Make Every Woman Count
4.2.2. Policy and Institutional Reforms Increasingly, countries in this region have adopted special or affirmative action measures on women’s inclusion in decision-making in the legislature. By 2020, four SADC countries had exceeded the threshold of 40% women in Parliament: South Africa (46.6%), Namibia (43.3%), Mozambique (42%) and Zimbabwe in its upper house (43.8%).916 Mozambique’s representation rose from 39% in 2010 to 42% in 2019 while Angola’s fell from 39% in 2010 to 30% in 2019.917 Eswatini has had the lowest percentage of female members of parliament in the region, although the percentage rose from 6.1% in 2015 to 9.6% in 2020.918 As of 2019, seven countries had female speakers (Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe).919 South Africa has had a long-standing voluntary gender quota within the ruling party: the African National Congress (ANC) party has had a gender quota of 50% women for national elections since 2009.920 Women’s representation has been increasing steadily, going from 43.5% in 2011 to 46.6% in 2020.921 Furthermore, by 2018, all speakers in the national and provincial legislatures were women.922 Following the 2019 elections, 50/50 representation of women in South Africa’s Cabinet was reached, marking a first in Southern Africa.923 Many countries have instituted gender focal points in ministries
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in order to mainstream gender objectives and priorities, but their
Figure 13 Southern Africa: Percentage of Women MPs (% of members of parliament, 2020)
effectiveness is sometimes impaired. In Malawi, the junior nature of the officers excludes them from influencing decision-making and policy changes at higher levels.925 In Mozambique, gender units are often, with a few exceptions, placed within human resources
South Africa 46.75%
Namibia 43.27%
Mozambique 42.40%
Zimbabwe 31.85%
Angola 30.00%
Lesotho 23.33%
Malawi 22.92%
Zambia 16.77%
Botswana 10.77%
divisions, thereby promoting gender as part of the institution internally but not in external activities.926 Further, the staff of gender focal points often change, which means the skills built in personnel are lost. Only South Africa has achieved 50% gender parity in the Cabinet to date.927 In 2015, South Africa had the highest share of females in the Cabinet, at 40.5%, followed by Zambia at 25.9%, with Botswana at 16.7% and Malawi and Zimbabwe at 15% at the lower ends.928 In 2019, South Africa was still leading, with 50% women ministers. Other countries that met the SADC minimum threshold of 30% women in the Cabinet in 2019 included Namibia (38%), Angola
Eswatini 9.59%
(34.4%) and Zambia (30%), while at the lower end are Botswana (15.8%) and Lesotho (14.8%).
Source: Inter-Parliamentary Union.
4.3. Challenges and Gaps Aside from cultural impediments, educational and monetary barriers exist that hinder gender parity in politics in the region. A core cause of the under-representation of women is the “institutionalised patriarchy.”929 In order to mitigate the gender disparities resulting from funding, the Malawi Electoral Commission stipulated in 2014 that, while the fees for presidential candidates would stay the same for both women and men candidates, women would pay a lower sum in order to run as a parliamentary candidate and in local government elections.930 Women also paid 25% lower fees to register as parliamentary candidates in the 2019 elections.931 In Malawi, the Political Party’s Rules and Regulations of 2018 eliminate hand-outs during campaigns, which previously constituted an obstacle for women.932 Although gender quotas can be powerful tools for gender equality, they have not been universally successful. Eswatini’s gender quotas, for instance, have failed to be realised in practice. Eswatini passed the Election of Women Act in 2018, which requires the House of Assembly to elect four women if the constitutional quota of 30% representation is not met.933 Despite this, following
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