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INVITATION TO SADC CITIZENS TO PARTICIPATE IN PUBLIC HEARINGS ON MATTERS OF REGIONAL INTEREST AND CONCERN

The SADC Parliamentary Forum Standing Committees will hold virtual public hearings on various issues of regional interest and concern from 25th to 28th November 2022 under the theme “CONSOLIDATING DEMOCRACY BY BRINGING PARLIAMENT TO THE PEOPLE.”

 

Whilst public hearings constitute a tool used by Parliaments at national level to promote public interaction on Bills or issues which may potentially constitute a legislative instrument, the Forum acting through its organs, wishes to interface directly with SADC citizens so that they can contribute directly to decision-making processes on thematic committees. In line with the objective of the Forum to promote participatory democracy through its Committee deliberations, the Forum invites members of the public or their representative organisations to appear on the floor of the SADC-PF Committees virtually to give an oral account of their concerns and grievances within the remit of the legislative, budgetary, oversight or representative functions of parliaments. Members of the public may also submit their comprehensive statements in writing to the Forum after they have given their oral account in abridged version. 

SADC citizens and civil society organisations are therefore, invited to participate in public hearings in view of making their oral statements to the different Standing Committees based on the thematic issues of focus as shown in the table below. Based on their requests, citizens will be allocated time to make formal presentations to the relevant Standing Committee. 

Requests for oral statements should be made to the following email address: [AT] </sma" data-ep-bc4c9="ll>sadcpf<sm">, in any of the three official languages, namely, English, French and Portuguese and should clearly indicate the subject matter and the relevant Standing Committee to which the submission is directed. Requests for oral statements will be considered in accordance with the subject matter on a first-come basis, and in case of similar subject matter, written statements will still be allowed. Please note that oral statements will be limited to 15 minutes.

Statements should focus on sharing experiences and making recommendations on concrete actions that Parliamentarians may take to influence legislative, oversight and budget and policy changes in view of improving the standard of living and quality of lives for SADC citizens.

DATE

TIME

COMMITTEE/S

PROPOSED THEMATIC ISSUES OF FOCUS

Friday 25th November 2022

11:00–16:30

Gender Equality, Women Advancement and Youth Development (GEWAYD) Committee

1. What are the areas where women struggle to find employment as compared to men, and why?

2. Are the salaries of men and women for equal jobs the same, and if not, why?

3. What are the main reasons for school drop-out of young girls?

4. Are practices such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)still common, and how do these affect the lives of women?

11:00–16:30

Human and Social Development and Special Programmes (HSDSP) Committee

1. Do women have sufficient access to sexual and reproductive health services, such as access to contraception or breast/cervical cancer screening?

2. Can women afford the cost of sanitary wear given the recent inflationary trends?

3. Are essential medicines, ARVs and prophylaxis for HIV/AIDS affordable? Are they widely available?

4. How much do out-of-pocket expenses compare to the income of citizens with regards to what they spend on health care?

11:00–16:30

Democratisation, Governance and Human Rights (DGHR) Committee

1. Are socio-economic human rights sufficiently protected (in particular the right to education and the right to housing)?

2. Do citizens have a say in the organisation of election processes to ensure fairness?

3. Is there freedom to access information about government affairs for accountability purposes?

4. Are access to citizen services hampered by the need to bribe public officials? How strong is the anti-corruption framework?

Saturday 26th November 2022

11:00–16:30

Food, Agriculture, and Natural Resources (FANR) Committee

1. How can citizens be assisted to promote subsistence and bio-farming which is free from use of toxic fertilizers and pesticides?

2. How do countries become self-sufficient in agricultural products, that would also reduce import costs for the consumer?

3. What measures should be instilled to decrease the price of groceries for the end consumer?

4. Should citizens be encouraged to produce their own clean energy (wind or solar etc) as Independent power producers?

11:00–16:30

Trade, Industry, Finance, and Investment (TIFI) Committee

1. Are citizens given sufficient incentives to go into entrepreneurship and promote Small and Medium Enterprises?

2. Are investment vehicles provided by banks and deposit-taking institutions appealing to consumers? Are interest rates sufficient to cater for rising inflation?

3. Is there sufficient intra-trade in Africa? Do citizens have sufficient opportunities to craft products and export to neighbouring countries?

4. Is there sufficient generation of intellectual property in the SADC region? Are intellectual property rights sufficiently protected? How easy is it to file a patent for an African invention?

Sunday 27th November 2022

11:00–16:30

Regional Parliamentary Model Laws Oversight (RPMLOC) Committee

1. How has the SADC Model Law on Child Marriage assisted to mitigate child marriage?

2. How do citizens propose that the recently adopted SADC Model Law on Gender Based Violence be disseminated to them?

3. Which structures need to be put in place at domestic level to promote a speedy incorporation of Model Laws?

Monday 28th November 2022

11:00–16:30

Regional Women Parliamentary Caucus

1. How can citizens promote women participation in decision-making processes in the public sector at all levels?

2. Which measures may be put in place to increase women representation in Parliament to attain the 50-50 gender parity?

3. Should budgets passed in Parliament consider and mainstream women issues?

4. Which measures should be put in place to increase the representation of women in the boards of private corporations?

 

 

INVITATION TO SADC CITIZENS TO PARTICIPATE IN PUBLIC HEARINGS ON MATTERS OF REGIONAL INTEREST AND CONCERN

WINDHOEK-NAMIBIA, Monday 18 October 2021 – The Regional Women’s Parliamentary Caucus will tomorrow, Tuesday 19 October 2021, hold a virtual meeting on empowering women focusing on the elimination of gender inequality and discrimination in the workplace, amongst others.

The theme of the meeting is “Empowering Women in a Sustainable, Industry-Focused Workforce in SADC: A Focus on Social Protection.” Members of the Committee will receive presentations from the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Social Protection Specialist, Kroum Markov, the ILO’s Angola- based Social Protection Technical Officer, Denise Monteiro, and the United Nations Development’s Angola-based Economist, Lorenzo Mancini.

Details of the meeting are as follows:

Date: Tuesday, 19th October 2021

Time: 10:00 to 16:00 Harare/Pretoria Time.

ISSUED BY THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY PARLIAMENTARY FORUM

MEDIA ACCESS: Meetings of the SADC-PF are open to the media and journalists who are interested in covering them must register on the following link to be added to a SADC-PF Accredited Media WhatsApp group where information on events of the Forum are regularly shared with the media:

https://chat.whatsapp.com/Kj519Su3Py04YY8PW1t1Xy

Register to join the meeting here:

https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0pd-6grjotE9SB6CoGlDIJLsKvoMSpp3G9

The meeting will be broadcast live on DSTV Channel 408 and also streamed live on the SADC-PF social media platforms on the links below:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sadcpf

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/sadcpf

YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCa0QZWjuXVxer_vm637pBmQ

ISSUED BY THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY PARLIAMENTARY FORUM

Enquiries: Modise Kabeli +27 81 715 9969 or

À propos de nous

Le Forum parlementaire de la Communauté de développement de l'Afrique australe (SADC PF) a été créé en 1997 conformément à l'article 9 (2) du Traité de la SADC en tant qu'institution autonome de la SADC. Il s'agit d'un organe interparlementaire régional composé de treize (14) parlements représentant plus de 3500 parlementaires dans la région de la SADC.

Nous contacter

Adresse: ERF 578, Love rue près de Robert Mugabe Avenue Windhoek, Namibie

Tél: (+264 61) 287 00 00

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