Programme Director and CEO of Lereko Investments, Dr Lulu Gwagwa
Chargé d’Affaires ai, Australian High Commission, Mr Chris Munn
South Sudan Deputy Minister of Petroleum and Mining, Hon Elizabeth James Bol
Kenya Member of Parliament, Hon Zainab Kalekye Chidzuga
Madagascar Commune of Ampasy-Nahampoana Mayor, Ms Rondromalala Andriamahasoro
Chairperson of Women in Mining South Africa, Ms Noleen Pauls
Deputy Regional Director, UN Women East and Southern Africa Regional Office, Ms Simone Ellis Oluoch Olunya
Moletsane Secondary School students Miss Hlengiwe Moletsane and Miss Ofentse Mahasha
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It is important that at the onset I pass special appreciation on behalf of the South African government and many other African countries represented here tonight to the Australian Government for their continued efforts in supporting women’s empowerment on the African continent through various means especially through the mining and gender tours. In my previous posting I had the privilege of co-hosting the South African Leg of the first Australian-supported women in mining study tour in October 2012 attended by 30 women from 12 African countries.
I must say the tours have been an eye opener for participating countries. They have contributed to a better understanding of how sustainable outcomes can be achieved for women through mining activities, the education and training of women working in the minerals and related sectors among other things.
2015 is a milestone year in the context of developmental issues not only at the global level, but for South Africa as well. Significantly, while the world marks the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action with a worldwide review of progress made in the implementation of this blueprint instrument for women’s empowerment and gender equality, South Africa is just emerging from its own 20 year review of democracy and freedom in 2014. South Africa, with the rest of the world, adopted the Platform for Action in 1995, following the country’s participation in the 4th UN World Conference for Women in Beijing, China.
Also significant is that 2015 marks the 60th Anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom Charter of 1955 in South Africa which called for an equitable share of the country’s wealth among its people, for democracy and human rights, amongst others. These milestones coincide with the country’s celebration in 2014 of the 60th anniversary of the Women’s Charter which articulates the voice of women in the country for their rights, dignity and socio-economic development. 2016 marks the 60th anniversary of the Women’s March of 1956 against the pass laws and discrimination enforced by the then Apartheid regime in power.
Other milestones that are reaching a crescendo in 2015 include that of the Millennium Development Goals at the global level and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol for Gender and Development with its targets of 2015 at the regional level. These all intersect in an interesting manner such that the global 20 year review of the Beijing Platform for Action takes on immense importance and significance in evaluating progress and persisting challenges for women’s empowerment, development and advancement.
It is within this context that the International Women’s Day global theme of “Equality for women is progress for all” adopted by the United Nations, the regional theme of the “Year of Women Empowerment and Development towards Africa’s Agenda 2063” by the African Union and South Africa’s national theme of “Women’s Rights are Human Rights: Together Moving a Non-Violent South Africa Forward” resonates with each other as they put an emphasis on how gender equality, empowerment of women, women’s enjoyment of human rights and the eradication of poverty are essential to economic and social development.
On Sunday, 8 March South Africa will join the rest of the world in celebrating International Women’s Day led by my department, the Department of Women. We will be at Langa High School in Cape Town. The day will be used to launch the National and Provincial dialogues programme which will commence from this month until June 2015. The dialogues will give South Africans, especially women an opportunity to contribute to the strategies that will impact positively to the country’s radical economic transformation and efforts on the pursuit of women’s emancipation and gender equality. This will lead to a report on the status of women to be launched by the President on August 9.
Women not only have the potential to change their own economic status, as well as that of the communities and countries in which they live but they continue to play a vital role as agents of development. Yet more often than not, women’s economic contributions go unrecognised, their work undervalued and their promise unnourished. Economic development efforts to combat poverty can only succeed if women are part of the solution. When women are economically empowered, they raise healthier, better educated families. Their countries are more economically prosperous because of it, too.
The context within which we need to locate women’s centrality in sustainable development and economic growth on the African continent must take place against the backdrop of global and regional normative frameworks and milestones put in place to accelerate the implementation of the commitments to gender equality, equity and empowerment of women.
At the global level, there are the UN Security Council Resolutions 1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889 which calls for governments to address the issues of gender, peace and security. At the continental level, the AU has a gender policy designed to support the strengthening of national gender policies, and to ensure a harmonised delivery framework to accelerate implementation of gender equality commitments.
The African Union Summit in 2009 declared that the decade commencing in 2010 will be the African Decade for Women with the objective that during this period the continent will work towards eradicating of all vestiges of oppression of women, and promote women’s empowerment and development. It was envisaged that women would be placed at the centre of development and economic growth on the continent. Progress in this regard has been slow.
The AU Summit in January 2015 held under the theme “Women’s empowerment and development” towards Africa’s Agenda 2063, and the mid-term review of the African Women’s Decade (2010-2020), collectively called for the full and active participation of women in all continental and regional endeavours. It also aligned with the recommendations of the Ninth African Regional Conference on Women of November 2014, which are contained in the “Addis Ababa Declaration on Accelerating the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action: Towards a Transformational Change for Women and Girls in Africa”.
The adoption of a declaration by African Ministers responsible for Gender and Women’s Affairs for their respective governments to achieve gender equality by 2020 as spelled out in the Agenda 2063 is one that requires all of us to spare no effort to galvanise resources and rid the continent of the legacy of gender imbalances that has robbed Africa from realising its true potential.
Despite the global economic and financial crises, Africa continues to register impressive economic growth over the last decade, which is creating a conducive environment characterised by wealth creation, greater use of new technologies to promote innovation, and a growing population along with the emergence of middle classes. These are critical factors which are necessary to define a new developmental model for the continent which is an African-driven and people-centred transformative model.
This new model provides opportunity for greater targeted measures to empower women economically, socially and politically. In the same vein, the Common African Position on the Post 2015 Development Agenda calls for the elimination of all barriers to inclusive development and structural transformation as the pathway to the attainment of equitable, gender responsive and sustainable development articulated in the recently proposed Sustainable Development Goals.
The need to mainstream sustainable development at all levels; integrating economic, social and environmental aspects has become even more urgent today. Eradicating poverty, promoting sustainable patterns of consumption and production and protection and management of the natural resource base of economic and social development are essential requirements for sustainable development on the African Continent.
We must promote sustained inclusive and equitable economic growth, creating greater opportunities for all, reducing inequalities, raising basic standards of living, fostering equitable social development and inclusion that promote economic, social and human development. People must be at the centre of sustainable development on the continent but we must ensure that women also take up their central positions in this process.
In conclusion, I think it is prudent for all of us to heed the timeous warning by President Nelson Mandela in 1996 when giving a women’s day address to the nation which remains as relevant today not only to South Africa but to the continent as a whole.
Madiba cautioned that “As long as women are bound by poverty and as long as they are looked down upon, human rights will lack substance. As long as outmoded ways of thinking prevent women from making meaningful contribution to society, progress will be slow.
As long as the [continent] refuses to acknowledge the equal role [of women], it is doomed to failure.” I am convinced though that this is a warning none of us would want to ignore for we all want to see a developed and prosperous Africa.
I thank you.
