‘Target men in advocacy work’

SPEAKER of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda has challenged civil society organisations dealing with gender issues to target men in their advocacy work as way of achieving gender equality.

He said this yesterday during a signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding between Parliament and the Zimbabwe Women’s Lawyers Association.

“While I appreciate the importance of conscientising women on their rights, it is equally important to focus the advocacy efforts on the forces of resistance, who in this case, are the chauvinistic men, the political parties, community leaders such as chiefs and headmen as well as the corporate world,” he said.

Advocate Mudenda challenged ZWLA to engage political parties so that they increase female participation ahead of the 2018 elections.

“Let me also make a clarion call to you to extend your advocacy efforts to political parties, especially in the face of the impending elections in 2018. Your target must be to increase the number of women in Parliament from the current 35 percent to even 50 percent,” he said.

He also said gender issues were an important aspect in national development and a prerequisite in eradicating poverty and promoting good governance.

“Gender equality is a human rights paradigm, it behoves humankind to be focused, committed, persistent and objective sooner rather than later.

“It is my hope that the MoU will result in more expansive and proactive cooperation between the Parliament of Zimbabwe and the ZWLA guided by the cradle of the constitution and the law in general,” Advocate Mudenda said.

ZWLA board chairperson Ms Phillippa Philips said the agreement would provide a platform to advance gender issues.

“We look forward to the collaboration between Parliament and the ZWLA. This will provide a platform to get technical advice to Parliament and pay attention to gender issues that affect women,” she said.