SADC Gender Protocol 2015 Barometer


Book Description

In August 2008, Heads of State of the Southern African Development Community adopted the ground-breaking SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. This followed a concerted campaign by NGOs under the umbrella of the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance. The SADC Gender Protocol is the only sub-regional instrument that brings together existing global and continental commitments to gender equality and enhances these through time bound targets. Aligned to Millennium Development Goal Three, the original 28 targets of the Protocol targets expire in 2015. Now that 2015 is here, we need to step back, assess and reposition. In June 2014, SADC Gender Ministers agreed to review the targets of the Gender Protocol in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In May this year, ministers added that they want the Protocol to be accompanied by a Monitoring, Evaluation and Results Framework. The 2015 Barometer shows that implementation is now the biggest missing gap in the quest for gender equality. Now is the time to strengthen resolve, reconsider, reposition, and re-strategise for 2030. SADC GENDER PROTOCOL BAROMETER • 2015 2015 is here! In August 2008, Heads of State of the Southern African Development Community adopted the ground-breaking SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. This followed a concerted campaign by NGOs under the umbrella of the Southern Africa Gender Protocol Alliance. The SADC Gender Protocol is the only sub-regional instrument that brings together existing global and continental commitments to gender equality and enhances these through time bound targets. Aligned to Millennium Development Goal Three, the original 28 targets of the Protocol targets expire in 2015. Now that 2015 is here, we need to step back, assess and reposition. In June 2014, SADC Gender Ministers agreed to review the targets of the Gender Protocol in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In May this year, ministers added that they want the Protocol to be accompanied by a Monitoring, Evaluation and Results Framework. The 2015 Barometer shows that implementation is now the biggest missing gap in the quest for gender equality. Now is the time to strengthen resolve, reconsider, reposition, and re-strategise for 2030.




Democracy, Constitutionalism, and Politics in Africa


Book Description

This volume explores contemporary political developments in various parts of Africa in the age of democracy, constitutionalism, the securitization of development, and global terrorism. The contributions by leading observers of constitutionalism and African politics in the context of a global political and economic system provide a nuanced understanding of important themes in contemporary African politics: constitutionalism, democratic politics and governance, women’s rights, the African Union, securitization of development, civil society, and debates concerning global terrorism and the war on terror. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars, civil society organizations, and public policy makers interested in contemporary African politics.




SADC Gender Protocol 2018 Barometer


Book Description

The SADC Protocol on Gender and Development is the only sub-regional instrument in the world that brings together global and continental commitments to gender equality in one instrument used to enhance accountability. The Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance is a network of country and regional NGOs that campaigned for the Protocol, it’s updating, implementation and tracking. Originally aligned to the Millennium Development Goals that expired in 2015, SADC Gender Ministers updated the Protocol and aligned it to the Sustainable development Goals (SDGs), Beijing Plus Twenty and the Africa Agenda 2063 in 2016. In July 2017, the Ministers adopted a Monitoring, Evaluation and Results Framework (MERF) that is now the basis of reporting. 2018 marks the tenth anniversary of the SADC Gender Protocol and the Barometer. Moving with the times, the Alliance has expanded the two yardsticks in the Barometer: the SADC Gender and Development Index (SGDI) and the Citizen Score Card (CSC). The Barometer incorporates many MERF and SDG indicators, as well as its own unique measures of voice, choice and control. The Barometer also introduces the Gender Responsive Assessment of Constitutions and Laws conducted by Alliance experts and networks around the region. A wealth of data, insights and analysis awaits all readers of the Barometer, that will also be made available online and in multi-media formats. The “SADC we want” is one in which citizens engage; step it up for gender equality, and make sure we achieve Planet 50/50 by 2030!




Gender Parity and Multicultural Feminism


Book Description

Around the world, we see a 'participatory turn' in the pursuit of gender equality, exemplified by the adoption of gender quotas in national legislatures to promote women's role as decision-makers. We also see a 'pluralism turn', with increasing legal recognition given to the customary law or religious law of minority groups and indigenous peoples. To date, the former trend has primarily benefitted majority women, and the latter has primarily benefitted minority men. Neither has effectively ensured the participation of minority women. In response, multicultural feminists have proposed institutional innovations to strengthen the voice of minority women, both at the state level and in decisions about the interpretation and evolution of cultural and religious practices. This volume explores the connection between gender parity and multicultural feminism, both at the level of theory and in practice. The authors explore a range of cases from Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, in relation to state law, customary law, religious law, and indigenous law. While many obstacles remain, and many women continue to suffer from the paradox of multicultural vulnerability, these innovations in theory and practice offer new prospects for reconciling gender equality and pluralism.




Understanding Violence Against Women in Africa


Book Description

This textbook provides students across Social Sciences, Humanities, Politics, and International Studies with an in-depth understanding of the issues, policies, and strategies for addressing the symptoms and root causes of violence against women (VAW) in sub-Saharan Africa. This text uses the United Nations Security Council’s Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) on Women, Peace and Security in Eastern and Southern Africa as a framework to present the causes and impacts of VAW and to trace the journey of sub-Saharan African countries toward gender equality. It also provides an overview of the policy and legislative frameworks that underpin the progress, challenges, and achievements of addressing VAW based on four key pillars: prevention, protection, participation, and relief and recovery. Chapters provide a wealth of knowledge, as the book draws on academic literature; national, regional, and international legislations; and data collected from field research, and makes use of end-of-chapter discussion questions and quick study guides. Students will come away equipped with the tools, resources, and knowledge necessary to address and fix VAW in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.




Media Practices and Changing African Socialities


Book Description

Deriving from innovative new work by six researchers, this book questions what the new media's role is in contemporary Africa. The chapters are diverse - covering different areas of sociality in different countries - but they unite in their methodological and analytical foundation. The focus is on media-related practices, which require engagement with different perspectives and concerns while situating these in a wider analytical context. The contributions to this collection provide fresh ethnographic descriptions of how new media practices can affect socialities in significant but unpredictable ways.




Transnational Activities of Women-Focused Civil Society Actors in Southern Africa


Book Description

This book focuses on southern Africa by engaging with ‘norms’ from various perspectives and how they have proliferated within a neo-liberalising context since the 1990s. It particularly examines gender norms in relation to agency, influence and their impact. Despite growing transnational activities, regional studies analyses have so far maintained a primarily linear logic not incorporative of the increasing interface between state and non-state regionalism in a transnational context since the advent of liberalisation and democratisation. Increasing non-state activities, and their connection to state processes involved in norm creation, adaptation, diffusion and implementation around broad questions of security (including gender security), amount to regional thickening. The book’s analytical approach is informed by alternatives to mainstream approaches, emphasising processes rather than linearity inherent in regional international relations studies. The research reveals that transnational activities and regionalisation of gender and women-focused civil society actors are critical for advocacy and diverse representation within intergovernmental policymaking structures at the regional scale.




Peacebuilding in Africa


Book Description

Peacebuilding in Africa: The Post-Conflict State and Its Multidimensional Crises argues that building enduring peace in post-conflict states in Africa requires comprehensive, state-specific approaches that address the multidimensional crises that generated civil conflict and instabilities in these countries. Contributors examine states such as Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Sudan to demonstrate that peacebuilding projects in each of these states must address the cultural, economic, political, and social root causes of their respective underlying civil conflicts. In addition, contributors prove that peacebuilding projects must be shaped by the centrality of human security: the respect for ethno-cultural diversity, the advancement of human material well-being, the protection of political rights and civil liberties, and the redesigning of the military and security architecture to ensure the safety of all citizens from both internal and external threats.




Introduction to Gender Studies in Eastern and Southern Africa


Book Description

Africa has witnessed massive changes in the last fifty years – from independence through structural adjustment, rule by military juntas in several countries and to a period now where the focus is on how best to prioritize their needs based on resources, national goals and human potential. There is general agreement that human capital is important in economic growth and development. There is always the need to ensure that resources and human capital are used appropriately to advance development. Gender disparities, whether in treatment, access to resources, resource utilization and the law, may in themselves retard or slow down development. Resources and human potential in all societies include how best to ensure there is no gender disparity and to fully tap the resources inherent in women for personal, social and national development. Beginning with the women’s suffrage movement, there has been the push to encourage gender equality worldwide. The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 embodies the commitment of the international community to implement policies that will enhance the political, social, economic, educational empowerment of women. This book highlights the issues affecting women in Eastern and Southern Africa – what role does custom and patriarchy play in gender disparities in education, access to health, problems in the workplace and family relationships? How have women writers in the last twenty years presented the issues of patriarchy, women’s rights, globalism and women’s holistic development? What are recent developments that have helped improve the situation for some women? These are some of the issues that are covered in this book. The thesis of this book is that there have been policies and strategies developed that have worked to empower women. However, vestiges of sexism, gender disparities in several fields still remain and traditions/customs and patriarchy have aided in still keeping women down.div“/div>




Gendered Institutions and Women’s Political Representation in Africa


Book Description

During the course of the past three decades efforts of democratisation and institutional reforms have characterised the African continent, including demands for gender equality and women's political representation. As a result, some countries have introduced affirmative action measures, either in the aftermath of conflicts or as part of broader constitutional reforms, whereas others are falling behind this fast track to women's political representation. Utilising a range of case studies spanning both the success cases and the less successful cases from different regions, this work examines the uneven developments on the continent. By mapping, analysing and comparing women's political representation in different African contexts, this book sheds light on the formal and informal institutions and the interplay between these that are influencing women's political representation and can explain the development on women's political representation across the continent and present perspectives on an 'African feminist institutionalism'.