Sexual violence top of the list at SADC Women's and Women's Affairs regular meeting

Ministers for Gender and Women's Affairs in Southern African Development Community Member States met this week in Johannesburg to discuss progress on gender parity in all parts of the world. the SADC countries. the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development and Gender Policy of SADC.

Welcoming his colleagues in South Africa, their Minister of Women in the Office of the President, the Honorable Bathabile Dlamini, said the SADC community lists the seven goals formulated and adopted in the context of the RISDP. She said that all Member States must finalize national gender policies for their implementation by 2020.

Policies are supported by gender mainstreaming across SADC and through budget allocations to improve gender capacity and to measure progress in all member states. In addition, a universal strategy to combat gender-based violence in SADC must be approved by all Member States and implemented at regional level. The ministers' meeting also discussed several policies and their implementation, all compared to a specific timetable.

In the end, all progress must be measured against the goal of sustainable development. SADC Executive Secretary Dr Stergomena Lawrence-Tax said: "SADC firmly places gender in the SADC Action Program and Regional Integration Program and recognizes gender as a priority. important transversal issue and facilitator of regional integration. SADC instruments, and made operational by the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. "

Widespread violence is one of the main reasons for accelerating the implementation of the adopted policy instruments, a point that was addressed at a previous meeting in 2015.

" This question was discussed in more detail at a joint meeting of the Ministers for Gender Equality and the Committee of the Body (AGC), which was held in August 2016 in Maputo. in Mozambique, where the Secretariat has been tasked with mobilizing resources and conducting a comprehensive study on gender-based violence. The study should provide indicators that will serve as a reference on the prevalence of gender-based violence in the region, "Dr Tax told ministers.

Work on this study is ongoing and a report will be submitted to the next meeting. "As a region, we are accountable for the implementation of the Protocol on Gender and Development." It should be noted that the Regional Progress Report is prepared from national reports, which are consolidated in the SADC Annual Report on Gender and Development, "she said. that in the most recent recruitment, the SADC Secretariat has made every effort to implement these decisions. So far, out of the 7 recently recruited administrators, 3 are women, out of 13 senior program officers 6 are women and out of 28 program directors, 8 are women.