Gaborone to host SADC gender talks

| Friday April 13, 2007 00:00

Labour and Home Affairs minister Charles Tibone will open the three-day talks, which various dignitaries, including Members of Parliament (MPs), donor agencies and Gaborone-based diplomats are expected to attend. 

According to a SADC statement, this 'stakeholders' conference will 'synergise inputs from various member states' gauged from a series of regional and national consultative meetings with a view to enriching the final draft.

 

'The SADC Protocol on Gender and Development is a unique instrument destined to consolidate all SADC commitments on gender made at regional, continental and international levels such as the Beijing Platform of Action, the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the African Union Charter on Human and Peoples Rights and the Rights of Women in Africa etc., into a sub-regional instrument that will compel SADC member states to accelerate efforts towards achieving gender equality and equity in the Region,' it says.

 

Putting the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development commenced with the SADC heads of state and government decision taken at their summit in 2005 in Gaborone. The protocol aims at enhancing the implementation of gender commitments by member states.

A thorough stakeholders consultation was reiterated by the 26th ordinary summit meeting in Maseru, Lesotho, and the final draft is due for submission to this year's summit in Lusaka, Zambia.