Zim’s Rwanda delegation gets valuable insights
A Zimbabwean delegation that was in Rwanda last week to enhance knowledge on gender equality managed to appreciate the positive impact electoral systems that provide for gender mainstreaming have in increasing the number of women participating in politics and other decision-making structures.
Women’s political participation is a prerequisite for gender equality and is essential to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
Also, balanced political participation between men and women in decision-making is the internationally agreed target set in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action that identified 12 key areas where urgent action was needed to ensure greater equality and opportunities for women.
Women still lag behind in political participation and holding decision-making positions though the Constitution, through Article 17, provides for equal representation.
It is against this background that Rwanda, which has set ambitious targets for gender parity, provides a perfect model of how to close the gender gap in politics.
According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2021, Rwanda ranks seventh in the world in closing the gender gap.
The Central African country has 61,3 percent female representation in Parliament, 55 percent Cabinet Ministers and 51 percent in the Judiciary (judges).
The Zimbabwe delegation, which comprised officials from the Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC), Women in Politics Support Unit (Wipsu) and the Women’s Academy for Political Leadership and Excellence (Walpe), engaged key institutions that have driven women’s increased representation in decision-making positions.
These included Rwanda’s Ministry of Gender and Family Protection, the National Electoral Commission, the Gender Monitoring Unit, the National Women’s Council, Women’s Parliamentary Forum and Forum for Political Organisations.
ZGC chairperson Mrs Margaret Mukahanana-Sangarwe explained how electoral systems in Rwanda function.
She said the Central African country’s constitution has a provision that 30 percent of all decision-making positions across all the sectors should be held by women.
In Rwanda’s Chamber of Deputies, which is equivalent to the National Assembly in Zimbabwe, they use proportional representation (PR), reserving 24 of the 86 seats for women who are elected through the National Women’s Council.
“They also have two seats reserved for the youth: one male; one female. And they have one seat reserved for people with disabilities. The rest are contested by political parties, but when they submit candidates, the lists are supposed to have 30 percent women. They have actually legislated through their constitution, which they follow,” Comm Mukahanana- Sangarwe said.
Zimbabwe has a legislated quota of 60 seats distributed among parties on a PR basis at national level, with an additional 210 seats open to women and men in the constituency.
In Local Government, Zimbabwe made a giant step after President Mnangagwa approved that councils should reserve a third of their seats for women.
“For Local Government, Rwanda’s numbers are not as good as in the National Assembly because they have no quota for councillors. They use (first-past-thepost) in their Local Government, so the number of women, although it’s much more than ours, is lower than where they use she added.
Rwanda’s Electoral Act also requires that when parties submit their candidates’ list for elections, 30 percent should be women.
Political parties are not allowed to contest unless they meet the requirement.
A Gender Monitoring Unit – equivalent to the – assists the finance ministry to have a gender- responsive budget.
“What was interesting was that in terms of gender-based budgeting, the Ministry of Finance sends its budget to the Gender Monitoring Unit to do an analysis and make recommendations in terms of how the budget can be gender-responsive.
“When the post-budget report is made, the unit is also in Parliament to comment on whether the gender-based budgeting has been implemented.”
Kigali also has clear laws and policies on equality, which were fully aligned with their Electoral Act, thus making implementation mandatory, Walpe’s executive director Ms Sithabile Dewa said.
“Their (members of parliament) don’t have specific constituencies and in Parliament they sit in alphabetic order, not on party basis. This helps to reduce polarisation,” explained Ms Dewa.
Wipsu programmes coordinator Ms Patricia Muganhiri said the key lessons learnt are that in order to attain gender equality in public political office in Zimbabwe, there is need for an enabling legislative framework that gives express provisions and power to enforce the 50/50 parity in candidates submitted to
(Zimbabwe Electoral Commission). “This must be backed by political will from the highest offices, coupled with robust training and support for women candidates to be willing and able to contest and win elections at both Parliament and Local Government levels.
There is need to engage men to support women so that the cultural barriers are broken down and women are seen as capable political leaders,” Ms Muganhiri said.