The SADC ministers’ meeting took place in Kinshasa on June 2 under the chairmanship of Mireille Masangu, the Congolese minister in charge of gender and the status of women. The ministers took new resolutions for the promotion of women’s rights. This year’s meeting followed that in Lilongwe, Malawi, where ministers endorsed the SADC study on women in politics and decision-making.
One of the important resolutions passed at this year’s meeting was the mainstreaming and institutionalization of Articles 5, 12 and 13 of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. The objective is to adhere to the principles of equality between men and women enshrined in the protocol and to strengthen the effective implementation of these principles.
However, as pointed out by Joseph Nourrice, Deputy Executive Secretary for Institutional Affairs at SADC, the implementation of these resolutions remains a challenge. It is important to move from an era of commitments to an era of implementation, which translates into a coherent political will to allocate resources and strengthen gender equality in the region.
Mireille Masangu also addressed the issue of budgeting for the implementation of gender equality in SADC member countries. She underscored that the combination of leadership and commitment at the highest level, coupled with appropriate resource allocation and increased capacity of key stakeholders at national, regional and sub-national levels, would achieve gender parity. by 2030. To achieve this, it is essential to bridge the gap between political intention and policy implementation.
In his speech, Jean-Pierre Lihau, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Public Service and Public Administration Innovation, pinpointed some achievements of the DRC in the defense and promotion of gender. However, he underlined that much remains to be done and that the government of the DRC undertakes to put all the means at its disposal so that the women’s agenda is effective and popularized throughout the DRC.
Ultimately, the SADC Ministers’ meeting was an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of women’s rights and their participation in politics and decision-making. However, the effective implementation of these principles remains a continuous work that requires a sustained response at all levels.