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Background paper: Reinvigorating and Sustaining a Vibrant Women's Movement is Southern Africa
Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA)
September, 2006

Read Concept paper on The Women's Movement in Southern Africa
Read Research report: Vibrancy of the Women's Movement in the SADC

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Background
Preparations for the review of Beijing+10, which took place globally between 2003 and 2004 brought to the surface progress and challenges, and further made proposals for future measures to address constraints. Part of the Beijing + 10 preparatory processes in the Southern Africa region included consultative meetings in Johannesburg and subsequently in Addis Ababa, and both meetings - and other forums - raised concern with the dwindling vibrancy of the women's movement, especially during the 10 years after Beijing. Incited by this, the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA) convened a brainstorming session of a few activists, (who subsequently became the Task Team) to reflect on possibilities for reinvigorating and sustaining a vibrant women's movement, which has been identified as one of the major challenges of achieving gender equality in Southern Africa. The meeting made proposals for a critical assessment of the women's movement to be undertaken in 13 SADC countries; Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

With the assistance of the Task Team and its Gender Programme Advisor, OSISA commissioned three consultants involved in women's issues to provide a situational analysis report of the Women's Movement in 13 SADC member countries over a 20-year period (1985 to 2005), as well as recommend some practical interventions as to how the movement could be strengthened. The findings were to be presented at a regional roundtable meeting, to be attended by key stakeholders in the women's movement at national and regional levels, to collectively engage with the findings and develop a plan of action that would help towards reinvigorating the movement.

It is against this backdrop that this current roundtable meeting is being convened in Johannesburg, spearheaded by (OSISA), in partnership with the SADC Parliamentary Forum (SADC-PF), the Women and Law in Southern Africa (Research Trust) and HIVOS, with support from the Women's Network Programme of the Open Society Institute.

Objectives of the roundtable meeting
The main objective of the Regional Roundtable meeting is to engage with the findings of the research on the dwindling vibrancy of the women's movement in the SADC region and collectively develop a road map towards reinvigorating and sustaining it. Essentially, the participants will undertake to:

• Receive the findings on the situational analysis of where the movement is at both national and regional levels;
• Examine the causes identified in the research and how these are affecting the vibrancy of the movement;
• Engage with the proposed strategies and modalities to address the loss of vibrancy;
• Draw up an action plan with defined roles, responsibilities and timeframes for its
  implementation.

Expected Outcomes

• An honest and critical review of the challenges faced by the women's movement;
• Collectively develop a plan of action with clearly defined short-, medium- and long-term regional level interventions and strategies towards reviving the women's movement in the SADC region;
• Renewed commitment to a revived and reenergised women's movement in the region.

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