It is with gratitude that
this is the year 2006 and already the Basotho are already looking
towards the 2007 elections. This shows that Lesotho is in a state of
democracy where predictable elections takes place unlike some other
undemocratic countries where people cannot even think along the
lines of elections.
Ms. Keiso Matashane Marite, of the Women and Law in Southern Africa,
has expressed her discomfort in picturing 50% representation of
women in parliament at the NGO Week where her presentation was based
on “Some impediments on womens effective participation in politics:
What does the future hold for their participation in 2007 National
Assembly elections? ” She said it has taken almost 36 years to have
12% representation of women in parliament. She said that it is
possible to have 50% representation of women if only people are
eager of what they want.
Ms. Matashane - Marite went on to point out that when she talks of
participation in politics; she does not only talk about
participation but effective participation. Effective participation
takes three forms and those are inter alia:
Good governance which means the whole nation must have a say in
government People must have representation in government. All
sectors of the community must be represented
Citizenship: people must not only have a say in government, it also
involves entitlements in government or country, example, entitlement
to good service delivery.
Good governance must also entail good structures.
Why 50% of Women Representation?
Ms Matashane - Marite indicated that the reason behind 50% is
because the African Union targets 50% while 30% is targeted by SADC.
She further pointed out that Lesotho is a member to the African
Union and falls among countries which bound themselves by 50% women
representation in government.
She went on to say that to ensure effective participation, we must
not overlook effective conceptualisation and as such made an example
of the term ‘democracy’ which she said is unfortunately narrowed to
mean ‘majority rules’. She also corrected the narrow use of the term
democracy and referred to it as including even the minority.
Democracy and good governance entail inclusive representation in
government.
Why is women’s political participation important? And why is it that
we are talking of women’s effective participation? The answer lies
in why societies need governments in the first instance. Governments
are needed to manage and direct resource allocation so that benefits
of development are enjoyed by everyone. Therefore democracy is a
preferred form of governance to ensure sustainable development,
stable macro economic environment, investments and growth.
Therefore, both men and women need to participate and be given a
chance to constitute government. It is therefore critical to see the
link between development and democracy. In a democratic
dispensation, it is not enough to talk about democratic governance,
the emphasis should be on good governance which has the Following;
Incidentally three most important ingredients of democratic
governance are participation, representation and citizenship.
Participation implies active involvement of the citizens in the
running of national affairs of states; Representation implies that
the involvement of citizens in the governance process translates
into broad-based inclusiveness in decision-making and policy
formulation; Citizenship implies giving people a say in their lives,
entitlements to better policies and service delivery and holding
those who make such decisions accountable
How can we therefore achieve effective participation?
We can achieve effective participation through transforming the
structures, processes and bureaucracy which is so masculine and
conservative. Transformation is also a need at the conceptual level
for people to really appreciate the link between inclusive democracy
and fairness as well as gender equality. It is only when that link
is there that people can move to action. The conceptual
transformation will then makes it easier for people to change their
attitudes towards the role of women and what their participation
should entail. Whose responsibility is it for transformation to take
place? The responsibility falls on all of us, especially on
leadership. This is leadership on everyone who is in some position
of decision-making.
Democracy is commonly understood as a process of advancing
governance by majority rule on behalf of the people for their
benefit, thus it entails representation, accountability,
transparency and promoting rights-based culture and respect for the
rule of law. Critical to the understanding of democracy is a right
to be involved in common concerns and to share in the rewards and
burdens of common citizenship. An important milestone achieved by
gender and women’s rights activists is drawing of attention to the
link between democracy, gender equality and development and
specifically advocating for adoption of a gender perspective as a
tool for advancing democracy and development agenda. This link is
often used to counter the application of a limited and narrow
understanding of democracy which is usually interpreted to mean
majority rule, regular holding of elections, universal suffrage,
multi-party participation and respecting of bill of rights and
constitutionalism. The link between democracy and gender equality
calls for expansion of processes and structures to be inclusive of
all interests groups and to facilitate emancipation of disadvantaged
groups. In this way, democracy is broadened to promote fair
representation of all interest groups in society. Hence this paper
opts for usage of balanced democracy to reflect democracy that is
re-defined to reflect equality of representation, participation and
outcome for both men and women in society.
Looking at our institutions of decision-making, are principles of
democracy adhered to? Do majority rule? Given that majority of our
populations are young people (Lesotho has a classical pyramid
population distribution with young people comprising the majority)
Can we boast of genuinely promoting participation, representation
and citizenship?
The answer is no, our efforts are not enough because if they were,
the proportion of women who are at the decision-making levels would
have been higher than 12%. It is on this note that Beijing Platform
For Action (BPFA) calls on states to take measures to ensure women’s
equal access to, and full participation in decision-making by
creating a gender balance in government and administration,
integrating women into political parties, increasing women’s
capacity to participate in decision-making and leadership as well as
increasing women’s participation in the electoral process and
political activities.
Challenges
There are a number of challenges to the attainment of balanced
democracy in the region. These challenges are by and large tied to
the situation of women and men which is characterized by gender
inequality. The challenges start with the conception of governance
at all levels and ability of different groups to exercise the
economic, political and administrative authority in the management
of any country’s affairs at all levels. The challenges therefore are
mainly of two types; namely participation and representation. Gender
balanced participation in governance processes not only refers to
the physical numerical presence of men and women but it refers to
the quality of participation, meaningful engagement driven by mutual
respect for diverse opinions and view points. Considering the fact
that women in the region make up over half of the populations, one
would have expected that figure to be mirrored in the political
leadership representation. This is despite the fact that in some
countries (Lesotho) literacy rates for women are comparatively
higher (this fact does not necessarily translate into empowerment).
Representation
Numerical representation of men and women in the highest echelons of
political decision-making illustrate the lack of balance in these
spheres. SADC member states had set a minimum target of 30%
representation of women in political and other places of
decision-making by 2005. Three months down the line, most of these
countries are far below this minimum. South Africa has surpassed
this figure with its representation of women in Parliament and
Cabinet (38%) while Lesotho has surpassed the 30% minimum target it
had set in local government representation to attain (52.8%). AU has
upped the minimum representation to 50%. However, it is doubtful
whether these targets will be fully met given the pervasive,
systemic barriers that continually keep women out of major public
governance structures. These include the general attitude and
presumption of commonality of interests and therefore a
justification for men to represent women. Southern African countries
are patriarchal and still embrace values that emphasize male
leadership. Studies show that arguments attributing women’s absence
from decision-making positions to negative self image, lack of
confidence, lack of assertiveness and fear of being criticized among
many other reasons is an indication of strong societal resistance
and systematic marginalization of women being simplified and
trivialized.
Access into political decision-making is also complicated by
electoral systems that make it difficult for women to be elected.
Southern Africa is still largely characterized by constituency based
models which have proved to be difficult for women to be elected in
high numbers. Political space is still largely regarded as a men’s
space.
Participation
Political framework in most countries in the region is almost always
along political party lines, based on a hierarchy that is usually
male. Majority of women are found in the bottom of party echelons
where their responsibility is to mobilise for mass support of their
party and rendering services that reflect their gender roles in the
domestic sphere. Women’s wings are often used to rally support for
male leadership rather than as a training ground for female
leadership of the party. Participation also becomes a challenge to
the extent that even the women who make it to the upper structures
of decision-making are too few to influence policy and legislative
outcomes to reflect the gender needs. The absence of a critical mass
of women to form coalitions across party lines for gender issues
compromise the quality of participation that could have been
maximized. Even where women’s parliamentary caucuses are formed to
addresses common gender issues, the realities of party allegiances
limit such structures to optimise their potential.
Lack of Support Mechanisms
Lack of exposure, training and orientation on procedures,
regulations and other technical information for women entering
politics makes it difficult for women to cope. Attributes that have
been down-played for women because of socialization such as
public-speaking become a barrier and where there is no support for
women candidates for esteem-building and sharpening of these skills,
women shy away from entering the arena in the first place. There is
generally lack of support mechanisms to attract young women of
reproductive age group to join politics. These are support
mechanisms that will address and take into account the multiple
roles of women as well as intensive consciousness that promotes
reproductive responsibility-sharing. Lack of vibrancy in the women’s
movement and in some countries absence of women’s movement becomes a
factor that throw women who enter into politics into the deep end of
the pool. Vibrancy in the women’s movement ensures support,
readiness to assist with articulation of gender issues in support of
tabling of gender sensitive legislation and policies. This vibrancy
also ensures that there is accountability on how far women’s issues
are being addressed.
Way Forward
Need for urgent measures to transform the SADC Gender and
Development Declaration into a protocol status that will ensure
compliance, conformity and mandatory reporting
Harmonize the AU and SADC minimum political representation and
catalyze measures for attainment, this will call for national
initiatives like constitutional reforms and enhanced political party
commitment for attainment of gender equality
Civic education to focus
on the link between persistent inequalities with mounting
catastrophes (like high prevalence of HIV to environmental disaster
management) social and economic challenges facing the region
Serious attempts to
invigorate the women’s movement in order offer support to women’s
entry into political decision-making and also for providing checks
and balances. Hand in glove should be concerted effort towards
mentoring of young women to take up leadership challenges and also
to entrench the school curricular. Empowerment programs should raise
consciousness on reproductive responsibility sharing.
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