HARARE-(MaraviPost)- The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Women’s Caucus on Sunday urged the regional’s heads of state to urgently operationalize Sexual Reproduction Health Rights (SRHR), HIV and AIDS. They also stressed the importance of this for vulnerable girls and women.
The call comes as the region still registers the heavy burden of HIV and AIDs and STIs related diseases, high maternal mortality rate, high fertility rate, and the recent upsurge in teenage pregnancies, obstetric fistula, as well as non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as breast cancer and cervical cancer among others.
In a capacity-building session held at Kadoma Hotel and Conference Center in Zimbabwe from September 28 to October 1, 2017, the SADC lawmakers agreed on three thematic areas, which need to be pushed within the next six months.
In the communiqué released and made available to The Maravi Post, the session resolved to focus on among others, advocating for amendments to the Electoral Act to guarantee 50/50 representation at the political party level; pushing for the allocation of 15% of the National Budget to health services in compliance with the Abuja Declaration on Health Spending, and conducting awareness campaigns on SRHR issues for women and girls in Members’ respective constituencies.
Zimbabwe Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, which was at the centre of the session, will be on executing resolutions in its six-month project span.
The meeting further acknowledged that Parliamentarians in general and women Parliamentarians in particular, have a critical role to play in exerting and maintaining political pressure, influencing and scrutinizing policies and stimulating national responses to SRHR.
The workshop therefore, called for unity of purpose among women Parliamentarians regardless of their political affiliation and encouraged the women legislators to ride on the collective strength of the Zimbabwe Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, as a unique platform for women to identify their needs and speak with one voice on issues affecting them, including SRHR issues.
In an interview with The Maravi Post, the Chairperson of SADC’s Regional Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, Dr Jessie Kabwila, who served as a resource person in order to enhance cross-learning during the session, emphasized the need for governments in the region to take women’s health rights issues with urgency.
Dr. Kabwira, the Malawi Parliamentary Women’s CaucusChairperson and Member of Parliament (MP) for Salima North-West, said the SADC block needs to have one voice when championing health rights for women and girls.
The lawmaker observed that women participation in leadership positions remains a challenge in the region, hence the push for 50/50 women representation at the political party level.
“The block needs to champion the agenda that empowers our local women on leadership positions for development of their countries. Even access to sexual reproductive health services, must be guaranteed to women and girls, hence these series of sessions, which next will be Namibia after Zimbabwe,” said Kabwira.
The workshop aim was to enhance the capacity of women Parliamentarians, under the ambit of the Zimbabwe Women’s Parliamentary Caucus, to influence strategic national responses to sexual and reproductive health rights (SRHR) and HIV and AIDS Governance in Zimbabwe and to review the progress made by the Eighth Parliament in the implementation of the SRHR Project and to chart the way forward in the remaining 6 months of the Project’s implementation.
The session attracted twenty four (24) Members of the ZWPC, including the Chairperson Monica Mutsvangwa, who is also the Vice- President of the SADC PF, the Deputy Chairperson, Paurina Mpariwa, and representatives of the SADC PF Secretariat.