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Cde Oppah Muchinguri

Tafadzwa Ndlovu Herald Reporter
Zimbabwe has achieved a lot in terms of gender mainstreaming and women empowerment in various sectors including education, agriculture and trade, but more needs to be done in dealing with structural differences and imbalance within societies. This was said by head of the Sadc Gender Unit Mrs Magdeline Mathiba-Madibela during a courtesy call on Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development Minister Oppah Muchinguri last week to update her on key issues on the regional agenda on gender.

Minister Muchinguri chairs the gender regional agenda for the next year.
Mrs Mathiba-Madibela said more commitment was needed to remove all forms of gender inequalities at the regional and national levels through a series of goals and actions derived from legally binding international, continental and regional instruments.

“Sadc as a regional bloc has continued to invest very heavily on gender mainstreaming and women empowerment and we are happy that Zimbabwe has managed to mainstream gender in many sectors as an example to other member states,” she said.

Mrs Mathiba-Madibela said implementation of the existing policies and laws was critical to push the Sadc agenda forward.
“Bearing in mind that 2014 is coming to an end, we are discussing the post development agenda of 2015 and the Beijing +20 agenda and also consider reviewing the Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development to align them accordingly to the international development agenda. Implementation is key to push the Sadc gender agenda,” she said.

Mrs Mathiba-Madibela commended Zimbabwe for being ranked among the top six Sadc countries that have made significant strides towards achieving the 50:50 gender parity ratio in Parliament as required in the Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development.

“It is of paramount importance that Zimbabwe is part of the countries that have made strides in achieving gender equality,” she said.
“Seychelles was at 43,8 percent, followed by South Africa (41 percent); Mozambique (39,2 percent); Tanzania (36 percent); Zimbabwe (35 percent); and Angola (34 percent) and at this rate as we reach the 2015 post agenda, we are ensured of an equal society.”

Mrs Mathiba-Madibela said there was need to encourage the use of affirmative action, urging Zimbabwe to emulate South Africa in the trade sector where a specific quota is given as a way of affirmative action to women in mining.

Minister Muchinguri commended Zimbabwe in its efforts to achieve gender parity and at least having gender mainstreaming in many areas.
“Zimbabwe has done very well in the realignment of laws to the Sadc Gender Protocol since we have gone through the Constitution where it has taken on board all the issues that include gender parity and gender main streaming,” she said.

“It is not only going to be a document, but we promise you some form of enforcement to make sure that all the issues raised would be implemented in as far as gender is concerned and the Gender Commission that was set up is evidence to that.”