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Last Week at a Glance - Issue 65
Women's
Coalition
July 06, 2011
My Thoughts
The Constitution
making process has stalled once again! According to the Constitution
Watch, the work of the thematic committees stopped prematurely on
the 9th of June 2011. By that date the committees had managed to
complete ward reports on data accumulated from the outreach meetings
in the country's wards. Reports on the special outreach meetings
held for the disabled, the youth and parliamentarians were also
complete. The Thematic committees still need to consolidate the
ward reports into district reports and provincial reports. According
to media reports, stalling of the process has been caused by shortage
of funds and the resurfacing of disagreements about the methodology
to be employed in analyzing outreach data. Meanwhile WCoZ has continued
in its lobby and advocacy
WCoZ
Constitutional engagement process
Zimbabwe
Women Lawyers Association (ZWLA) spearheaded the Constitutional
Engagement Workshop that was held for the Women's Parliamentary
Caucus (WPC) in collaboration with Women
in Politics Support Unit (WIPSU), Parliament
of Zimbabwe and Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe.
The workshop
was convened after the realisation that there was need for more
women to be included in all the Constitutional making processes,
ensuring that the process takes into consideration women's
rights issues. In engaging the key stakeholders, these organisations
thrive to ensure that the draft constitution addresses all previous
gender imbalances and legal challenges that have in history affected
women throughout their life cycle in Zimbabwe.
The sensitisation
meeting with the WPC sought to strengthen their capacity and knowledge
base on gender and the constitution making process to enable them
to build onto good practices when they deliberate on the draft Constitution
in Parliament. The WPC consists of women from all the political
parties and hence this is a platform for strategizing on women's
Constitutional demands beyond party politics.
Concrete resolutions
were developed following the engagement process with the WPC including:
- Lobbying
for more women in the drafting team
- Establishment
of a Shadow Drafting Team comprising of legal experts and women
Parliamentarians
- Establishment
of a Women Constitutional Committee of 20
- Simplification
of the position paper on Women' Constitutional demands
The Constitutional
reform process is very critical and requires concerted and coordinated
efforts if women's Constitutional demands are to be taken
aboard. The engagement processes are both organised and sporadic
and WCoZ will continue to offer support to members in these processes.
Leadership
and Governance training workshop
WCoZ convened
two governance and leadership workshops for its member organizations
and their board/committees in the month of June on the 14th and
21st of June at Holiday Inn in Harare. The objectives were to review
the leadership of women's NGOs and boards; review the professional
conduct of the board and its role in steering the organization and
sharing common issues and problems in organisations.
The workshops
were a platform to clarify key human resources issues such as staff
appointment; legal compliance issues; job descriptions and documentation
of human resources policies and code of conduct. WCoZ envisages
that the Leadership and Governance Workshops will enable directors
and their board to improve effectiveness in leadership of organisations
and interventions of the board. The trainings were facilitated by
Emilia Chisango, a partner at KPMG.
Visit the Women's
Coalition fact
sheet
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