International Women's Conference & Commonwealth Women Parliamentarian Chapter Program of Action: Researcher briefing

Meeting report

Chairperson’s opening remarks
The Chairperson welcomed everyone and then expressed concern about the level of violence taking place against young women in around the country and this should be given a strong condemnation.

There had been apologies from Ms M Semenya (ANC) and Ms C Pilane-Majake (ANC).

Briefing on the International Women’s Conference
Ms Anelisa Dube, Parliamentary Researcher; indicated that there was a proposal that Parliament hosts a 2-day international conference with the theme of “Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50:50 by 2030.” It is proposed that the conference targets legislatures globally, but with a specific focus on the African region. The hosting of this conference will assist in giving effect to commitments that South Africa has made in international conventions and protocols such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action and at the regional level, the South African Development Community Protocol on gender and development. All of these instruments contain provisions for eradicating poverty, educating and training women and girls and closing the gender gap in the economy.

Ms Dube explained that the hosting of the conference will also feed into the work of the South African Parliament at global parliamentary platforms such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union and the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians. There was an incredible support from a number of relevant stakeholders for Parliament to be part and parcel of the conference. There should be proper consultation with stakeholders on the path to be finally taken by Parliament.

Ms Joy Watson, Senior Parliamentary Researcher, added that the objectives of the conference would be to create a platform for the discussion of the progress made on the continent in absorbing women into the economy and in creating working environments that are gender sensitive. There is also a plan to discuss the challenges in relation to absorbing women into the economy and the factors that impede upon their career progress and ability to manage their gender roles in the work environments. The conference will also provide an opportunity to further engage on related resolutions of the 2016 Women’s Parliament which sought to address gendered implications of poverty, unemployment and inequality. The Women’s Parliament called on Parliament to engage, inter alia, on a number of areas to facilitate women’s economic empowerment. This will be to protect the rights of women in vulnerable sectors of employment such as in the informal economy such as domestic workers, sex workers and women on farms. There is also a huge emphasis on the acceleration of training, capacitation and skills development programmes for women and address income disparity between women and men. The conference would create an ideal platform to engage on the role of Parliament in effectively overseeing the issues raised at the Women’s Parliament 2016.
 
Discussion
The Chairperson indicated that the Committee had a meeting with the Deputy Speaker of Parliament and there was an emphasis on the importance of oversight on the work of the Committee.

Ms M Chueu (ANC) said that there should be a thorough research on what was happening in the country especially since Ms Susan Shabangu was working alone in the Ministry. It would be difficult to talk about transformation in the economy while Parliament itself was not conducive for women. There should be a crèche in Parliament that will ensure that it caters for Members of Parliament with babies. It seemed like the country still subscribed to the western culture of doing things without taking into consideration of the African culture. Even the working conditions for women like working hours are not representative of women agenda and this was something that needed to be emphasised on the conference. Women are the worst affected by unemployment and government departments still expressed patriarchal values that disregard women.

Ms Chueu suggested that the Committee should firstly consult provinces before undertaking the conference in order to get all the necessary views and ideas about women agenda. It was quite clear that women in Parliament were being overlooked by the very presiding officers that had been put in place to represent women.   

Ms T Memela (ANC) expressed concern about the timeframe for hosting the conference considering that the Committee still needed to consult all provinces. It was indeed true that the Committee was being overlooked by Parliament and this would make it difficult it to make any meaningful impact. It is also true that the working conditions for women in Parliament was not conducive as women often worked long hours with no time to look after their families.

Ms S Nkomo (IFP) said that Members had already flagged important issues around the working conditions of women and this could not have been said better. There are a number of issues that are affecting women and this was evident in the recent bombing in Manchester. The timeframe for the conference was really short for the Committee to consult all provinces considering that the conference planned to be held in August 2017. The Committee basically had two months to consult all the provinces and this was unrealistic.

Ms P Bhengu-Kombe (ANC) also said that the timeframe for the Committee to have a successful conference was very short as August was around the corner but the Committee could work very hard and start preparing to consult the provinces immediately. The conference is planned to be held in late August and the Committee had all of June and July to make the preparations.

The Chairperson thanked Members for their openness on a number of issues affecting women and this was the real intention of the caucus in the first place. The conference should take place as this was about the country and addressing the conditions of women. The provincial speakers are aware of what the Committee was doing in terms of its programme and therefore it would not take much time to consult all the provinces. Members should support the conference that will take place in August in order for the Committee to be able to produce a report that would be taken to the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarian (CWP). It must be made clear that the Committee was generally in support of the concept of having the conference.

Briefing on the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarian (CWP)
Ms Watson said that Ms Thoko Didiza (NA House Chairperson) highlighted that the nature of work is changing – has profound impact on the lives of women. Improved technologies and application of these required more adjustments and re-training. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) showed that a number of goals were not met for a variety of reasons. Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) talks to gender equality. The majority of goals speak to issues that affect women and girls. The role of CWP is to ensure delivery of goals through oversight. In 1989 – women convened the first commonwealth conference of women MPs. This started as loose forum of women MPs who attended the forum. The CWP also includes the secretaries of Parliament. After 5 years, there are new MPs so there needs to be a new committee and new branch. From 2014 till now, South Africa did not have a CWP chapter. In some countries, they have separate CWP committees while in others, women’s caucus becomes the structure.

The Africa region had a workshop and one of the issues raised was the fact that very few women pursue life in politics. There is very little gender activism in political parties. One of the important focuses was on finding ways to ensure that political parties have mechanisms to increase women’s participation.

Discussion
Ms G Tseke (ANC) proposed that there should be a sub-committee to further discuss the involvement of Parliament in CWP.

The Chairperson also suggested that the Committee should have a strategic workshop on the issues to be prioritised in the CWP as indicated by the House Chairperson. The strategic workshop could be held between 20 - 30 June 2017 as this would be considered as a period for conducting oversight.
           
Ms Tseke said that perhaps the Committee could have the strategic workshop before the closure of schools and this would ideally be in the week of 26-30 June.

Ms Chueu also proposed that the Committee should have a study tour in a particular country that provided women with free sanitary pads so as to see how they were doing it in terms of funding and distribution.  

The Chairperson thanked everyone present in the meeting as the Committee was able to discuss important matters about the International Women’s Conference and CWP. It must also be highlighted that the Minister of Women in Presidency recently pointed out that she was against the decriminalisation of sex workers as she believe that this would further lead to the abuse of sex workers. The Committee was generally of the view that sex workers should be decriminalised.

The meeting was adjourned.