GL to launch SA Gender & Elections report at Summit

Johannesburg, 26 June: South Africa broke new ground in the 2019 elections with 46% women in the House of Assembly and provincial legislatures and 50% women in cabinet. All the speakers in the national and provincial legislatures are women.  Women voters continued to predominate.The goal of gender parity remains elusive in political party leadership; the upper house and women premiers. President Cyril Ramaphosa missed a golden opportunity to appoint a woman vice president.  A glaring indicator in women’s lack of voice in public affairs is the decline in women sources in the media, from 25% in the 2014 elections to 20% in the 2019 elections. These are the key findings of the Gender Links (GL) Gender Audit of the 2019 South Africa elections, where we probe the numbers but also ask: beyond numbers, how far have we come in creating a more gender responsive state?GL will launch the Audit at the South Africa #VoiceandChoice summit in Johannesburg from 27-28 June 2019 at the Kopanong Hotel, Benoni. The Summit programme will include a discussion on the 50/50 campaign particularly in relation to increasing women’s representation in the 2021 local government election.The country level summit will culminate in a regional summit to be held in November 2019 at the commencement of the 16 Days of Activism.The summit will see participants presenting in the following #VoiceandChoice categories:

• Drivers of Change
• Economic justice
• Entrepreneurship
• Media
• Governance, including the 50/50 campaign
• Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights
• Youth Engagement

Running under the hashtag #VoiceandChoice the summits serve as a springboard to call governments to account for gender equality commitments made in the SADC Gender Protocol and the Sustainable Development Goals. The summits will pave way for the localisation of the recently adopted SRHR strategy. The main purpose of the #VoiceandChoice Summit is to allow participants to learn and share best practices from various sectors across the countries including Government departments, Non-Governmental organisation (NGOs), Community Based Organisations (CBOs), Faith Based Organisations (FBOs), Local Government councils as well as the media. Case studies will be shared in different streams including Action, Youth, Media, Entrepreneurship as well as Centres of Excellence Institutional Awards.GL will also convene an information session on the new Women Voice and Leadership fund which seeks to build the capacity and activities of local women’s organisations and movements, empower women and girls and  advance the protection of women’s and girls’ rights and to achieve gender equality.The Voice and choice campaign connects the dots from global to regional to local level in the implementation of the gender equality frameworks. Under the #VoiceandChoice campaign GL also conducted a mapping of SRHR policies and laws in SADC to gauge whether countries have put in place SRHR laws and policies and whether these are adequate in the promotion and protection of SRHR especially for youth and adolescents. This mapping gives firm grounding for advocacy purposes to hold governments accountable.  For more information contact Kubi Rama on 0716165556 OR visit GL website and Follow our Facebook page and Twitter to join the #VoiceandChoice Campaign.