research and Development (ZARD) executive director, said women desired to be leaders of the country but were afraid of being part of the culture of political violence.
She said the main challenge women faced in politics was the lack of finances and less support from members of the public.
She said this during the opening of a two-day training workshop on women participation in political party affairs in Lusaka yesterday.
Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD) executive director Bornface Cheme said the representation of women in elective offices was determined by the progress of achieving gender equity and equality among men and women in public and private spheres.
Mr Chembe said the training would address the low status of women’s representation in public decision-making and on the political scene.
He said all political actors should promote equal participation of women in all political parties to achieve gender balance as they prepared for the 2016 general elections.
Mr Chembe said there was need to increase the number of women representation in Parliament from the current 12 per cent as well as the six per cent of women councillors at local government level.
He said the status made Zambia fall short of attaining its Millennium Development Goals with a target of 30 per cent representation and SADC commitment of 50 per cent women representation in all public and political spheres. -ZANIS