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Statement from the Gender & Media Summit
Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)
September 22, 2004

Southern African gender and media activists have challenged their leaders to explain how they intend to make good on the commitment to achieving 30 percent women in decision-making by the end of 2005.

In a statement issued at the close of the Southern African Gender and Media summit in Johannesburg, the newly formed Gender and Media Southern Africa (GEMSA) network also called on their leaders to come up with a legally binding framework for ensuring gender balance in all areas of decision- making.

The call comes against the background of indications that several countries in the region have either not achieved this target or might even regress in forthcoming elections.

GEMSA expressed particular concern that in Botswana, which houses the Southern African Development Community (SADC) secretariat, even if every woman candidate were to win her seat in the October election, women would only constitute 21 percent of members of parliament. As this is unlikely, the chances are that the representation of women in politics in Botswana might drop from its current level of 17 percent.

The 184 delegates from twelve Southern African countries also expressed concern at the state of affairs in Mauritius, which hosted the Heads of State summit in August, and has the lowest level of representation of women in SADC (at 5.7 percent). Mauritius will be having elections next year, and has so far not indicated how it intends to achieve the thirty percent target.

Heads of state were urged during the August summit to adopt the African Union (AU) position of fifty percent women in all areas of decision-making but failed to formally do so. However, on his return to South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki pledged to ensure that South Africa achieves gender balance in the next elections in 2008. Following the 2004 elections South Africa has 32 percent women in parliament and 42 percent in cabinet. The ruling African National Congress is revising its quota for women in politics from 30 to 50 percent.

Delegates urged all leaders in the region to come up with concrete plans such as this and condemned the practice of signing declarations with no intention of honouring them. "Gender equality is non-negotiable," said the newly elected GEMSA Chair, Colleen Lowe Morna. "We therefore urged heads of state to adopt legally binding instruments for going beyond the rhetoric of gender equality to making it happen in reality."

Delegates noted with concern that only one Southern African country (Namibia) has ratified the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. "The failure by leaders to formally adopt the protocol, after it took eight years to get it tabled, is unacceptable," Lowe-Morna said. "The protocol is entirely consistent with everything that SADC countries purportedly stand for."

The meeting also condemned the draft NGO Bill in Zimbabwe that threatens the freedom and existence of NGOs, including gender and media organizations that are members of GEMSA.

The network, consisting of representatives of media practitioners, media training institutions, editors forums, media women’s associations, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) and its country chapters, Gender Links, gender and media networks around the region, adopted a comprehensive plan of action for ensuring that women and men are given equal representation and voice in the media.

The summit is a follow up to the Gender and Media Baseline Study (GMBS) that showed women represent 17 percent of news sources in the Southern Africa media and are portrayed in stereotypical and derogatory roles, most often as sex objects or victims of violence.

GEMSA plans include carrying out research and conducting advocacy on how consumers of news respond to the way in which women and men are portrayed; challenging glass ceilings for women in the media; participating in the Global Media Monitoring Project in February 2005; repeating the GMBS in 2007 to see if there has been progress and holding governments accountable for their commitments to gender equality. GEMSA, through partner organizations, will also prioritise gender training and sensitisation of the media.

For more information contact Jennifer Mufune at 264 (61) 232975

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