Gender balance in politics is becoming a reality in Africa!

Women in Rwanda are rejoicing. At the first ever democratic elections held in their country in July/August 2003, gender balance was almost achieved 'over-night!' While the new constitution, adopted to unite the country after the trauma of genocide, stipulates that women must occupy at least 30% of seats at all leadership levels, they now occupy 45% of the seats at the national level. In the lower house alone, women gained almost 50% of the seats (39 out of 80 seats), while in the upper house women achieved 30% representation (6 out of 20 seats).

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Rwandan MP Judith Kanakuze received congratulations and applause at a recently held workshop in Johannesburg, at which researchers and activists from 15 African countries took stock of how quotas are being adopted and implemented in their countries and regional bodies. Dr Mary Maboreke, Director of the Women, Gender and Development Directorate in the African Union, received an equal round of applause after providing insight on how a coalition of women's groups and networks successfully lobbied for a 50/50 quota among the just appointed commissioners.

Rumbidzhai Nhundu, Gender Officer at the SADC Parliamentary Forum, gave the meeting further cause for celebration with the news that the number of delegates from each member country to the SADC Parliamentary Forum is about to be increased from three to four members to ensure gender balance. The SADC Regional Women's Parliamentary Forum, established in 2002, is now gearing to lobby political parties in Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and South Africa to put forward gender balanced zebra party lists for their 2004 elections. Enlightening in this regard was the paper by Mavivi Myakayaka Manzini, Head of International Affairs in the President's Office of the African National Congress, on how party women successfully lobbied for a quota system within the ANC.

The workshop "The Implementation of Quotas: African Experiences" thus provided a space to share and compare developments in women's political participation on the continent. Against the background of different histories of anti-colonial struggle for democracy, different electoral systems and cultural contexts, the effectiveness of various types of quotas was analysed--those guaranteed in constitutions and electoral laws and those implemented voluntarily by political parties. Namibia was recognised for coming close to gender balance through the legislation of quotas at the local government level,

The workshop further looked at the impact of women's movements on the growing representation of women on the continent, and the 50/50 Campaign of Sister Namibia and the Namibian Women's Manifesto Network met with great interest, with our campaign posters, pamphlets and T-shirts going like hotcakes! Expanding the networking among gender activists in Africa was one of the express aims of the meeting.

Finally, we came up with a list of further research topics on this complex subject. Fortunately for Southern Africa, research has just been conducted on the impact of quotas in SADC countries, and the publication "Ringing up the Changes--Gender in Southern African Politics" by Colleen Lowe-Morna of Genderlinks was on the way to the printer.

Similar workshops are being conducted by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in collaboration with the University of Stockholm and regional partners in other parts of the globe, in an effort to understand the strategies, achievements and obstacles globally to women overcoming the exclusionary practices of politics conducted by men. Regional partners for the African workshop were the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) and the SADC Parliamentary Forum.

Comparing the recent developments towards gender balance in Africa and Latin America with those in Sweden in the 1970s, Professor Drude Dahlerup of the University of Stockholm said: "Women are on the fast track now. In Sweden it took us 80 years after gaining the right to vote and be elected as women to approach gender balance. Women in the new democracies aren't prepared to wait that long! And they have strategic mechanisms and a global movement to support them!"

The papers, discussions and findings of the workshop will be published by International IDEA and the University of Stockholm early next year; in the meantime you can already visit their website www.quotaprojectorg for the Global Database of Quotas for Women.