QUESTION: Discuss how gender can be mainstreamed into the Zambian policies, giving examples where possible. The Zambian society is dominated by patriarchal structures internalized in both the traditional and cultures and in both political and economic systems. This is reflected in unequal gender roles, with regard to participation in decision-making and economic opportunities.
The patriarchal system and practices constitutes an obstacle to poverty eradication and democracy, which requires gender equality and equity. Women are in an under-privileged position with regard to access and control over resources and political influence, and with regard to their ability to enjoy human rights and other rights Granted to them by the Zambian constitution or international conventions (Mette, 2006). This essay will critically discuss how gender can be mainstreamed into the Zambian policies.
It will start by defining gender mainstreaming and create an understanding of what it’s all about, and then discuss how it can be mainstreamed in the Zambian policies. The concept of bringing gender issues into the mainstream of society was clearly established as a global strategy for promoting gender equality in the Platform for Action adopted at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing China in 1995.
It highlighted the necessity to ensure that gender equality is a primary goal in all areas of social and economic development. At the Fourth UN International Conference on Women In July 1997, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) defined the concept of gender mainstreaming as follows: “Mainstreaming a gender perspective is the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in any area and at all levels.
It is a strategy for making the concerns and experiences of women as well as of men an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres, so that women and men benefit equally, and inequality is not perpetuated. The ultimate goal of mainstreaming is to achieve gender equality (ECOSOC, 1997). In simple terms gender mainstreaming can be defined as “a process to ensure that both men and women have equal access and control over resources, ecision-making, and benefits at all stages of the development process and projects. It is a globally accepted strategy for promoting gender equality. Mainstreaming is not an end in itself but a strategy, an approach, a means to achieve the goal of gender equality. Mainstreaming involves ensuring that gender perspectives and attention to the goal of gender equality are central to all activities such as policy development, research, advocacy/ dialogue, legislation, resource allocation, planning, implementation and monitoring of programmes and projects.
Gender mainstreaming is an approach to integrating women’s and men’s concerns and experiences into the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres. The ultimate goal is to ensure that both genders benefit equally, and inequality is not perpetuated. Mainstreaming is not about adding a “woman’s component” or even a “gender equality component” into an existing activity. It goes beyond increasing women’s participation; it means bringing the experience, knowledge, and interests of women and men to bear on the development agenda.
Mainstreaming ensures that the needs of both men and women are accommodated and this includes women’s productive capacity to alleviate poverty and maximise economic input. Empowering women can result in poverty reduction within their homes because women tend to invest more into their family’s welfare than men. Mainstreaming can increase women’s access to and influence on decision-makers and their ability to take full advantage of available resources (ZGF, 2010). The goal of mainstreaming gender equality is thus the transformation of unequal social and institutional structures into equal and just structures for both men and women.
This part of the essay will critically discuss how gender can be mainstreamed into the Zambian policies whilst giving examples. How gender can be mainstreamed into the Zambian policies Gender is a serious economic issue in Zambia, given the different roles that men and women play in both household and market economies (World Bank, 2004). The socioeconomic status of women in Zambia is very low, with social and cultural disadvantages compounded by gender-based disparities such as property rights, limited access and control over productive resources, polygamy, education, health and agriculture (HCM, 2005).
Under Zambian customary law, which is widely practiced by the majority of Zambians, married couples do not own property jointly nor inherit property from each other. Household property is regarded as belonging to the husband, and this fosters the practice of property grabbing from women upon the husband’s death. This is further compounded in polygamous marriages, which are common in the country, and in HIV-AIDS affected households. HIV/AIDS is disproportionately contributing to the profound reversal of development gains made in Zambia over the last thirty years (UNCSD, 2002; Izumi 2006).
The Zambian government signed and ratified the Convention for Eliminating all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the SADC declaration on 30% representation of women in decision making positions. The GRZ has also recorded some progress in terms of female representation in the civil service through the implementation of the Public Service Training Policy, affirmative action; capacity building for female candidates in top decision making positions and overall gender sensitization of policy makers.
As a result, female representation in parliament has increased compared to the last ten years, the number of women holding high decision making positions such as the auditor general, inspector general of police, the minister of chiefs and the minster of gender, this is also seen in the ministry of education where a number of women have been appointed to decision making positions as head teachers. There is some improvement in the fight for equality between men and women in Zambia but is still not enough because the ordinary women are left out.
Gender equality cannot come about only through changes in women’s conditions; it requires transformation of structures and systems which lie at the root of women’s subordination and gender inequality. This transformation cannot be induced by external interventions; women must themselves become active agents of change (kalyani, 1998). Despite the adoption almost a decade ago of a national gender policy that aims to ensure fair participation of men and women in the development process, most of the Zambian government’s policies still remain gender blind, said “civil society and women’s rights associations chairperson”.
Critics say the most glaring of these policies is the country’s national budget that fails to disaggregate resource allocation and incentives by gender. Gender is also not one of the considerations in setting targets for various programmes like access to land and credit by government. “Gender equity cannot be achieved in the absence of pro-active policies, and such policies have to be mainstreamed into every sector and programme, the various impediments that prevent women from participating fully and equitably in development have to be removed. (Kachingwe, 2010).
However, most civil society organisations say women are unable to contribute effectively towards national development because of inequalities in resource allocation and access to resources. According to Susan Kawandani the Zambia Federation of Women in Business (ZFAWIB ) Ndola district co-ordinator, women still face challenges in Accessing money from financial institutions because of the conditions that are attached there. “Most of these financial institutions have insisted on difficult requirements and complex documentation including collateral, which most women don’t have.
Most women have difficulties completing documentation to get funds from the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) and other lending institutions (Kachingwe, 2010). Zambia is in the process of developing a national constitution but many women have no clue about the writing of a new constitution and how they can contribute. While some gender activists see this public comment phase as an opportunity for their voices to be heard, ordinary women remain in the dark about national issues such as the constitution and what exactly they are supposed to contribute.
This could be a lost chance for women to speak about issues that affect them and therefore assert their constitutional rights. It could compromise women’s rights advocacy and the drive to have more women in parliament and other decision-making positions. “For women’s issues to come out as they want in the constitution, it needs women at the grassroots to be educated about what a constitution is and how they can contribute. It was a good move for The Zambian government to introduce the ministry of gender which is to overlook all gender related activities.
In answering the question the Zambian government should put clear roles and a well stipulated mandate for the ministry of gender to ensure that all gender issues are planned for and budgeted. Retain gender mainstreaming programmatic strategy as well as specific gender-focused programmes. The ministry of gender should revitalize gender mainstreaming by setting and monitoring specific organization-wide and specific targets in all thematic areas of work, and incorporating gender analysis into policy and programme design. In addition, targeted initiatives should promote women’s empowerment and gender equality.
Strengthen the institutional framework for gender mainstreaming at the ministry’s headquarters. The ministry should establish a corporate Gender Development Office at the level of the Administrator’s or Associate Administrator’s Office and provides technical gender specialists for every thematic area. Strengthen gender expertise in provincial offices. The ministry should place senior gender development specialists in all provincial offices. Furthermore, the gender focal point system in provincial offices should be strengthened, with clear job descriptions and use of senior staff.
Knowledge of gender mainstreaming should be made a required competence in the recruitment of new staff. Competence assessments of provincial officers should address their gender expertise. Make adequate financial resources available for gender mainstreaming. Zambian government through the Ministry of genders should allocate core resources for gender mainstreaming, scale up fundraising efforts for specific programmes and use gender as a criterion for allocating other resources to country offices.
In order to determine what financial resources are needed, there is also need to conduct a special corporate gender budget exercise and review its financial accounting system to ensure it can track gender-related expenditures. Furthermore the Gender in Development Division (GIDD) which is the government gender equality mechanism, placed under the Cabinet Office should effectively coordinate and provide technical assistance to the sectors and gender mainstreaming in Zambia.
This board must have: Strengthened gender analysis capacity in order to formulate, design, review and implement gender responsive policies, programmes and plans in Line Ministries, A Gender responsive legal framework should be created in targeted economic, social, cultural and political spheres of national development, Partnerships for the implementation of innovative initiatives for economic empowerment of women facilitated and operational, Enhanced institutional framework capacity for coordination, advocacy, reporting, monitoring and review and evaluation of gender mainstreaming in service delivery (Norad Report, 6/2009).
GIDD also should create a long standing relationship with Civil Society Organizations to continue influencing government policy and budget allocations for Gender mainstreaming activities. However, links should not be too close, as one role of civil society is to hold government accountable. GIDD should ensure regular consultative processes with stakeholders are held to measure progress and review other strategies (ECOSOC, 1997). Responsibility for implementing the mainstreaming strategy is system-wide, and rests at the highest levels within agencies, according to Carolyn Hannan, Director of the UN Division for the Advancement of Women.
Some principles which the Zambian government should put into consideration as they mainstream gender in their policies include: Adequate accountability mechanisms for monitoring progress need to be established, The initial identification of issues and problems across all areas of activity should be such that gender differences and disparities can be diagnosed, Assumptions that issues or problems are neutral from a gender-equality perspective should never be made, Gender analysis should always be carried out, Clear political will and allocation of adequate resources for mainstreaming, including additional financial and human resources if necessary, are important for translation of the concept into practice, Gender mainstreaming requires that efforts be made to broaden women’s equitable participation at all levels of decision-making, Mainstreaming does not replace the need for targeted, women-specific policies and programmes, and positive legislation; nor does it do away with the need for gender units or focal points (ECOSOC, 1997). In conclusion, individuals, groups and society as a whole which sees the need for change may challenge the power imbalance, and demand a better share of the decision-making power and the resources. Promoting gender equality is often about securing better access to services and decision making power for women.
More and more it is also understood that gender is about relationships, about raising issues around how traditional understandings of masculinity and femininity may be destructive for both men and women, and that men as well as women need to search for a more productive gender role and gender relationship. If the mainstreaming of gender in government policies is not achieved, development might be affected as the Male-biased inequality will increase in various sectors such as education which might affect the development of the country. This can lowers the quality of human capital through: lowering the average innate ability of the supply of labour , the selection distortion effect, and reducing the benefits of externalities derived from reduced quantity of children ‘savings’ and quality “better educated children”.
Gender inequality in access to technology also prevents women from increasing productivity in agricultural domestic entrepreneurial activities. In promoting development, it is therefore necessary to have specific interventions aimed at women, to counteract the male bias in access to education and other services. Reference Booth, C. and Bennett, (2002) ‘Gender Mainstreaming in the European Union’, European Journal of Women’s Studies 9 (4): 430–46. ECOSOC (UN Economic and Social Council) (1997) Agreed Conclusions 1997/2, 18 July 1997 http://www. unhcr. org/refworld/docid/4652c9fc2. html H. M. Consultancy Services, Ltd. 2005. Zambia: Country Gender Profile. Lusaka, JICA. Kalyani M. (October 1998). Moving from policy to practice: a mainstreaming strategy for UNDP India: UNDP. http//www. ndp. org. in/report/Gstrat/ Kachingwe, K. (Jun 29 2010). LUSAKA: (IPS) Norad Report 6(2009). Gender Review: Mainstreaming Gender and Aids in the Development Portfolio of the Norwegian Embassy in Zambia. United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. 2002. Zambia Country Profile. Johannesburg Summit 2002. New York, UNCSD World Bank. ( 2004). Zambia Strategic Country Gender Assessment (ZSCGA) – A Report of the World Bank. Lusaka: World Bank. Zambian Governance Foundation, (2010). Gender mainstreaming toolkit for civil society organisations in Zambia. Volume 1 Gender mainstreaming in the workplace Promoting gender equality. Lusaka: Zambia
