Two-day city event highlights women’s role
WITH Women’s Month in the rearview mirror of South Africa’s annual calendar, Ilitha Labantu will be hosting “The Beijing Platform for Action.
The two-day seminar will highlight the commitment to action for gender equality following the 2015 Development Agenda and what it means for SA Women.
Ilitha Labantu is an NGO who advocates for non-violence against women and children.
Speakers expected at the dialogue include the Minister in the Presidency responsible for Women, Susan Shabangu, the Minister of Finance, Nhlanhla Nene, the Minister of Defence, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Thoko Didiza from the ANC and the Chairperson of the Commission of Gender Equality, Mfanozelwe Shozi.
The dialogue aims is to ensure that women’s perspectives, needs and contributions are reflected within the SA development agenda, with regards to the Beijing Platform for Action, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the post 2015 Development Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The dialogue aims to highlight the empowerment of women through the SDGs. It will also provide an opportunity for the government to collaborate with civil society in ensuring that sustainable, social and economic development opportunities become a reality for SA Women and girls as reflected in the Beijing +20 resolutions.
The secondary aim is to ensure that SDG’s are localised to reflect the desired developmental progress for South Africa.
The dialogue also aims to strengthen women’s movements nationally in promoting women’s rights and empowerment and to build alliances with all sectors of civil society and the government.
Initiated in 1995, The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action provides a roadmap for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girl children, which brings the focus to equal rights, freedom and opportunities for all women in all spheres of life.
There has been an evident need to adopt a new development framework based on the SDG’s.
The new sustainable development agenda builds on the MDGs, drafted in 2000, which focused on reducing poverty, hunger, disease, gender inequality, and ensuring access to water and sanitation by 2015.
The new SDG goals, and broader sustainability agenda, aim to complete what the MDGS were unable to achieve, and to address the root cause of poverty and inequality and the universal need for development that works for all people.
The new agenda provides an action plan for people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership. It will foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies and requires the participation of all countries, stakeholders and people.
It means women organisations and civil society organisations will have to be a key driving force to ensure effective implementation and tangible change in women and children’s lives.
The prioritisation of the SDG’s will require the Beijing Platform of Action to create an opportunity to relook at the promises aimed at transformation for women and girls.
The review of the successes and failures of previous declarations will allow women to shape their own definitions of what the SDGs should stand for when dealing with women and the children.
As an organisation that deals with violence against women and children, we believe that a post-2015 gender equality goal should address the structural causes of gender inequality at all levels – national, local and household.
This should include addressing overcoming barriers to accessing resources and participation in decision-making processes, as well as social norms and attitudes which allow gender inequality to persist.
With issues such as laws that discriminate against women and children, childhood marriages (Ukuthwala), violence and structural constraints for particularly rural women still being an alarming reality for women in South Africa, a multisectoral approach needs to be taken to find sustainable solutions.
The desired outcome for this seminar is to aid in creating a conducive environment where the rights of women are adequately recognised.
This will ensure the creation of innovative means and ways to address the issues that face women across the globe and South Africa on a daily basis.
The event takes place at 8am today and tomorrow at the Fountains Hotel, 1 St George’s Mall.