ATC190319: Report of the Multi- Party Women’s Caucus on its activities undertaken during the 5th Parliament (May 2014 – March 2019)

Meetings held

13

12

23

Legislation processed

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Oversight trips undertaken

1

1

1

Study tours undertaken

0

0

0

0

International agreements processed

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Statutory appointments made

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Interventions considered

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N/A

N/A

Petitions considered

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N/A

24-28 Nov 2014

The MPWC visited Gauteng province to meet CGE  and Gauteng MPWC

Gauteng Provincial legislature MPWC

To assess the CGE’s programme of action and activities in the provincial offices.

To attend the launch of the 16 Days Campaign of no violence against women and children.

To assess progress in relation to participation of women in government.

To assess the impact of the current legislative framework on women

Foster relations between the National MPWC structure and the Gauteng MPWC.

To endorse a collaborative program of action for the respective Multi-Party Women’s Caucuses.

CGE to implement specific programme focussed on changing attitudes and negative stereotypes against women.

CGE to consider internal employees when filling the vacancy for supply chain management.

CGE to expedite addressing worker grievances especially within critical sections like finance.

CGE to review its funding model and advocate for additional funding by National Treasury

CGE to brief the MPWC about all its research reports to enable the MPWC to do follow ups with government Departments.

The meeting with Gauteng MPWC did not materialise

27-31 March 2017

Mpumalanga

To share and learn best practises with the Mpumalanga MPWC.

To visit women owned farms together with PC on Agriculture and learn about their challenges and successes.

Mpumalanga MPWC to engage Provincial Departments about women representation in senior level.

The Office of the Premier through the Office on Status of Women to play an active role to ensure adequate representation of women in senior positions.

Mpumalanga MPWC to lobby the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to assist women with cooperatives, funding and land allocation for commercial farming.

Mpumalanga MPWC  to lobby for gender responsive  Provincial Departmental budgets

Mpumalanga MPWC to lobby and advocate for male MPLs and male councillors to be champions for gender equality, including adopting programmes focussing on ‘boy child’ when addressing gender violence.

Mpumalanga MPWC to launch the UN Heforshe Campaign

Mpumalanga MPWC to embark on a program for moral regeneration in order to change some of the societal norms that reinforce gender inequality.

The Multi-Party Women’s Caucus at a national level should convene a consultative meeting with all 9 Women’s Caucus’ from the Provincial Legislatures to deal with issues related to women in the country as well as the budgetary aspects of Women’s Caucus’.

A workshop was hosted by the national parliament MPWC in August 2017 for all Provincial MPWC and CWP chapters

Date

Event

Objective

Recommendations

Responses to Recommendations

Follow-up Issues

Status of Report

22 – 23 September

2014

Business Planning Workshop

The workshop focused on how the MPWC would give effect to its mandate during the 2014/15 and subsequent financial years in pursuit of building an effective Multi-Party Women’s Caucus responsive to the needs of women Members of Parliament, and women generally. The expected outcomes were as follows:

•           To identify the priorities of the MPWC;

•           Develop a plan that responds to the needs of female Parliamentarians;

•           Guide the use of resources in furtherance of the Plan; and

•Develop tools that can serve as a basis for monitoring and evaluation of Departments and Entities by female Parliamentarians in their respective Portfolio Committees.

Furthermore, the purpose was to link the adopted business plan of the MPWC with the vision and mission of Parliament.

•The MPWC should champion  for a gender sensitive Parliament by engaging with the Speaker’s Office regarding identified challenges within Parliament

•The MPWC should focus on influencing Parliamentary Committees to be vigilant and ensure programmes implemented by Executive are gender responsive. The MPWC to devise strategies in this regard.

•The MPWC should be a forum where women Parliamentarians can come together and support each other across party political lines and race.

•The MPWC as a collective should be utilised as a powerful platform (e.g. to raise issues and make pronouncements) and a mechanism to put forward  positions on matters that extends beyond political party affiliation e.g. debates in the House, motions, statements, submission on Bills etc.

•The role clarification must be cascaded down to Provincial Legislatures.

•Noting the role of the MPWC to act as an advisory, influencing and consultative body by promoting the discussion of women issues in Parliament.

The MPWC to identify topical issue/s, which it will advocate for the benefit of women. One such area is the Campaign for “Land to Women”.

•Furthermore, the MPWC should revitalise its relations with Provincial women’s MPWC in order to cascade the program for the liberation of women to the Provincial Legislatures.

•The MPWC recommended that all women should champion for the change of mind-sets and society/communities must take responsibility and lead this fight.

•The perception of the MPWC being limited to only lobbying and advocacy to be changed.

•Members of MPWC should be role models for the girl-child and women at large.

•The MPWC should focus on addressing the decline in the representation of females in Parliament. The MPWC should be more assertive in ensuring compliance with the 50/50 standard by continuously engaging all political parties.

•Further to this, the MPWC should also lobby for legislative reform to cater for mandatory gender quotas. These legislative mechanisms should not only focus on the public sector but the private sector as well, while learning from regional and international best practises.

Actioned

Adopted

5 June 2015

Workshop with the Provinces Post 2015 and Targets of SADC Protocol on Gender Equality

In July 2015 the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum was to host a meeting of the Regional Women’s Caucus, and part of the deliberations at the SADC-PF was to include discussions on the post 2015 SADC Protocol on Gender Equality. Countries were expected to report on engagements with stakeholders on the revised goals and targets. Specifically, the report to the SADC PF detailed the following:

1. Overview of any consultations with relevant stakeholder national, provincially and locally on the proposed frameworks, targets and indicators for the post-2015 SADC Gender Protocol discussions.

2. Any information on Parliament's collaboration with relevant institutions that track the implementation of the SADC Gender Protocol in the legislative sector specifically

3. Any work done in terms of human trafficking, domestic violence and the economic empowerment of women.

The purpose of the workshop was to consult Provinces in order to compile an elaborate and inclusive report of the RSA Multi Party Women’s Caucuses.

1). In the absence of legislated quotas MPWC need to advocate for adoption of voluntary gender quotas in political parties ahead of 2016 local government elections;

2).Continue to lobby for quotas in order to reach 50/50 in provinces and nationally, whether through reviewing existing legislation or initiating new policies; Quotas should not only relate to political decision making, but should apply to decision making at all levels of society;

3).Monitor existing gender equality legislation and look at resources – improve oversight to improve implementation and ensure that they have a positive impact on the lives of ordinary women

4).Need to focus on women of all races, across all sectors taking into consideration the heterogeneity of women.

5).To ensure effective public participation by engaging directly with women to ensure their interests are adequately represented, and further ensure adequate continuous engagement with civil society;

6).Ensure mainstreaming of women into the economy,  and ensure access to benefits made available by legislation aimed at ensuring equal participation;

7).Review gender responsive budgeting within departments to ensure adequate resources are directed towards gender equality;

8).Obligate departments and all agencies of government to provide gender disaggregated data for more evidence based policy making, and to ensure that programming for women begins to address their particular needs more accurately;

9).Encourage the mentoring of women in all sectors to take up positions of decision making including in the Judiciary, the private sector and in public sector institutions;

10).Ensure that programmes of government adequately address women’s particular reproductive health challenges including early screening for cervical cancer and the continued high HIV infection rate amongst women;

11).Continue to work to integrate the country’s approach to dealing with Gender Based Violence;

12).Continue to work to ensure that Legislatures are gender sensitive institutions that adequately deal with issues including sexual harassment, fair parental leave for both women and men, and adequate facilities to accommodate all Members of Parliament;

13).To put more emphasis on issues affecting persons with disabilities;

14).To harness and pursue indigenous knowledge.

15).To ensure the enforcement of legislation meant to protect the rights and interests of vulnerable groups including the LGBTI community;

16).To deal directly with patriarchy and its social, cultural and economic manifestations, and for both female and male Members of Parliament in their leadership capacity to promote and encourage gender parity;

Actioned

Adopted

01 – 02 September 2015

Women’s Roundtable Discussions

The objectives of the Roundtable Discussion were to:

•Explore the role of the Legislative Sector in ensuring that the objectives of the NDP relating to women are achieved;

•Deal with the challenges faced by women in relation to Parliament’s strategic priorities (strengthening oversight and accountability; enhancing public involvement; deepening engagement in international fora; strengthening co-operative government; and strengthening legislative capacity);

•Ensure that matters emanating from the plenary discussions are properly debated in the two Houses and processed through the relevant committees; and

•Ensure that the outcomes of the Roundtable Discussion are actioned within committees.

Oversight:

• Parliament, through its committees, must develop effective oversight mechanisms for monitoring implementation by departments of programmes concerning gender based violence.
• Parliament to ensure that the approach to gender based violence is inter-departmental and co-ordinated.

Gender responsive budgeting:

• Parliament must ensure that government departments report on their budgets for programmes aimed at supporting victims;
• Parliament must also ensure effective oversight over budgets related to GBV. 
• Parliament must develop tools to ensure that all Committees are able to engage in gender responsive budgeting; and
• Parliament must engage with National Treasury to ensure that budgets for GBV are ring-fenced.

Focus on education

• Through the committees dealing with education, Parliament must ensure that there is additional support in the education system w.r.t. psychosocial support services to children that are victims of violence, peace education, and a focus on the socialisation of boy child.
• Parliament must ensure provision of free sanitary products for all indigent women and girls. 

Review of legislation:

• Parliament must explore how to address human rights violations such as that experienced by sex workers.

Public participation:

In terms of the objective of enhancing public participation, the following resolutions were adopted:

• Parliament must create opportunities for public participation on budgeting for gender based violence; and

• Members of Parliament must ensure that they are in close contact with their constituencies in terms of being informed of gender-based violence in their constituencies.

Implementation of resolutions taken by the roundtable :

• To ensure discussions and debating of matters emanating from the plenary by both Houses and processed through relevant committees.

6 December 2016

 UN HeforShe Launch and sign up

Objective was to launch the campaign and to lobby male MPs to sign up as champions of gender equality.

Advocate Male MPs to champion the fight against gender discrimination and gender inequality.

Launched

15 June 2017

Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Business Planning Workshop

The workshop aimed to achieve the following key strategic objectives:

1.1        To enhance the understanding of Members of Parliament on the role and work of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Chapter in relation to the current role of the Multi-Party Women’s Caucus.

1.2        To develop a minimum program of action for the added role that the Caucus has acquired in terms of its CWP work.

1.3        To link the work of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Chapter with the existing program/work of the Joint Multi Party Women’s Caucus.

1.4        To discuss issues affecting the representation of women in political decision-making positions in all spheres.

The meeting further made the following recommendations:

1. The MPWC as the CWP chapter should maximize the participation of all female Members of Parliament in its activities by re-igniting the activisms in all the female politicians within Parliament.
2. The MPWC as the CWP chapter should actively reposition itself as an active Committee of Parliament and broaden its scope in dealing with issues affecting women.
3. The MPWC as the CWP chapter should be more visible around Parliament; and advocate male counterparts to be champions of gender equality.
4. The MPWC as the CWP chapter to host events around Parliament on Cancer Awareness and other social events in order to sensitize Members including male counterparts about plight of women .
5. The MPWC should engage with Political Parties to persuade them  about increasing the number of women represented and participating in decision making positions within political organizations
6. The MPWC should host engagements about violence against women and children.
7. The MPWC should interact with all Departments and Committees about adoption of gender responsive budgets.

Adopted

29 – 30 August 2017

International Women’s Conference

Key objectives of the conference were:

•           To create a platform for the discussion of progress made on the continent in absorbing women into the economy and in creating working environments that are gender sensitive.

•           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 work environments.

•           To address the ways in which violence against women negatively affects women’s ability to be economically active.

The conference declaration committed Parliament to a number of things. These include:

• Effectively oversee poverty alleviation strategies, including addressing the plight of women and girls in situations of extreme poverty.

• Conduct oversight of the integration of government action for women’s economic empowerment into national sustainable development, poverty eradication and sectoral strategies, policies and action plans at all levels.

• Encourage legislative reform that seeks to address structural barriers that constrain work and family responsibilities of women.

• Oversee gender-responsive education policies and strategies at all levels, including ongoing, lifelong learning opportunities for women and girls.

• Parliaments should adequately capacitate resource and support the work of Women’s Caucuses in order for the MPWC to be effective.

• Accelerating reform and initiatives to address violence against women and its impact on the economic and social empowerment of women through vigorous oversight and ring fencing of budgets for programmes aimed at addressing violence against women.

• Adopting sexual harassment policies that cover all aspects of sexual harassment, including harassment by Members of Parliament to members of staff. Parliaments should set the example of adopting a zero-tolerance approach to sexual harassment.

• Commit to forming partnerships and engaging civil society and the private sector and ensuring their regular and meaningful participation in legislative and oversight processes.

• Develop national action plans for oversight over programmes aimed at attainment economic empowerment of women.

• To develop and adopt clear targets and benchmarks against which progress should be measured.

The Multi-Party Women’s Caucus at national and provincial levels should ensure that the conference resolutions are actioned.

01-02 November 2018

National summit against gender based violence and femicide

The summit was convened after a call by a total shutdown movement to the Government to craft strategies in order to deal with the scourge of violence against women and children including  the LGBTQI

The National MPWC to oversee implementation of declarations undertaken during the summit.

The National MPWC to escalate the declarations to the Provincial MPWC  and municipal councils for

Referred to the 6th Parliament for implementation

Adopted

National Treasury and Ministry of Women

Gender Responsive Budgeting – The Caucus expressed a need for NT to ensure that all approved budgets are gender responsive and the Ministry of Women to develop a gender responsive budgeting framework to be utilised by all Departments

Ministry of Women and IEC

Introduction of mandatory gender quotas

Ministry of Women

Review and strengthening of national gender machinery

National Parliament MPWC

Establishment of women’s caucuses in Provincial legislatures and municipal councils

National Parliament MPWC

Legal reform in relation to sex work

30 October 2018

Not stated

The Assembly calls for the development, adoption and implementation by the Multi-Party Women’s Caucus of a comprehensive education and support programme for all women, including those in the rural hinterland

Caucus is deliberating on a draft document on the comprehensive education and support program