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Items filtered by date: Thursday, 17 June 2021

“POST COVID IN THE SADC REGION: MEETING WOMEN’S NEEDS IN A CONTEXT OF MULTIPLIED CHALLENGES”

 

17th June 2021

 

Time

Activity

11:00 - 11:15

Registration of participants

11:15 - 11:30

Welcome Address by RWPC Chairperson Mrs. Anne Marie Mbilambangu

11:30 - 11: 45

Approval of Agenda

 

11:45 - 13:00

 

Session 1: Presentation of Country GBV Data since March 2020

13:00 - 14:30

Lunch Break

 

 

14:30 - 16:30

Session 2: Presentations and Discussion by Honorable Members

 

1. The safety of COVID-19 vaccinations and related ethical considerations;

 

2. Findings from a study conducted by UN Women and UNFPA on Gender consideration in the context of GBV

 

16:30 - 17:00

Final considerations and remarks by SADC-PF Secretary General Ms. Boemo Sekgoma

 

 Programme - Regional Women’s Parliamentary Caucus Meeting Theme: “Post Covid in the SADC Region: Meeting Women’s Needs in a Context of Multiplied Challenges”

WINDHOEK-NAMIBIA, Thursday 17 June 2021 - The Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum has learnt with a deep sense of shock and sadness about the passing on of Zambia's founding father and former President, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda.

Dr. Kaunda, who had been hospitalised recently due to ill health, was the first President of liberated Zambia and took the helm in 1964 after his country gained independence from Britain. He was Zambia's President for 27 years - from 1964 until 1991.

"We would like to thank him for his contribution in ensuring that the people of the region enjoy the freedoms that they have, he is one of the foremost people who paved the way for others to gain independence from the colonial regimes," said SADC PF Secretary General, Ms. Boemo Sekgoma.

Published in Press Release

NOTICE OF MEETING

You are invited to a Zoom meeting of the SADC PF Regional Women Parliamentary Caucus (RWPC) under the THEME:  “POST COVID IN THE SADC REGION: MEETING WOMEN’S NEEDS IN A CONTEXT OF MULTIPLIED CHALLENGES”

When: Thursday, 17 June  2021 from 11:00 AM to 17:00 Johannesburg Time.

Please register in advance for the meeting on this link:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIvcemopzsqEtDN5j91xZL-QTQMRsiQPkto

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Contact Paulina for inquiries: email: org"> [A">.

Thank you.

INTRODUCTION

  • The Regional Women’s Parliamentary Caucus (RWPC) of the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum organizes a Zoom Meeting to discuss the ways that Parliamentarians can work with their local governments to help mitigate the challenges faced by women before, during and post COVID-19.
  • If the situation was dire for women’s empowerment and development before the COVID-19 Pandemic, the crisis has only come to bring those challenges to the surface and the Post-Covid era comes to present a time for urgent change, in order to prevent a further exasperation of existing inequalities between women and men, girls and boys.

CONTEXTUALIZATION

  • COVID-19 may be considered the worst economic social and health crisis of the century, so far, and at this point, governments are scrambling to find solutions and implement recovery plans that guarantee economic growth for all. Nevertheless, the situation is a bit grimmer for women in the region.
  • Women are more likely than men to have the lowest paid and least protected jobs that are the first to fall away in economic crises. Women account for a significant influx of informal and cross border trading, agriculture and entrepreneurship. Approximately 74% of women in Africa are engaged in the informal sector, working as nannies, street vendors or domestic workers, all of which are jobs where access to social security, health insurance, or entitlement to sick leave are limited or simply not provided. Women also comprise most of the smallholder farming sector that has been paralyzed due to the travel restrictions imposed by many states to mitigate the spread of the disease. Migrant workers, in their majority women, have their rights, movements and remittances equally restricted due to pandemic control measures. The vulnerability persists as schools remain closed, and the likeliness of the increase of girls dropping out and early marriages due to poverty is practically inevitable.
  • According to a UNWomen and UNFPA report, “the COVID-19 Pandemic has had far reaching and diverse effects on women and girls and will set back global efforts to achieve most gender related SDG targets, especially those related to SDG3 (Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages) and SDG 5 (Achieving gender equality and empowering all). The alarm has been sounded.
  • According to this same study, more than 60% of Women and Men in Malawi, Mozambique and South Africa experienced a complete loss or decline in personal incomes, deepening already high poverty rates and entrenching the gender disparity of women being more likely than men to live in extreme poverty.
  • As said by Dr. Julitta Onabanjo, Regional Director of UNFPA in East and Southern Africa, “The pandemic has a strong gender dimension, with women at the front line as health and care responders, at the same time experiencing a kick-on impact on several fronts, including their sexual and reproductive health. We have seen communities that have resorted to negative coping mechanisms such as child, early and forced marriages. We have also see escalating levels of domestic violence and abuse. The consequences being a denial of women and young girls’ health, rights and socio-economic prospects. By denying their prospects and potential, you deny society the opportunity to prosper.
  • All the SADC Member states are parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Radical Discrimination (CERD), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and The African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR). Only DRC and Zimbabwe have not ratified the Convention Against Torture (CAT). Botswana, Comoros, DRC and Mozambique are not parties to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
  • At the continental level, in June of 2020 the AU Commission on Women, Gender and Development Directorate set in motion the “Maputo Protocol Scorecard and Index Framework” as a monitoring and evaluation tool that will be used not only as a safety measure against the violation of women’s rights during the emergency crises, and as a recovery tool. It is expected that this tool will enhance accountability for how Member States implement the obligations that they commit to. Only 12 countries in the SADC region are party to the Maputo Protocol, and all except for Mauritius have ratified the SADC Treaty and the Protocol on Gender.
  • In the specific case of GBV, SADC Member States have agreed to the commitment to eliminate GBV by 2030 and the SADC-PF commissioned the development of the Model Law on Gender-Based Violence that could be used by its member states to prevent, address and combat all forms of GBV. By guiding Member States in the ratification, domestication and implementation of the relevant international and regional principles, guidelines and obligations that inform gender-based violence prevention and response interventions at Member State level, the law has become of primordial necessity in this post-COVID19 era.
  • A primary aspect of the recovery is the COVID-19 vaccine which is recognized as the only viable means of combatting the disease. It is therefore, heartening to note that according to the WHO, as of the beginning of the month of June, 51 of the 53 African countries had received doses of the vaccine, although only 48 had begun administering them.
  • Evidence available shows that vaccine roll out has been slow in most countries and Africa still does not have enough vaccines. It is imperative for the SADC region to work towards a total removal of all obstacles hampering the ability to access vaccines. According to research, it should stand that until all of us have access to vaccines, no one, including those that are getting the vaccine, are safe. It is only through an equitable approach that we can ensure eradication of the virus on the African continent, and globally.
  • We continue to face a lack of accountability, absence of or limited access to verifiable data, limited capacity for data and information processing, and the lack a platform for the identification of best practices that can be adapted into a mechanism for the successful resurfacing of African economies.
  • Through their constitutional mandates in their respective national Parliaments, and through forums such as this one Women Parliamentarians have and get the capacity to advocate for and promote the effectiveness of the measures adopted by governments in order to guarantee that the Rights, Protection and Empowerment of women and girls are taken into account at every level of implementation. As part of the effort to elaborate the GBV Model Law, this intersected characteristic of discrimination and disempowerment of women and girls brought about by the pandemic equally need to be carefully considered.
  • The SADC Gender Policy recognizes that women and girls face challenges in accessing legal rights, education, health and economic resources. The increase in GBV incidence exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic makes it an urgency for Member States to carefully assess where they stand, and where they need to in order for the living conditions, for women and girls to radically change in an eventual Post-COVID era and hence achieve development targets recommended in the International and Regional Conventions ratified by the Member States of SADC.
  • In an Assessment of Compliance of Existing Southern African Development Community (SADC) Member States’ Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Laws to International Agreements and SADC Regulations, it is recommended that all Member States should be encouraged to ratify the international and regional treaties which provide benchmark for GBV legislation. It also states that the Model Law will be central in ensuring that post ratification, domestication is comprehensive and in line with international and regional standards, while prioritizing the following:
  • Comprehensive definitions of crimes related to GBV;
  • Uniformity in victim support services;
  • Provision of free legal aid for survivors;
  • Recognition of multiple and intersecting vulnerabilities;
  • Revision of sentencing guidelines; and
  • Harmonization in legal age of majority.

OBJECTIVES

  • The specific objectives of the Zoom meeting are:
  • To analyze the many ways in which GBV has been exacerbated in the context of the COVID-19 Pandemic;
  • To explore the ways in which women’s and girls’ rights have been violated and could be promoted positively for the period post COVID-19;
  • To engage with the RWPC in promoting women’s and girls’ right to freedom from discrimination and access to civil liberties and equal labor rights in the face of COVID-19;
  • To promote continuous peer learning among Parliamentarians (sharing information, experiences and challenges, relating to and amidst the present context of COVID-19.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES

  • The expected outcomes of the RWPC Meeting are:
  • To have areas and means of action for mitigation of violation of women’s and girls’ labor rights clearly defined
  • To take further steps towards the elaboration and approval of the GBV Model Law

METHODOLOGY

  • Each country will present the impact of GBV within the context of COVID-19 and on progress on COVID-19 vaccination, including progress made in enabling women to access COVID Vaccines through a PowerPoint presentation or a short intervention of no more than 7 minutes
  • Presentations on:
  • The safety of COVID-19 vaccinations and related ethical considerations;
  • Findings from a study conducted by UN Women and UNFPA on Gender consideration in the context of GBV.

VENUE AND DATE

  • The meeting will take place via the platform Zoom on June 17thh, 2020

TARGET PARTICIPANTS

  • The Zoom meeting targets the MPs from RWPC, CSOs and partners of development involved in the promotion of gender equality and labor rights of women and girls, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 situation.

Concept - RWPC Meeting 17 June 2021

About Us

The Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF) was established in 1997 in accordance with Article 9 (2) of the SADC Treaty as an autonomous institution of SADC It is a regional inter-parliamentary body composed of Thirteen (14) parliaments representing over 3500 parliamentarians in the SADC region. Read More

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