<B>By Sheila BUNWAREE</B>

The Mauritian delegation (ALL MALE) at the August 2008 SADC summit which closed a few days back, may or may not have contributed to the ?successful? adoption of the SADC Gender and Development Protocol but if they have, they must be commended. Signing and ratifying protocols however is not enough. What Mauritius and the rest of the SADC block really needs is ACTION: otherwise it runs the risk of falling further backward on the Millenium Development Goal MDG 3- the goal of gender equality.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Malawi, Joyce Banda had, at the SADC conference on poverty, earlier this year reminded us that goal 3 ? that of gender equality is the one which is moving the slowest and that in some instances it is even regressing. Some of us then asked the question how can it possibly improve when a number of the decision-makers and policy makers in the region fail to understand how certain dimensions of the Gender and Development protocol can actually help to alleviate poverty as well as promote peace and security. Some also continue to fail to see how certain persistent discriminatory mechanisms and/or cultural practices can actually exacerbate poverty.

The ?silent diplomacy? of some leaders of the region over the Zimbabwe post election crisis which is allowing for diverse kinds of atrocities as well as the killing of thousands of women and children was also questioned. Whilst condemnation of the monstrous Mugabe regime unfolds in certain quarters and attention is focused on Zimbabwe, one should not be oblivious to the plight of women and children in other parts of SADC. The multiple realities of the Southern African region highlight the traumas and related violence that women and children face on a daily basis. The missing girls of Congo, the high numbers of displaced women and children, the numerous rape cases and other forms of sexual abuse, the trafficking of women speak to the extent and nature of human insecurity that prevail.

In fact the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 has specifically addressed the disproportionate impact of conflict and violence on women as well as their under valued and underutilized contributions to conflict resolution and sustainable peace. But women continue to remain largely absent, powerless and voiceless in the highly male dominated SADC.

Violence, however, is not only of the kind described above; violence can also be of an economic nature. Excessive neoliberalism and governance by the market often leads to multiple forms of economic violence particularly towards women. The latter often become victims of a rapidly growing jobless era with all the consequences that joblessness entails. The loss of ?capabilities? experienced by women under such conditions often lead to negative impacts on human development. UNIFEM notes:

?Extending the idea of human development to encompass women?s empowerment and gender justice puts social transformation at the centre of the agenda for human development and progress of women?.Women?s situation cannot be improved unless there is a change in relations between women and men as well as in ideologies and institutions that preserve and reproduce gender inequality.?

This does not mean reversing positions, so that men become insubordinate and women dominant. Rather it means negotiating new kinds of relationships that are based not on power over others but on mutual development of creative human energy?it also means negotiating new kinds of institutions, incorporating new norms and rules that support egalitarian and just relations between men and women. Supporting egalitarian and just relations between men and women will require a feminist ideology. Can the Gender and Development Protocol be effectively implemented without such an ideology?

● <B>Just Relations and the SADC Gender and Development Protocol</B>

Key targets in the protocol include ensuring that provisions for gender equality are contained in all constitutions and include affirmative action clauses; halving gender violence, abolishing the legal minority status of women, and achieving at least 50% representation of women in decision-making positions by 2015.

However, key provisions such as marital rape, cohabitation and the rights of vulnerable groups which some countries recognize in their national legal frameworks have not been included and it will perhaps take a while to obtain the necessary paradigm shift to be able to advance on these provisions as well.

The ?Just Relations? that UNIFEM therefore alludes to will only be possible when people in the region stop shying away from a feminist ideology and help to promote gender equitable democracies. When ?democracies? are tilted in favour of one sex, gender sensitive electoral reforms can help to address the imbalance. A numerically gender balanced Parliament is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for a truly transformative, more just society. A number of countries have, within the SADC block, engaged in electoral reforms and implemented quotas to make women more visible. The enhanced participation of women in the public sphere can go a long way in consolidating democratic governance but Mauritius is unfortunately still dragging its feet on the electoral reform question. And this despite the fact that the Sachs commission has referred to the under representation of women in politics as the country?s ?gravest democratic deficit.?

● <B>Electoral Reform, Gender and the Sachs report</B>

2015 is the calendar imposed by the Gender and Development protocol for gender parity and that deadline is not far at all. 2010- the year in which Mauritius expects to have the next general elections is even closer. Would Mauritius have successfully unshackled itself from its patriarchal structures to make more room for women and move towards a more inclusive democracy by then?

It is important to remember that Mauritius has also signed and ratified the Convention of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) as well as the Beijing Declaration. The latter notes:

?Equality in political decision making performs a leverage function without which it is highly unlikely that a real integration of the equality dimension in government making is feasible. In this respect, women?s equal participation in decision making is not only seen as a necessary condition for women?s interest to be taken into account. Without the active participation of women and the incorporation or women?s perspective at all levels of decision making, the goals of inequality, development and peace cannot be achieved.?

The Sachs report also states that the present electoral system ?will never do justice to the true role of women in society and will never enhance the empowerment of women.?

The Sachs commission makes the point that ?Mauritius can justly be proud of the admiration which its democratic life enjoys internationally. It cannot however hold up its head in terms of participation of women in political life ??

Electoral reforms can help towards a better representation of women but in order to make a real difference, other aspects of political culture must also be changed. The opacity surrounding the funding of political parties and the gender insensitive code of conduct/foul and indecent language of some parliamentarians remain critical issues. More importantly perhaps, issues affecting women?s lives both at a macro and micro level should be identified and addressed. To do so requires a new mind set by each and all, inclusive of the women themselves. In short, a feminist approach/ideology is required. In other words, there needs to be a predisposition to interrogate and get rid of all male biases and prejudices in thinking, planning and policy making so as to promote a more equitable citizenship. In so doing, governance will become more inclusive and just.

● <B> Towards a Feminist Ideology and Governance with Gender Lenses</B>

It is interesting to see how the female wing of the labour party gathered its force and came up in a united front to denounce the words used by Paul Bérenger towards Nita Deerpalsing recently. But this same crowd of women was apparently very silent when one of the women of the opposition had been subjected to some kind of criticism and foul language by a male parliamentarian of the ruling party in the not so distant past.

Let us hope that there will come a day when women on both sides of the house can actually come together and constitute an effective caucus not only to defend and protect their immediate interests and dignity but also that of the masses of women out there. Women are facing greater levels of vulnerability and insecurity as a consequence of the new economic, social and environmental challenges in the wake of the food, energy crisis as well as climate change. It has now been established that there is a growing feminisation of poverty in the SADC region too and unless specific measures are taken at a local level, the poverty generating neoliberal reforms of several countries can easily exacerbate the ongoing feminisation of poverty. In the absence of gender sensitive labour legislations, many women are going back to domesticity as their gender identity with all the ripple effects that this entails.

Can a ?caucus? of women and male parliamentarians find value in a feminist ideology and speak to the unremunerated work of women in the private sphere, the lack of social protection for women and how the right to work is a fundamental human right. Can they propose policies for the genderising of science and technology and bridge the gender digital divide, can they help to mitigate the feminisation of HIV AIDS, to put an end to ?la prostitution alimentaire?and child prostitution, to ensure the stoppage of unsafe backstreet abortions and the associated female criminalisation of poverty amongst other things. Can they do something to help women break through the ?glass ceiling? and/or to occupy jobs which are regarded as traditionally male, can wages be made equal where they are not equal? Only when both men and women can be convinced of the ?missed potential? that women represent and militate for a more optimal utilization of this potential that the SADC Free Trade Area and regionalism will thrive.

The creation of a Free Trade Area no doubt provides for a wealth of opportunities but governance with gender lenses is absolutely necessary for these opportunities to actually trickle down to people?s lives.

● <B>The SADC Free Trade Area- Women Standing between the Care Economy and the Formal Labour Market</B>

That the launch of the free trade area will bring increased prospects and a wealth of opportunities to the citizens of SADC is beyond doubt but for women to benefit from increased opportunities depend on their access to resources- they need training, finance as well as productive resources to participate fully in the regional economy and enjoy the fruits of their participation.

There is, both at the local and regional level, an urgent need to recognize that women stand at the crossroads between production and reproduction, between economic activity and the care economy- the care of human beings and therefore between economic growth and human development. They are workers in both spheres- those most responsible and therefore with most at stake, those who suffer the most when the two spheres meet at cross purposes and those most sensitive to the need for a better integration of the two. Unless gender is mainstreamed more effectively within all institutions and development efforts, the SADC block and regionalism will stand to lose. To help towards such mainstreaming, the SADC legislatures should be infused, as mentioned earler, with a feminist ideology and push for greater, aid effectiveness and gender sensitive development financing. Such legislatures should also work with the corporate/business world and civil society for the domestication of the SADC gender and development protocol as well as the UN security council resolution 1325 with the view of obtaining more equitable societies. The different stakeholders should also collaborate to strengthen the internal capacity of SADC, particularly its gender unit so as to promote gender inclusive democratic developmental states in the region. In so doing, the chances to obtain a genderised human security architecture in SADC will increase. Human security, we must remember, is key to peace, stability, growth and poverty eradication. If the creation of the Free Trade Area can actually help towards the above and vice versa, we SADC citizens, would have gone a long way in showing that regionalism can work.