Zimbabwean Minister for Local Government, Urban and Rural Development Ignatius Chombo and South Africa’s Minister for Women, Children and People with Disabilities, Lulu Xingwana, will today jointly open the third Annual Gender Justice and Local Government Summit.
The summit which brings together about 280 participants from 10 Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) countries is taking place in Johannesburg, South Africa.
In a statement, Gender Links’ Gender and Media Diversity Centre manager, Saeanna Chingamuka, said the summit was a practical illustration of the Southern African Protocol on Gender and Development at work in the lives of ordinary women and men in the Sadc region.
“The annual summit comes during challenging times as the representation of women in local government moved backwards in elections in South Africa, Zambia and Lesotho over the last year,” she said.
The Protocol, adopted in 2008, has 28 targets for the attainment of gender equality by 2015, also the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals that include gender equality, which is target three.
Gender Links (GL), as co-ordinator of the Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance, is leading a campaign for an Addendum to the Sadc Gender Protocol on Climate Change.
Chingamuka said the third summit followed Malawi’s Joyce Banda’s takeover as the first woman president in her country and Southern Africa following the death of Bingu wa Mutharika.
“Sadc is also supporting its daughter, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who is vying for the Africa Union Commission chairpersonship.
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The summit also takes place on the back of Earth Day on 22 April and continues through Green Office Week. The summit will thus have several green themes and events,” she said.
