in The Presidency, at the occasion of the official opening of United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) Africa regional office, in Birchwood Conference Centre,
Boksburg
17 February 2009
Programme Director
Ms Thoraya Obaid, UNFPA Executive Director, Under-Secretary General of the
United Nations,
Ms Purnima Manne, UNFPA Deputy Executive Director,
Mr Bunmi Makinwa, UNFPA Director for Africa Regional Office,
Dr Z Skweyiya-Colleague, Minister of Social Development,
United Nations Regional and Country Teams,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen
Good evening,
It is indeed an honour and pleasure to address this high level meeting of
the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which marks the relocation of the
UNFPA Africa regional office from New York to Johannesburg, South Africa. It is
significantly important that the regional office will be at hand to also
appreciate first hand some of the social challenges which face the African
Region.
As Minister responsible for women and gender in the country, I find it
fitting to share just a few areas which we could collaborate with the UNFPA on.
Poverty and the feminisation of poverty is a challenge which this country
continues to address and we would therefore be keen to share some of the
strategies to reduce the female face of poverty in the country. The South
African Development Community (SADC) region recently adopted the protocol on
gender and development (August 2008).
In this protocol is the campaign to have gender parity in all spheres of
life. This protocol seeks to promote equal participation and representation of
women and men in politics and decision making positions. The gender parity
should transcend numerical equality and the women's vote in the general
elections should translate to meaningful participation of women in all issued
affecting their lives. The women of this country view this campaign as a
process which will help accelerate the improvement of the gender relations and
the situation of women in the country.
Our constitution calls for a non-racial and non-sexist society. A lot of
progress has been made in this country towards achievement of this ideal. We
are aware that when women are empowered they can made decisions and have
choices about their lives, including correct decisions about their reproductive
health.
As the African Union Ambassador and Champion for the Movement to improve
maternal health and promote child survival and development, I know that there
is a lot we can collaborate on in order to achieve good quality of life for
women and girls. Let us work together with the regional office to improve the
implementation of strategic programmes in Africa.
The importance of the social circumstances, particularly the social
determinants of health, the very sociology of disease which, influence the
quality of life cannot and should not be underestimated. It requires a multi
sectoral effort to overcome some of the challenges.
This brings me to a very critical topical issue of the global economic
crisis which is affecting the world but more particularly the developing world.
This is already impacting more negatively on the poor and women, being more
vulnerable to poverty, will be left worse off unless strategies can be
formulated to combat this negative effect. There is need to carefully consider
strategies that will not only protect the poor but more specifically women. We
further appeal to developed countries to honour their pledges of the 0,7% of
their gross domestic product (GDP) to developing countries as Official
Development Assistance (ODA) even in this climate of a financial crisis.
Nationally, we have declared a war on poverty by considering all possible
strategies to fight poverty at all levels of society and focusing on empowering
people to help themselves. It is important that poverty alleviation strategies
should also facilitate the restoration of peopleâs dignity and value
system.
We are also engaged in a debate on "equal sharing of responsibilities", in
the family and society at large. We are also focusing on the issue of maternity
and paternity leave, which is meant to afford men time to continue caring for
the pregnant women, support at delivery time, and learning about care of the
newborn baby as well as for bonding.
In line with the theme of the coming 53rd session of the United Nations
Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in March 2009, which is "Equal sharing
of responsibilities between men and women, including care giving in the context
of HIV and AIDS," especially of caring in the family is critical. So is the
issue of trying to quantify, evaluate (in monetary terms) women and girlâs
unpaid labour in the family and community. There is need to appreciate value
and reward, also in kind the immense contribution which women give to
society.
I believe we can collaborate in these many areas to improve the quality of
life of the poor, particularly that of women and girls so as to enable them to
contribute to the development of the continent.
I congratulate UNFPA for establishing the Africa Regional Office in South
Africa and wish you a healthy environment for work. We stand ready to support
you as you perform you duties.
Thank you.
Issued by: The Presidency
17 February 2009
