ENGENDERING POLITICAL PROCESSES IN EAST AFRICA

1. ENGENDERING POLITICAL PROCESSES IN EAST AFRICA WOMEN DIRECT

2. Situational Analysis on the progress towards Engendering Political Processes in East Africa Women’s participation in decision-making is vital to achieving equality, developmentand peace. It is also a women’s right. Unfortunately, a decade after the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) women are still grappling with little political space to exert their influence in the public sphere. WOMEN DIRECT

3. Why women's leadership is crucial? Women’s political participation is essential for the achievment of Africa’s development agenda • Women are the backbone of the economy and contribute 80% to food production yet own les that 7% of extension services. • They perform multiple economic and social activities that are critical to the livelihoods of the household and community at large. • Women are most affected underdevelopment and its myriad of problems - poverty, illiteracy, low life expectancy, infant mortality and even hunger. This is compounded by maternal deaths and female genital mutilation (FGM). WOMEN DIRECT

4. Progress towards Women's Participation: Women’s Political Participation in East Africa WOMEN DIRECT

5. Factors that have led to women's increased representation: • Legal Reform: Affirmative action policies in Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda has greatly contributed to the increased numbers. • International and Regional instruments such as CEDAW and Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality that calls for women’s increased participation. • Process and discourse on regionalization: Coming together as states is raising standards for policy and rights standards among states. • Greater global discourse on women's rights. WOMEN DIRECT

6. Impact of Women's leadership Enactment of gender legislation: • Kenya: Enactment of the Sexual Offenses Bill • Rwanda: Passing of a Gender Sensitive Constitution, Land, Inheritance and Succession laws Ratification of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) by Rwanda and Tanzania. WOMEN DIRECT

7. Strategies to engender political processes • Engender national legal and policy frameworks: Adopt Affirmative Action in political institutions, parties and decision making structures at all levels, Enact Gender Sensitive Laws and Policies to safeguard women’s rights in the domestic and public spheres e.g. Land, Inheritance, Sexual Violence and Electoral Laws. • Civic Education targeted at Women: educate women on their rights and roles to increase political literacy and awareness during electoral processes. WOMEN DIRECT

8. Strategies to engender political processes • Gender responsive socialization process: Socialization of children needs to focus on promoting gender balance system and culture to reverse negative activities and trends that have hindered women’s accession to leadership. • Increase Awareness on relevant laws and rights: Awareness on laws that protect women and ensure that they are empowered. WOMEN DIRECT

9. Strategies to engender political processes • Engender national policy frameworks e.g. Gender Responsive national budgets. • Lobby for the domestication of universal and regional instruments: such as CEDAW, and The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol). WOMEN DIRECT

10. Strategies to engender political processes • Education of girls: Ensure equal education opportunities for girls to increase opportunities for girls to build leadership capacities and build skills • Young Women's mentorship programme: Include mentorship in leadership programmes. WOMEN DIRECT

11. WOMEN DIRECT’S activities towards engendering political processes in East Africa • Regional Women Leaders Capacity building forums:WOMEN DIRECT has an annual capacity building forums for women leaders in East Africa. These forums provide an opportunity for peer learning, interaction and building strategies for regional and international advocacy and lobbying. • National Women Leaders Forums:Annually, WOMEN DIRECT has facilitated national forums in all its partner countries for women leaders and civil society. The forums are an opportunity for participants to develop strategies to influence gender responsive policy reform nationally. WOMEN DIRECT

12. WOMEN DIRECT’S activities towards engendering political processes in East Africa • Information, Research, documentation hubfor women, leadership and political participation issues. Produced a number of material such as Simplified version of the Protocol to the AfricanCharter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, A handbook on Electoral Participation among others. • Expanded the space in which women engage with regional and international bodies: by providing opportunity for women leaders, policy makers, civil society actors to engage with regional and international processes. Through the participation in United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) and the African Union (AU). WOMEN DIRECT

13. ABOUT WOMEN DIRECT • WOMEN DIRECT is a network of like-minded organizations working to support the collective voice of women leadership in Africa, with membership currently drawn from six countries of the Greater East Africa region, namely Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. From 2008, the network will expand into Somalia and Sudan. WOMEN DIRECT

14. Objectives • DIRECT and support the collective voice and equal participation of women in leadership and decision making towards shaping national, regional and international policies. • RAISE the profile and strengthen the capacities and raise the profile of partners. • LINK partners with strategic, national, regional and international bodies. WOMEN DIRECT

15. WOMEN DIRECT Activities • Advocacy & Lobbying: WOMEN DIRECT provides a platform for advocacy to influence sound policy that will increase women’s participation in leadership at national, regional and international levels. • Documentation & Information Sharing –WOMEN DIRECT provides resourceful information to its partners through continuous research, documentation and publication. • Capacity Building – WOMEN DIRECT works to build the capacity of women leaders and organizational capacity of its partners. WOMEN DIRECT

16. NETWORK MEMBERSHIP & STRUCTURE WOMEN DIRECT has three types of partners: • The Direct Collaborating Partner (DCP) acts as the focal point of a particular country – and there is therefore one DCP per country. • Associate Partners (AP) are organisations that work with the DCP in implementing the Network activities. • Individual Partners are persons that work with the DCP in implementing the Network activities. WOMEN DIRECT

17. NETWORK MEMBERSHIP & STRUCTURE • Partnership is open to registered and recognised civil society organisations, community based organisations, regional and sub-regional networks working on gender and/or women’s participation in leadership. Partnership is also open to individual women and men in the continent and in the diaspora interested in the issues WOMEN DIRECT addresses. WOMEN DIRECT