4.3. Challenges and Gaps 5. WEST AFRICA .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 144

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 ministries924 in order to mainstream gender objectives and priorities, but their 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 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 (34.4%) and Zambia (30%), while at the lower end are Botswana (15.8%) and Lesotho (14.8%). Figure 13 Southern Africa: Percentage of Women MPs (% of members of parliament, 2020)

South Africa 46.75% Namibia 43.27% Mozambique 42.40%

Zimbabwe 31.85% Angola 30.00% Lesotho 23.33%

Malawi 22.92%

Eswatini 9.59% Zambia 16.77% Botswana 10.77%

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

the 2018 elections, Eswatini still fell short of the quota, as the representation of women in Parliament even after the king appointed additional women was 7.25%.934 In the 2019 elections, women candidates comprised only 15.18% of all candidates and only two women were elected (representing 3.4% of available seats).935

Gender quotas in and of themselves are insufficient to guarantee greater representation of women in parliaments, which requires a solid democratic foundation and reversals of stereotypical socio-cultural restrictions on women’s participation in public life.936 The election of more women does not instantly put women and men on an equal footing in politics, and women may have limited leadership positions or clout in Parliament. For instance, the Malawian Parliamentary Women Caucus had to lobby the National Assembly in 2017 in order to have more women included in key constitutional committees.937 In Mozambique, the first female president of the assembly was succeeded by another woman, which signals that a female leader is not seen as an outlier anymore.

Women in the judiciary are still largely in a minority, especially at the higher levels. By 2015, the only countries to have had a female chief justice were Lesotho, Malawi and Zambia.938 Regarding women judges at the higher levels of the judiciary (supreme court/court of appeal/high court), by 2015 five countries had over 30% female representation (Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe), with Zambia having 49% and Zimbabwe 48%.939 Short-term improvements were noted for instance in Eswatini, where female judges comprised 23% of all judges in 2018,940 up from 20% in 2015,941 although the figure fell back to 20% in 2020. Botswana has more female than male magistrates (56% in 2012 and 62% in 2017) and has increased the women’s share in higher courts from 6% in 2012 to 24% in 2017. 942 A total of 65% of judges in the highest courts of Lesotho were women in 2012; for Zambia the figure was 54%.943

In terms of women in decision-making in traditional or customary entities, cultural institutions that are formed on patriarchal foundations have not readily embraced the significant involvement of women as leaders. In Malawi, only 16 women (6%) were recognised as traditional leaders out of a total of 265 in 2011.944