The Speaker of the National Assembly, Honourable Max Sisulu
Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Honourable Johannes Mahlangu
Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Honourable Nomaindia Mfeketo
Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Honourable Thandi Cecelia Memela
ANC Deputy President and former Deputy President of the Republic, Honourable Baleka Mbete
Fellow parliamentarians
Distinguished guests
I am very honoured to address this gathering which has come together to deliberate on how we can “work together to enhance women’s empowerment through skills development and sustainable job creation”. I trust that the deliberations, which began earlier today, have been fruitful and that you will be able to build on these in your discussions tomorrow.
I am also hopeful that the outcomes of these discussions will form part of our agenda for change as we in South Africa close the 2012 Women’s Month.
We must acknowledge that the struggle for the empowerment and emancipation of women is not a new one. And while we have seen some gains, I think there is unanimous agreement that much remains to be done. It is for this reason that I hope we will be able to translate the decisions of these deliberations into an action plan that will be implemented.
In this regard, parliamentarians and legislators have a very unique place in our societies. Parliaments remain one of the central pillars of democracy, embody the aspirations and will of the people, while serving as a bridge between constituencies and institutions of governance.
As the elected body that represents society in all its diversity, parliaments have a unique responsibility for reconciling the conflicting interests and expectations of different groups and communities. As the key legislative organ, parliaments have the task of adapting society’s laws to its rapidly changing needs and circumstances. They are also responsible for ensuring that governments are fully accountable to the people and that they do indeed, deliver on the promises contained within their electoral manifestos.
As women in parliament you therefore have a very special place in our society and are able to truly serve as agents of change. You also have the responsibility to deliver on the hopes and dreams of all women in society who yearn for, and indeed deserve, equality and liberation.
Parliamentarians and legislators can play a crucial role in advancing the empowerment of women in Africa.
Distinguished guests,
On the topic I was given, the “Challenges and Opportunities facing the Advancement of Women Empowerment in Africa,” I would like to begin by quoting from the World Bank’s 2012 Gender Equality and Development Report: “… gender equality is a core development objective in its own right. But greater gender equality is also smart economics, enhancing productivity and improving other development outcomes, including prospects for the next generation and for the quality of societal policies and institutions. Economic development is not enough to shrink all gender disparities—corrective policies that focus on persisting gender gaps are essential.”
Challenges facing women
Access to education
Education is a crucial element of human development, and progress towards this goal will heavily influence the achievement of other Millennium Development Goals. It is startling that women currently make up 2/3 of the almost 960 million illiterate adults worldwide and that 2/3 of children denied access to a primary education are girls.
Primary education is the basis for high-quality skills development in numeracy and literacy, which are critical for skills development in scientific and technological education. Higher levels of education for girls and women have strong positive impacts on their employment and earning potential, as well as their ability to contribute to society’s development.
The value to society of educating and helping girl children to remain in school is immeasurable, for the present and future generations.
We can be proud that Africa is making progress in this regard. The aggregate net primary school enrolment for Africa rose from 64% in 2000 to 84% in 2009. Most African countries have made steady progress and are on track to meet the target for net enrolment in primary education by 2015.
Access to healthcare
Health is the most important asset we can possess, as individuals or as nations.
Access to clean water is very important for the health of women and children, and indeed, the whole family. Access to clean piped water also helps to free women to engage in other economic activities.
Access to sanitation as well as clean water also decreased incidents of diarrheal diseases in children and families.
We must also ensure food security for our people. Women and children must be properly nourished which will contribute to strong immune systems as well as mental and intellectual growth.
Mother and infant mortality
With women having greater access to education, skills and improved health, we will be able to decrease maternal mortality which is still a big challenge, even today.
Indeed, the greatest intervention to reducing mother and infant mortality will be access to health, sanitation, nutrition and education.
It continues to be of great concern that the World Bank’s 2012 Development Report indicates that only in Sub-Saharan Africa are infant mortality rates on the rise. We must therefore increase women’s access to healthcare as well as education.
It is also significant that family planning improves when women are educated. They are then able to empower themselves to plan their families so that they can afford to nourish, educate, nurture and skill their children.
Empowering women, removing financial and social barriers to accessing basic services, launching innovations that make the supply of critical services more available to the poor and increasing local accountability of health systems are all policy interventions that will allow health systems to improve equity and reduce mortality.
Access to land, agricultural equipment and irrigation
Many women in Africa already engage in subsistence farming. We must however advocate for greater access to land for women so they can move beyond only subsistence farming.
If women had access to land and equipment, they would be able to grow food that exceeds the needs of their families. They would then be able to sell this food for profit and increase their access to funding.
However, access to funding for women remains a big challenge.
However, where women have access to finances, they have done well and have proven to be good investments. They are able to repay their loans, feed their families and even contribute to the GDP of their countries.
Discrimination in employment
Many governments and their corporate sector still employ more men than women, particularly at the upper echelons. And sometimes, women are still paid less than men.
Women have also not made inroads into ownership of businesses and still do not own the means of production.
And even if you are employed, the environment has been created for the comfort of men. We must as women continue to fight to ensure we make the environment comfortable for all – men and women.
Gender based violence
Women across class, colour and religion still experience gender based violence and other forms of abuse. This is still a big challenge for society as a whole.
A lot more work remains to be done in this area. Success will however go hand in hand with socialisation of both, boys and girls. Boys and girls must be socialised as equals with equal rights and responsibilities.
Transformation of the judiciary
We must work on transforming the judiciary which is still not very friendly towards women. This is evidenced when women report incidents of violence against them and this is met with hostile reactions, either at police stations or in court. In fact women are still sometimes seen as inferior. We must work to reverse this trend.
Culture
Women are often seen as the custodians of culture. They often pass on cultural practices from generation to generation. We must begin to interrogate cultural practices that are detrimental to an equitable society. One such example is when women do not inherit equally as men. We must continue the struggle to change such practices into human-friendly ones.
Women in decision making
This remains a challenge in making countries, institutions and businesses, including in many religions.
Finally, our own mindsets as women remains a challenge. Many women still lack the confidence, courage and self-esteem to venture into unchartered waters.
Opportunities facing women
The path to gender equality and emancipation is not totally without light at the end of the tunnel.
For instance, the World Bank’s 2012 Gender Equality and Development Report observes: “The lives of girls and women have changed dramatically over the past quarter century. Today, more girls and women are literate than ever before, and in a third of developing countries, there are more girls in school than boys. Women now make up over 40% of the global labour force. Moreover, women live longer than men in all regions of the world.”
- In addition to women now representing 40% of the global labour force, women also make up 43% of the world’s agricultural labour force, and more than half the world’s university students. Productivity will be raised if their skills and talents are used more fully
- Greater control over household resources by women can enhance a nations growth prospects by changing spending patterns in ways that benefit children. And improvements in women’s education and health have been linked to better outcomes for their children in countries as varied as Brazil, Nepal, Pakistan, and Senegal.
- Women must also have greater access to policy making and allocation of national budgets
- Empowering women as economic, political, and social actors can change policy choices and make institutions more representative of a range of voices. Recent research by the World Bank has shown, for instance, in India, giving power to women at the local level led to increases in the provision of public goods, such as water and sanitation, which mattered more to women.
- Measures that increase women’s control over household resources and laws that enhance their ability to accumulate assets, especially by strengthening their property rights, must be emphasised.
- Gender equality increases people’s abilities – women’s and men’s – to be educated and healthy, have voice and influence, take advantage of opportunities and make informed choices. These abilities are vital for societal and national transformation and development.
- Empowering women and girls is central to promoting quick and equitable economic growth and long-term stability. Facilitating poor women’s access to productive and financial resources, while promoting gender equality in the household and in society more widely, generates large development pay-offs. Expanding women’s opportunity in public works, agriculture, finance and elsewhere accelerates economic growth, helping to mitigate the effects of economic shocks and natural disasters.
- Countries that invest in promoting the social and economic status of women tend to have lower poverty rates – an extra year of secondary schooling for girls can increase their future earnings by 10–20%.
- Educated women tend to have fewer children and healthier families, which contributes to improved child and maternal health, higher immunisation rates, good family nutrition, and the next generation’s schooling attainment. Education for girls and boys is also a preventive weapon against HIV/AIDS.
- Educating girls produces many socio-economic gains that benefit the whole of society. These include greater economic productivity, higher family incomes, delayed marriages, reduced fertility, and improved health and survival rates for infants and children.
We must take heart that women are achieving greater representation in parliaments and legislatures. In this regard, most countries in Africa are making steady progress relative to other developing regions. Its rate in 2011 was surpassed only by Latin America and developed regions. North Africa showed the fastest growth among regions from 1990 to 2011.
This gives us an opportunity to drive pro-people and pro-development legislation and policies. We must use this to the advantage of society as a whole.
Ladies and gentlemen,
We have many international instruments aimed at the empowerment and emancipation of women. These have served to place the emancipation and empowerment of women on the global agenda and to facilitate a common understanding towards these concepts.
We must as women begin to take advantage of these instruments.
These include”
- The Beijing Platform of Action
- The Millennium Development Goals
- United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR) 1325, 1820,1888 and 1889, which relate to women, peace and security;
- World Summits on the Information Society (2003 and 2005);
- the United Nations Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Women (2006)
In Africa we have various instruments aimed at addressing the challenges faced by women, at a policy and implementation level. These are:
- The 2003 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the African Women’s Protocol);
- The 2004 AU Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality;
- The 2009 Gender Policy of the African Union (AU); and
- The Africa-wide campaign to end Violence Against Women (VAW), an outcome of the African Development Forum
At subregional level, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has adopted a Protocol on Gender Equality, while the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has instituted a gender policy to guide its member States in gender mainstreaming in policy design and implementation.
Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are also complementing these global and regional frameworks at sub-regional levels by integrating various resolutions and commitments into their policies and Plans of Actions (PoAs).
Ladies and gentlemen,
Become Agents for change and drive this Agenda
We are all aware that 2010 to 2020 has been declared as the Women’s Decade by African Heads of State and Government. However, we cannot expect that the Heads of State and Government alone should ensure that this does indeed become the Women’s Decade.
It is the women of this continent in all their respective environments who will ensure we translate this Declaration into action, action that will benefit women for generations to come.
Mahatma Gandhi said we should become the change we want to see in others. It is such with the Women’s Decade. We must become the change agents. We must define the agenda that will result is an improvement in our conditions and we must then collectively drive this agenda.
This is a challenge I am putting to all of you esteemed women in this audience tonight. Let us become and drive the change we want to see in our communities and our countries.
Distinguished guests
We must not forget that our numbers are our biggest opportunity. We make up at least 50% of the world’s population and in our respective countries. We must begin to use this power to bring the changes that we want to see. We must remember that no government can be elected without our support so we must begin to also use our power and numbers through the ballot box. We must begin to elect governments that understand our needs and will implement policies that will enhance and accelerate our emancipation.
As parliamentarians we can pass legislation that empowers women, politically, economically, socially, financially and in other ways. We must begin to use this power.
I would like to conclude tonight by quoting the former President of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick who said: “Gender equality is at the heart of development. It’s the right development objective, and it’s smart economic policy.”
Research shows that since 1980, women are living longer than men in all parts of the world. And, in low-income countries, women now live 20 years longer on average than they did in 1960. It is therefore in the broader interest of society that women are capacitated to live independent lives.
Let us as parliamentarians, activists and mostly as women, return to our countries committed to encourage our governments to be unwavering in our struggle for gender equality.
I thank you.
