Human Rights of Women
Source: All Africa
ENCISS, civil society organizations and government on Thursday held a dialogue forum on women's participation in governance at the Atlantic Hall, National Stadium Hostel in Freetown.
The theme for the forum was "Achieving a Minimum 30% Quota for Women in all Spheres of Governance Opportunities and Challenges".
In his welcome statement, Executive Director of ENCISS, Victor Brandon said the organisation focuses its work on five broad thematic areas namely gender, youth, justice and security, decentralisation, and elections. He said the dialogue forum was held as a result of a prior meeting organized by ENCISS for key stakeholders from government, parliament and CSOs on the status of the drive for full participation of women in governance in Sierra Leone. H said it was a consensus at the meeting that a forum be organized to widen the discussions on the issue.
Brandon said ENCISS's goal is to improve accountability, strengthen citizens' voice, enhance participation in decision-making and improve access to information. He said the organisation strives for increased participation of men and women in making decisions on monitoring of pro-poor policies.
Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Gender and Children's Affairs, Rosaline Oya Sankoh said government views women's issues as human rights issues as well as development issues. She said her ministry will engage the Political Parties Registration Commission to ensure that every political party adheres to the 30% quota.
On behalf of the European Union, head of section Governance and Social Services, Thomas Ashwalden said the EU strongly supports gender issues in Sierra Leone, noting that the agency uses gender as a cross-cutting issue to encourage progress on a range of social, economic and political problems.
Giving an overview of the dialogue forum, Daphne Olu-Williams of African Kind Heart said the forum was to enhance equal involvement of women in decision-making processes at all levels in the country, and built on the strengths of shared knowledge and skills.
She said the forum served as a platform for all stakeholders to reflect on what has been done and review expected outcome and chart the way forward for the advancement of women.
Giving an overview on the global situation of women in decision making, Director Women and Gender Issues Researcher and Consultant, GRADOC, FBC Dr. Aisha Fofanah-Ibrahim said quotas and affirmative action for women to date are seen as the most effective way of getting women into political and other leadership positions. She said 40 countries have introduced gender quotas in national parliamentary elections, either by means of constitutional amendment or by changing the electoral laws.
"Affirmative action and quota systems have not been enough to ensure gender equality in public offices," she said, noting that "this is because quotas do not necessarily change structures of power".
Dr Fofanah-Ibrahim said in addition to quotas capacity building, collective organizing and increasing women's participation not only in parliament but also in other spaces to accelerate quality of leadership, are needed.
Topics discussed included an update on the enactment of the Affirmative Action Bill 2011, and a presentation on the National Policy on the Advancement of Women.