New political dispensation waves the gender quality trump card
ZIMBABWE recently awakened to new way of doing business when it hosted the Rwandese delegation that was in the country to teach locals on running efficient governance systems. Led by a young assertive woman Rwandese governance expert, Ms Clara Akamanzi, the team shared their experiences on how Rwanda managed to improve the ease of doing business and economic performance after emerging from the genocide on minority Tutsis of 1994.
The whole exercise which was held under the tutelage of Ms Akamanzi,who is the Rwandan Development Board (RDB) chief executive officer went smoothly. President Emmerson Mnangagwa was very impressed and openly declared that he was charmed by the whole exercise.
Even the professional manner in which Ms Akamanzi conducted the meetings, never mind the confidence she exuded when discharging her duties, did not go unnoticed by many, who could only marvel at how lucky Rwandese were to have a sound economy and effective gender mainstreaming policies.
Touted as the best country in Africa with the highest number of women in all its governance structures, particularly its Parliament, Rwanda stands out as the model of gender equality, whose results are beginning to pay off as attested by the country’s economic development in the last decade.
With its gross domestic product growth hovering around seven percent, Rwanda’s economy is on a good footing.
Although some gender experts have argued that the huge numbers in gender equality that Rwanda boasts of are as result of demographic disparities between men and women as a result of the genocide, Zimbabwe can still learn a lot from the Rwandese model of mainstreaming gender across various structures.
Already results on the ground show that Zimbabwe has a lot of women in its midst who are capable and highly competitive in various sectors, if the recent promotions made by President Mnangagwa are anything to go by.
Since being sworn into office, President Mnangagwa has made senior appointments of several women among them Ms Vimbai Nyemba, Justices Priscilla Chigumba and Elizabeth Gwaunza as well as the reappointment of Miss Mildred Chiri as the Comptroller-General as he moves towards addressing gender disparities in high offices of many decades.
In terms of section 8 of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act, President Mnangagwa appointed Vimbai Nyemba as the chairwoman of the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ).
The authority replaced the State Procurement Board (SPB) that had been gravely infested by corruption. From the onset President Mnangagwa promised to rid the nation of the vice of corruption, which had destroyed the integrity of the SPB following serious cases of maladministration and the problem of tenderprenuership.
Ms Nyemba’s appointment was followed by that of Justice Chigumba who was appointed to head the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) after extensive consultations with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and Parliament’s Committee on Standing Rules and Orders to replace Justice Rita Makarau.
History was also made when Justice Elizabeth Chiedza Gwaunza, the second most senior judicial officer in Zimbabwe, was elected to become the country’s Deputy Chief Justice.
She becomes the first woman to hold such an office in the history of Zimbabwe, and now deputises Chief Justice Luke Malaba. Prior to her latest appointment, Justice Gwaunza was a judge of the Supreme Court and Constitutional Court.
The appointments of the three and a coterie of others is an affirmation of the political dispensation’s commitment to repudiate historical exclusion of women from mainstream governance structures.
The offices which the trio were tasked to head require people of high moral integrity, astute individuals who are prepared to serve the nation diligently. Naturally the President had to appoint women, because they are less corruptible than their male counterparts.
Although some sections of society have since dismissed the appointments as mere tokenism, the majority have welcomed the elevation of the three, urging the Presidium to continue pushing for gender equity in future promotions and appointments.
Hopes are high that the new political dispensation will not only create spaces for women to manoeuvre in the private and public sphere on an equal footing, but that the Government will also institutionalise direct gender-specific measures that seek to correct the consequences of women’s exclusion in governance structures.
Over the years there has been an outcry over the exclusion of women in board appointments and directorship in parastatal and the private sector, which still continue to ignore competitive women.
The disparity has not gone unnoticed and the Institute of Directors of Zimbabwe has over the years raised its concern over the anomaly, but they has not been political will to address the imbalance.
In one of its bulletins, the IDoZ noted that of the 482 directors of companies listed with the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange, only 50 were women, a paltry 10 percent.
This is in spite of the existence of statutes and legal frameworks that support gender mainstreaming in all the governance and regulatory structures. One such provision is contained in the Zimbabwe National Code on Corporate Governance (ZimCode), principle 94, which asserts that every board should consider whether its size, diversity and demographics make it effective. Diversity relates to academic qualifications, technical expertise, relevant industry knowledge, experience, nationality, age, race and with gender being one of the critical components.
Ironically, not many companies and parastatals have been keen to implement the guidelines to ensure that women are also included in governance structures.
That development alone has stalled the development and advancement of women in leadership. At the rate at which the private sector has been reluctant to take competitive women aboard, it might take Zimbabwe another decade to have its own Ms Akamanzis, who are playing pivotal roles in economic transformation in Rwanda.
Rwanda does acknowledge the role that women play in economic and national development, and has been pushing for continued inclusion of women in all Government’s sectors.
Speaking during the International Women’s Day commemoration recently, the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame said “gender equality and women’s empowerment is a cornerstone of the Government of Rwanda’s development strategy, and a proven source of development progress.”
It is not surprising that the remarkable rise of Rwanda’s women over the years closely tracks the general upward trajectory of the country’s development.
Zimbabwean women are now pinning their hopes on President Mnangangwa and the Government to adopt some tenets of Rwanda’s efficient governance systems and the inclusion of women across all the structures.