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The Women Can Do It! Post-election review conference
The Women's Trust
August 15, 2008

The Women's Trust held a Post Election Review Conference, an event that took place on the 14th and 15th of August 2008 at the Celebration Centre.

This was a celebratory Conference whose objectives were as follows:

1. To bring women of Zimbabwe together to celebrate the first ever-national women's advocacy Campaign on an Electoral process.
2. To review the Women Can Do It! Campaign in Zimbabwe and identify lessons learnt.
3. To collectively develop a national strategy for women's engagement with the governance structures and processes at local and national levels.

370 people attended the Conference and they were drawn from the following sectors:

• Norwegian Peoples Aid Partners from Norway, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe,
• Members from the Civil Society,
• Board Members and Funders,
• Women Can Do It! Participants,
• Women from all political parties (Zanu PF Women's League, MDC T Women's Assembly, MDC Women's Assembly and Female Independent Candidates), and
• Government Officials

Honorable Oppah Muchinguri officially opened the Conference and congratulated The Women's Trust for having launched the Women Can Do It! Campaign. She also urged women to put aside their differences for the purposes of engaging in a constructive dialogue of reviewing their experiences and designing a clear way forward that would enable them to achieve greater successes in the next elections.

The Guest of Honour was the UNIFEM Regional Director for Southern Africa, Ms Nomcebo Manzini who also urged women to put a lot of hard work in the positions that they have. She acknowledged the fact that getting into power was not easy and urged women to make sure they retained their positions in the next round.

The Executive Director of The Women's Trust Ms Luta Shaba gave an overview of the Women Can Do It! Campaign in which she noted the contribution from women themselves during the Campaign without which there would never have been a Campaign in the first place.

Women from all the different political parties also narrated their experiences of the challenges they faced as women prior to the March 2008 Elections. They felt that women still faced criticism when standing for office, based simply on their being women. Most of them felt that there were still some bottlenecks within their respective parties which, if not addressed, would continue to suppress women in their quest to participate in political decision making. The women however urged those who had been elected for office to be active and prove to the nation that they are able to deliver.

There were various speakers who spoke on issues of the Impact of the Harmonized Elections on Voting Trends; Laws and Policies Protecting Women's Human Rights and we had a special video presentation on Women's Leadership and Post Conflict Nation Building by the Former Prime Minister of the Republic of Ireland who is Founder and Board Member of the Women Leaders Intercultural Forum Realizing Rights - Mary Robinson.

Our road map

After the two days of reflecting and celebrating, the women of Zimbabwe took a step further in mapping their way forward and they concluded that there was a need to:

• Keep women mobilized to stand and support each other as candidates
• Consolidate the campaign with a "vision 2013" that starts grooming female candidates for the next round
• Support elected women with skills development and capacity building training in leadership and personal empowerment
• Continue public civic education on gender, leadership and governance and encourage women to continue engaging in decision-making at all levels
• Bring on board young women and provide mentorship
• Advocate for policy and law reform through the Constitutional Rewriting process and Electoral Law Amendments
• Work with other institutions in the civic, public and private sectors and provide technical capacity building in gender mainstreaming and women's rights
• Above all, continue promoting the ethics of mutual tolerance, love for all Zimbabweans regardless of sex and political affiliation and engaging with the requirements of a national healing and reconstruction process.

The Women's Trust would like to thank everyone who made these two days a success: our funders and partners, The Women's Trust Board of Trustees, the Minister of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development - Honourable Oppah Muchinguri for Officially Opening the Conference, the Guest of Honor Ms. Nomcebo Manzini, Guests from within the Region, all invited guests and all the speakers.

We also would like to say a special thank you to the Norwegian Labor Party (NPL), Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), European Union (EU), Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO), UNIFEM, Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe, Young Women Christian Association (YWCA), Zimbabwe Local Government Association (ZILGA) and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) for the solidarity messages they delivered to the women of Zimbabwe during the conference.

Visit The Women's Trust fact sheet

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