More Power to Sisters in Zimbabwe

[XXPANTHAXX]

THE Government will continue empowering women through access to land and
requisite inputs and other materials needed for them to increase
agricultural productivity and improve their financial well-being,
President Mugabe has said.

He said this while officiating at the inaugural Women’s Economic Summit
in Harare yesterday.

"It is our sincere wish that women’s food-generating activities can be
improved to lead to financial security realised from their sale of their
produce. This, ladies and gentlemen, can only occur when and where
appropriate policies regarding women’s access to land, and the provision
of vital farming inputs and credit are put in place on time.

"In Zimbabwe, we continue to do our best in prioritising allocation of
land and farming inputs to our women and thus empowering them, through
our much-maligned land redistribution programme."

President Mugabe said special financing mechanisms that took into
account the needs of women were needed.

"Reflecting on our seasons past and present, it is clear that we need a
special financial window that will take into account the financial needs
of women. For this to happen, appropriate legislation, where presently
it may not exist, will need to be crafted to remove the minor status of
women with regards to signing contractual obligations, in their own
right independent of their spouses."

President Mugabe said the improvement of women’s status needed joint
efforts from both sexes.

"While the subject is one that relates directly to women, it is a
subject for all of us. We all must join hands as we develop the status
of our women in society. We all must work together, men and women must
work together to improve the status of women."

While women constitute 52 percent of Africa’s population, President
Mugabe lamented that it was worrying that their contribution to food
security on the continent was limited.

"With 52 percent of Africa’s population made up of women, it is without
question appropriate that the continent’s political and social
activities reflect this population composition. The good news is that
these statistics are now well accepted and documented.

"The challenge thereof is to strengthen efforts that are being made for
women to get assistance in producing food, not only for the sustenance
of their families, but for the well-being of their communities,
countries and their neighbouring countries as well."

He said experience in Bangladesh had shown that women had the lowest
defaulting rate when it comes to repaying loans.

"It is important to note that the experiences of Bangladesh’s Grameen
Bank have shown that women have the lowest defaulting rate when it comes
to loan funds," said President Mugabe.

On the current constitution-making process, President Mugabe urged women
to actively participate so that their views and aspirations were
adequately captured.

"As most of you here present may know, Zimbabwe is in the process of
drafting a new people-driven constitution. It is our sincere hope that
all women’s groups will take an active interest in this exercise and
provide valuable input to come up with a constitution that truly
empowers them."

President Mugabe bemoaned the under representation of women in positions
of authority in both political and business fields.

"I note that one of your conference’s goals is to improve women’s
leadership capacity, which
I am sure, extends to socio-economic-political spheres as well as to the
corporate world.

Indeed, that there is a paucity of women leadership in these areas in
much of Africa is not debatable. In the corporate world, many of the
positions in companies’ top management and corporate boards are mainly
taken up by men.

"The same extends to the political leadership, where for now, there is
only one woman president in Africa and that is President Sirleaf Johnson
of Liberia in a continent, we should remember, where women constitute 52
percent of the population."

The President said for women to attain these leadership positions, they
must be equipped with the requisite education, training and skills and
urged them to lead in pursuing educational opportunities and career
paths they aspired for.

"Barring cultural practices that have tended to militate against the
girl child educationally, women should be in the forefront in pursuing
educational opportunities and career paths which lead them to the
critical positions they aspire to. It is also through education and
training that women will realise their aspirations for emancipation and
empowerment."

He, however, said the drive by women for greater involvement in all
facets of life would not be easy given deep-rooted traditions held by
some men.

"Naturally, there will be resistance from some men who will see such
‘encroachment’ into traditionally male domains as threats to their
positions and livelihoods. That is to be expected and women should craft
strategies for dealing with such eventualities," he said.

President Mugabe urged the women to implement decisions and strategies
they would agree upon during the conference.

Addressing the same event later in the day, Prime Minister Morgan
Tsvangirai said the imbalances that existed between men and women were a
threat to Zimbabwe’s efforts to achieve set development targets.

"Our inheritance is fraught with situations which disadvantage women and
fail to acknowledge their invaluable presence as an essential natural
resource and equal partners for human development. Our ability to
realise our global goals shall suffer permanently unless we take a
radical and visible path to rectify the glaring imbalances in our
society," said PM Tsvangirai while delivering the keynote address.

PM Tsvangirai said while a lot had been done in areas of advocacy and
legislation, more still needed to be done to change mindsets that
inhibited gender relations.

"A lot of movement has taken place in the area of advocacy and
legislation, but there seems to be a general failure to tackle primitive
mindsets, which continue to place road-blocks to the transformation of
our human relations across the gender divide. This is an evolutionary
challenge that requires clarity of vision and an unfettered commitment
to the sovereign rights of all women," he said.

PM Tsvangirai said gender discrimination had hindered development and in
many cases perpetuated poverty, unnecessary tension and humiliation and
failure of societies to advance and grow.

He concurred with President Mugabe that a small number of women occupied
leadership positions nearly 30 years after independence.

"Nearly 30 years after independence, there can never be any
justification for the limited numbers of women in positions of political
leadership in Government, in all our political parties and in business.

"As Government and in particular during this period of inclusion, we
must demonstrate our sincerity and go beyond mere political posturing.
If democracy is a conversation, as they say, our discourse must never be
limited to narrow transitional issues. Our conversations must take
advantage of the fast changing scenes and evolving political dynamics to
scan our social landscape, removing socially embedded stereotypes and
traditional acts of backwardness," he said.

Speaking at the same event, Deputy Prime Minister Thokozani Khupe said
the summit would enable women to share experiences on challenges they
were facing.

"As a woman leader, I feel that it is vital that we share experiences
and challenges faced by our colleagues in leadership positions and
identify possible solutions that will enable us to drive the economy,"
she said.

DPM Khupe said women in leadership positions faced many challenges from
men and other cultural taboos.

"It is up to us as women to move the goalposts in our favour since we
constitute about 52 percent of the population," said DPM Khupe.

She said the inequalities would affect Africa’s ability to achieve
targets under the Millennium Development Goals.

"The UN MDGs of September 2 000 aimed at reducing poverty in Africa by
2015 will only be possible if women are given the opportunity to
participate in economic growth and development strategies in
agriculture, construction and infrastructural development, mining,
tourism and manufacturing," she said.

Delegates — mainly women drawn from the country’s 10 provinces and
others from Swaziland, South Africa and Pakistan — are attending the
summit.

[Aragorn]

Kudos to Mr. Mugabe for taking this stand for African women! Hopefully, Zim government found inspiration in Venezuela:

Venezuela Turns Women?s Affairs Ministry Into Full-Fledged Ministry | venezuelanalysis.com