SADC Parliamentary Forum
WINDHOEK-NAMIBIA, Sunday 02 May 2021 - The Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF) standing committees are, this week, scheduled to hold virtual meetings on the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), interpreting international trade agreements and enhancing accountability on regional commitments.
Tomorrow, the Standing Committee on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment (TIFI) chaired by Hon. Anele Ndebele, from Zimbabwe, is scheduled to discuss ways in which they can make the AfCFTA work. TIFI members, joined by members of National Parliamentary committees dealing with trade, will discuss what the implementations of the AfCFTA mean for SADC Member States and SADC. The meeting is scheduled to start at 09:00.
On Tuesday, the TIFI Committee will meet again to enhance Members' knowledge on Reading and Interpreting International Trade Agreements. The Committee will again be joined by their counterparts from National Parliamentary Committee that deal with trade issues. The meeting starts at 09:00.
On Thursday and Friday, the Standing Committee on Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (FARN) and the Regional Parliamentary Model Law Oversight Committee (RPMLOC) both chaired by Hon. Leon Tumba, from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), are scheduled to host a webinar on the status of SADC Protocols related to natural resources and climate governance and trends against global commitments and the role of Parliaments (periodic tracking of SADC Protocols). The two-day webinar, starting at 09:00, will discuss ways in which members can enhance regional accountability on regional commitments.
MEDIA ACCESS : Meetings of the SADC-PF are open to the media and journalists who are interested in covering them must send a request for login details to the SADC-PF Media Office on this email:
The meetings will also be broadcast on DSTV Channel 408 and live streamed on the SADC-PF platforms on the links below:
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YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCa0QZWjuXVxer_vm637pBmQ
ISSUED BY THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY PARLIAMENTARY FORUM
Enquiries: Modise Kabeli +27 81 715 9969
WINDHOEK-NAMIBIA, Sunday 11 April 2021 - The Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum's (SADC-PF) Standing Committee on Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment (TIFI) has called on SADC countries to harmonise systems to reduce, amongst others, cross border trade costs and time spent at borders.
The TIFI Committee, chaired by Hon. Anele Ndebele, from Zimbabwe, met virtually today under the theme: " Enhancing Regional Economic Integration Through Infrastructure Development: A Case Of One Stop Border Post" to discuss ways in which regional economic integration, through infrastructure development - with special focus on one-stop border posts, can be enhanced.
WINDHOEK-NAMIBIA, Sunday 11 April 2021 - The Regional Parliamentary Model Laws Oversight Committee (RPMLOC) during its meeting on Friday, raised concern over the slow and in some instances non-implementation of the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF) Model Laws on Child Marriage, HIV/AIDS and Elections.
About six SADC-PF Standing Committees are holding virtual statutory meetings from the 9th until the 16th of April 2021 in preparation for the 49th Plenary Assembly Session to be hosted by the Parliament of Botswana in June, where each Committee will table its report.
WINDHOEK-NAMIBIA, Thursday 08 April 2021 – Standing Committees of the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF) are scheduled to hold virtual statutory meetings from the 9th until the 16th of April 2021. The Standing Committee meetings are being held ahead of the 49th Plenary Assembly Session to be hosted by the Parliament of Botswana in June, where each Committee will table its report.
Matters scheduled for discussion during this weeklong programme includes orientation of new Members, deliberation on thematic issues of regional concern, consultation and validation of the framework for developing regional reference documents on the role of Parliaments in curbing corruption, strengthening accountability, and the protection and promotion of human rights in Southern Africa.
COVID-19 undoing gains in women’s movement: RWPC
01 Dec 2020Whereas the year 2020 marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action and is thus cause for all women to celebrate progress towards gender equality, COVID-19 has become a fly in the ointment.
This is the view expressed by the Chairperson of the Regional Women’s Parliamentary Caucus of the SADC Parliamentary Forum, Honourable Anne-Marie Bilambangu. She said this in her maiden speech at the start of the 47th Plenary Assembly Session which took place virtually.
According to UN Women, the Beijing Platform for Action imagines a world where each woman and girl can exercise her freedoms and choices, and realize all her rights, such as to live free from violence, to go to school, to participate in decisions, and to earn equal pay for equal work.
Honourable Bilambangu said: “The COVID-19 Pandemic has spoiled the party by causing destruction and even reversing the hard-fought gains we had made toward women’s rights over the past two decades and a half.”
She said the global pandemic has not only exposed how society is reliant on women “both on the frontline and at home”, but had also exposed “the structural inequalities across all spheres from health, economy, politics, sexuality to social protection”.
Noting that women make up most of those in the informal sector, earn and sell less, hold jobs that are less secure, she said they are more likely to lose income, they were especially vulnerable to the negative effects of COVID-19 which “has only served to aggravate their situation”.
Turning to the impact of COVID-19 on the education sector she cited UNESCO estimates that out of a total population of students enrolled in education globally, over 89% were out of school because of COVID-19 closures.
She said: “This represents 1.54 billion children and youth enrolled in schools or universities, including nearly 743 million girls. Over 111 million of these girls are living in the world’s least developed countries, where getting an education is already a struggle.” Honourable Bilambangu said COVID-19 related social distancing and restriction of movements had led to an increased dependency on digital technologies but her lobby body was “dismayed”
that most women and girls in SADC had limited access to these technologies due to insufficient ICT infrastructure, especially in the rural areas.
She expressed concern, also, over a spike of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) cases against women and girls under COVID-19.
“Factors now perpetuating GBV include movement restrictions which result in reduced access to health and other services; diminishing living conditions; economic stress and disempowerment; unequal access to assets; goods and services for livelihood and security; unequal education and skills and lack of decent work and in fact democratic dividends and of course, the risks caused by internet and cyber-space,” she said.
She commended the SADC Parliamentary Forum(PF) for working towards the development of the SADC Model Law on GBV which, she hoped, “would go a long way in addressing the legislative and policy gaps that exist within our Member States”.
She enjoined the Plenary Assembly Session to support efforts to correct long-standing inequalities that women face and build resilient communities that are sensitive to the difficulties women and girls face.
With schools gradually being opened, she called on parliaments to build governments’ capacity to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19.
“We should also prioritise gender and age sensitive interventions that are responsive and reflective of the unique realities of girls, children with disabilities and other marginalised children in our schools.” She stressed the need to make sure that responses to the public health crisis due to COVID-19 ensure that everyone enjoy Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) and have access to services, education and information guaranteeing equal rights or are in line with the various regional and international instruments.
“In this regard, I wish to commend the SADC PF and National Parliaments for the sterling work they are doing to advocate for comprehensive SRHR services for all without discrimination and in prioritising the health and rights of women, girls and other vulnerable groups through the SRHR Programme.”
She expressed optimism that MPs would ensure that the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development suffers no setbacks, particularly in the Member States holding general elections this year that include the United Republic of Tanzania. “We need to continue lobbying for gender equality in Parliaments and other decision-making institutions.”
Honourable Bilambangu emphasised the need to ensure that responses to COVID-19 are gender-sensitive. “We need to be sensitive to the challenges that women and girls are facing daily due to COVID-19, and work toward mitigating these problems. We should then make sure that women have equal representation in all COVID-19 response planning and decision-making.”
Date
17 Nov. 2020
Objective
To enhance capacity of parliamentary staff in tracking and engagement and SRHR Stakeholder mapping; develop policy briefs, fact sheets and evidence dissemination; and communicating communication in SRHR including content development for media articles, reports, speeches etc. for social media, photography and videography messaging and public speaking.
Participants
2 Staff per Member Parliament
Venue
Virtual Meeting
Date
18 Nov 2020
Objective
To consider the budget for 2021/ 2022
Participants
Members of the Finance Sub-Committee
Venue
Virtual Meeting
Date
19-20 Nov 2020
Objective
To capacitate MPs and staff on International Trade Agreements and specifically AfCFTA
Participants
Staff and MPs
Venue
Virtual Meeting
Date
26-27 November 2020
Objective
To capacitate MPs and staff on International Trade Agreements and specifically AfCFTA
Participants
Staff and MPs
Venue
Virtual Meeting