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Africa: "If You Want More Development, Include Women in Decision-Making"
15 June 2007
Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)
The '8th Triennial Commonwealth Women's Affairs Ministers Meeting' (8WAMM) has closed with an acknowledgement that gender equality is central to democracy, peace and economic growth; it also called for greater efforts to achieve parity between men and women.
The four-day gathering in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, took place under the theme of 'Financing Gender Equality for Development and Democracy', reflecting fears that women's rights are slipping down the development agenda.
The final communiqué from the meeting, which ended Thursday, noted that most of the 30 million children in Commonwealth states who are not in primary school, are girls. The group is also experiencing higher rates of HIV infection among women than men (60 percent of all those who have contracted the virus are in the Commonwealth).
In addition, just a handful of member states have reached a 30 percent representation of women in national legislatures -- the proportion that is widely seen as the threshold for women to begin influencing parliamentary affairs.
A 1997 gathering of Commonwealth leaders held in Edinburgh had pledged to achieve 30 percent representation of women in decision-making positions across the public and private sectors by 2005. Admitting that this target would not be reached, however, 'The Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality 2005-2015' set 2015 as the new deadline to have women occupy a third of decision-making posts.
The communiqué appealed to governments to "provide and implement appropriate laws and policies through constitutional and legislative reforms to achieve gender balance."
Failure to do so would compromise progress, Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon told IPS: "If you exclude women, you diminish democracy and reduce development. If you want more development, include women in decision-making."
Uganda has passed legislation stipulating that a third of the seats in parliament and local authorities should be occupied by women. Now, 29.8 percent of legislative seats are in female hands, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
Joyce Mulama, Kampala
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