Gender parity is �good� for society
Correspondent | Thursday March 9, 2017 15:34
As you are aware, this year’s campaign theme is “#BeBoldForChange”. As you recall, last year’s pledges on the same day were to:
l help women and girls achieve their ambitions,
l challenge conscious and unconscious bias,
l call for gender-balanced leadership,
l value women and men’s contributions equally, and create inclusive, flexible cultures.
Pledges are important, but not enough as we go back to our day-to-day work and forget the actions that are required to fulfil those pledges. This is why this year’s theme is to focus on whether we are actually bold enough to take deliberate action to help women to advance and unleash their potential or whether we wait for things to evolve over time, which could take us well into the next century - if ever.
All these pledges seem to be almost obvious, one could boldly argue they are indisputable, but the latter one is a difficult one: the cultures that determine the gender relation. Culture is indeed not fixed; there is no unique African culture or European or whatever culture that will stay forever. Cultures evolve in historical timeframes. There are many different drivers of cultural evolution; one of them is economics, but there are other important ones. In rural, agricultural societies gender roles are usually rigid and people are conservative about them. This is where we all come from. But our world is changing increasingly rapidly.
Globalisation is also globalisation of information and ideas. Access to internet, urbanisation, and the ongoing transformation from agricultural economies to industrial and service economies – all those drivers of change tend to challenge what previous generations believed to be normal or not normal, right or wrong.
I personally believe that in light of a fast changing world, it is important to strive for clarity of values and that evolving cultures do not lead to confusion of what is right or wrong. We must stand up for clear values and defend them while our societies are changing – some may say “developing”. We are perhaps not all born equal, but we are all born with the same rights, human rights because we are created by the same God, and have the same legitimate demands for equal opportunities in life and for equal treatment, equal access to education to health and other social services. And again, it is not said that women are the better human beings, it is that women and girl-children tend to be more vulnerable than men and boys and therefore deserve our special attention.
We are all aware that much has been achieved in Botswana when it comes to gender parity: in employment, ownership of land or enrolment in secondary and tertiary education. Botswana can be proud of many achievements. But we are also aware that women and girl-children are far too often victims of gender-based violence and abuse. Particularly the sexual abuse of school girls remains a big concern as you know better than I could ever. And it is simple: it is wrong. And we all need to be bold enough to say so and to be bold enough to do something against it.
And, as I am the Ambassador of the European Union, let me say that Europe has not achieved gender parity either. We are also struggling ourselves in various areas. But we are all here as human beings to commemorate the International Women’s Day, not to give lessons but to reflect together. I believe that our values are unifying us as Europeans and Batswana - that we believe in the same things being right or wrong.
Even though we are struggling, let me say that gender equality is at the core of European values and thus enshrined within the European Union’s legal and political framework.
We strive to be at the forefront of the protection, fulfilment and enjoyment of human rights by women and girls, both inside our Union and abroad. We therefore try to promote gender equality also in our external relation. We have supported local initiatives in Botswana such as Kagisano Society Women’s Shelter to work through education and awareness messages on gender-based violence or Stepping Stones International, which has received our support to work on protecting the rights of children from sexual abuse and exploitation in various communities throughout the country. And we have supported many more community-based activities with the same objectives; in fact 27 small, medium and large grants have been extended to NGO projects under our programmes.
The EU adopted a far-reaching Gender Action Plan (GAP)which applies also to us as EU and not only to our external relations knowing that progress has been too slow and bold action needs to be taken. We recognise that we all have sometimes failed to take the gender dimension sufficiently into account in what we are trying to achieve and that we need to focus the attention more conscientiously on pursuing our collective goals at home and abroad. But I should not fail to mention that the GAP is fully consistent with the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development revised last year, and which has not been ratified by Botswana.
Let me close by saying that gender parity at our times is also good for society at large. We know that without achieving gender parity, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will be hard to achieve. Let’s be bold for the benefit of our communities and our economic progress. Let’s be bold - for the future benefit of our families!
Thank you for your attention. Ke a leboga.
*Baum is the Head of the European Union Delegation to Botswana and SADC. He was speaking at the national commemoration of International Women’s Day yesterday