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Research report: Vibrancy of the Women's Movement in the SADC
Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA)
September, 2006

Read Concept paper on The Women's Movement in Southern Africa
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Introduction to the report
The preparations for the Beijing+10 review, which took place between 2003 and 2004 brought to the fore progress and challenges and made recommendations to address constraints facing the women’s movement globally. The Committee on the Status of Women (CSW) discussed this process at its March 2005¹ meeting, where it was felt that the Beijing+10 process was a watershed in taking stock of the implementation of the gender agenda and setting the pace for addressing constraints.

Undoubtedly, gender and women’s empowerment NGOs have played a major role in promoting the implementation of gender equity and equality as set in the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) and the women’s movement has been a vibrant force behind the advancement of the women’s rights agenda. In Southern Africa, the participation of women’s NGOs towards the Beijing +10 process was facilitated by support from the Open Society Initiative Southern Africa (OSISA), a leading regional foundation which was established by philanthropist George Soros to create and sustain the institutions, policies and practices of an open society.²

One of the main outcomes of the Beijing +10 consultative process was the observation of loss of vibrancy of the women’s movement. This continues to be a cause for concern both at the national and regional levels. To that end, OSISA identified this as a concern meriting immediate attention. This led to the setting up of a Task Team, to act as a think tank in seizing and realising OSISA’s vision of participating in reinvigorating the women’s movement in Southern Africa.

OSISA, under the supervision of the Task Team and Gender Programme Advisor engaged three consultants involved in women’s issues to provide a situational analysis of the women’s movement in 13 SADC member countries over a twenty-year period (1985 to 2005), as well as to provide practical suggestions and advice on how to strengthen thewomen’s movement regionally. The report on the findings was also to serve as a background paper to be presented at a regional roundtable meeting, to be hosted by OSISA in the first trimester of 2006 to examine the ways in which the women’s movement in the SADC region can be reinvigorated and sustained. The report thus contributes directly towards a critical reflection by stakeholders from across the SADC region.

To this end, the consultants travelled to the following countries, where interviews were conducted with at least 10 prominent representatives of the local women’s movement: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A list of persons inter-viewed is attached as Annex 4. The assessment was undertaken in accordance with Part 3of the Terms of Reference attached as Annex 5.

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1. Held in New York.
2. OSISA’s programmes focus on, Education, Media, Human Rights and Democracy, Information Communication Technologies, HIV and AIDS, Economic Justice as well as Indigenous Languages Promotion.

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