Projects

Short Description:

Overall goal

The overall aim is to establish a central knowledge base to strengthen the capacity of SADC Governments, stakeholders and partners to contribute to the economic empowerment of women as a critical constituency in the economic development of the region.

The SADC Protocol on Gender and Development has the objective “to provide for the empowerment of women, to eliminate discrimination and to achieve gender equality and equity through the development and implementation of gender responsive legislation, policies, programmes and projects.”

Expected results

Empowering women economically will propel the SADC region towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goal 5, Agenda 2063 and SADC Frameworks.

It is intended to draw on effective practices from SADC Member States to encourage replication throughout the SADC Region with the following mainly knowledge products namely:

• 1 SADC Gender and Development Monitor in three SADC official languages

• 14 Factsheets on economic empowerment and gender responsive budgeting in three SADC official languages

• 2 Policy briefs with key recommendations on economic empowerment and gender responsive budgetingin three SADC official languages

• 1 Gender Data on Live Portal

Target group / Beneficiaries

The main target groups are the SADC Secretariat, through the SADC Gender Unit, and SADC subisdiary organisations. The SADC Gender Unit ensures that gender is mainstreamed in the SADC Secretariat and its subsidiary organs, programmes and activities. The intervention will benefit about 250 staff at the SADC Secretariat of which about 44 percent are women.

Another target group are 300 high level government officials in the 16 SADC Member States in the ministries responsible for gender, finance and economic development, mining, industry and trade, agriculture and small and medium enterprises. Through the SADC Parliamentary Forum that offers a permanent platform for dialogue and advocacy on regional cooperation at the parliamentary level 3,500 parliamentarians in the SADC region are targeted.

It is further planned to establish a network of at least 14 partner institutions to correspond with the SADC countries that have ratified or acceded to the SADC Gender and Development Protocol and Women’s Human Rights Campaigners, researchers and media in their respective member states and other social movements. At least 4 universities in each SADC Member State are targeted and 32 media houses representing two per country drawn from the print and broadcast media. An online version will be accessible to the public and it is expected that at least 10 percent of the 280 million citizens who have access to internet will be able to access the knowledge products.

This wide outreach is important to raise public awareness about the state and progress made thus far towards the implementation of the SADC Gender Protocol and the challenges faced by the SADC Region and the interventions being implemented at national and regional levels.

The implementing agency is the Southern African Research and Development Centre (SARDC) having extensive knowledge and experience of the SADC regional development issues. Based on a Memorandum of Understanding SARDC provides knowledge and information support to the SADC.

Activities

The production of the knowledge materials will be highly consultative with the SADC Gender Unit, the relevant representatives of the SADC Member States, national knowledge partners and regional gender experts.

i) SADC Gender and Development Monitor

This will involve research and production of a book tracking progress of initiatives by member states towards domestication and implementation of the economic empowerment and gender responsive budgeting clauses in the revised SADC gender protocol. The publication will be launched during the 38th SADC Summit in Namibia.

ii) Policy briefs

100 copies of 2 editions of policy briefs will be produced and distributed online. The policy briefs will give an overall highlight of the situation of women in the economic sector and give recommendations to member states for policy formulation. The policy briefs will focus on a) gender responsive budgeting and b) women in the extractive industries such as mining and agriculture.

iii) National Factsheets

14 national factsheets will be published for online distribution and focus on initiatives by SADC Member States on gender responsive budgeting, trade, SMEs and women in extractive industries.

iv) SGDM Live Portal

A live portal will be developed to provide online access to data on progress made by SADC Member States in implementation of the provisions of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. The SGDM Live portal will provide up-to-date statistics and information on how member states have translated SADC commitments from regional policy to national practice. The data presented by the national partners will be populated onto the SGDM live portal. The population of data will be an ongoing process.

Context

The SADC Gender and Development Monitor 2018 intends to track progress on the implementation of the revised SADC Protocol on Gender and Development with special focus on Part Five, Articles 15, 16, 17 and 18 on women’s economic empowerment and Part Eleven, Article 34 on Financial Provisions.

Member States’ progress in enhancing economic empowerment to ensure equal benefits, opportunities and access to trade, employment and other productive resources for women will be assessed. Gender responsive budgeting and planning by Member States will be analysed to assess if Member States are designating the necessary resources towards initiatives aimed at economically empowering women and girls. Gender responsive budgeting is one of the most effective tools to mainstream gender in policies and plans, to redress inequalities and to promote women's economic, social and political rights. The planned outputs will seek to demosntrate that advancing the status of women in the economic sector not only improves their livelihoods but gives women more confidence for their advancement in other sectors such as social and political spheres where they can equally participate together with men.