TGNP TO COLLABOTE WITH SGP ALLIANCE
IN DRAWING 2013/2014 TANZANIA GENDER BAROMETER.
2014
Tanzania Gender Barometer Stakeholders and workshop participants
Tanzania Gender
Networking Program (TGNP Mtandao) in partnership with the SADC Gender Protocol Alliance
conducted a three days workshop which lasted from 1st to 3rd
October 2014 at Holiday Inn Hotel located at city centre Dar es Salaam. The
workshop was convened by Ms Mary Nsemwa, workshop facilitator and a welcome
remark to all participants was extended by Ms Lilian Liundi TGNP Acting
Executive Director.
About twenty two
stakeholders from different public and private institutions participated in the
three days workshop to reflect on the regional and national key gender issues achievements
for the one year period and input into the SGP post 2015 Plan also to verify
the draft of 2014 Barometer and engaging ministries representatives to input,
and support in meeting the targets and mapping way forward towards the 2015
goals.
Led by Lucia Makamure,
SPA Gender Links, participants assessed and compared the current gender status of
various SGP Alliance member countries and narrowed the analysis to the national
context to input in this years’ national gender barometer edition, to be
launched by SGP Alliance by mid November 2014.
On presentation in
sustainable development, she stated that SADC Member States have committed to
mainstreaming gender into the SADC Programme of Action and Community Building
initiatives as a prerequisite for sustainable development. Furthermore she said
the goals to deepen regional integration and strengthen community building can
only be realized by eliminating Gender
inequalities and marginalization of women throughout the SADC region. It
is therefore of paramount importance that appropriate policies, legislation,
programmes, projects and activities aimed at ensuring gender equality and
women’s empowerment are implemented in all SADC Member States.
Some of the key
alarming issues after her presentation were whether the statistical data
provided by various information sources on status of various gender aspects give
a true picture of what is happening at the ground level. Along side this is the
issue of quality of the outputs achieved. For instance although statistical
data from various sources portray that girls enrolment to primary and secondary
school has increased in number there is still a huge disparity between girls
and boys who completes in science and mathematics subjects and even a much more
bigger difference for those who complete universities. Yet the learning
environment in many areas is not supportive for girl children and women
teachers.
Other aspects which
erected a discussion were whether to remain in the traditional gender concept
of gender based violence (GBV) or shift to a more practical concept of violence
against women (VAW) which is gaining more popularity in some of the SGP
Alliance member countries since many of the GBV survivors and victims are women
as compared to men.
The agenda of climate
change was also on the row for discussion. Participants noted that although
climatic change is a cross cutting issue it is nevertheless not linked to
gender issues while the more affected group is that of women and girl child who
have been handling the household chores such as firewood collection and
involved in agricultural activities and are the most affected with natural
catastrophes such as floods and droughts.
However, still missing
from global agenda are issues of women presentations in ICT and media given the
existing gender disparities in income and education and the location of a large
proportion of the female population in rural areas, the analysis found that
females are disadvantaged with respect to broad ICT access and usage.
While ICT adoption
cannot on its own address the broad challenges of socio-economic development,
gender-based policy and regulation is necessary to unlock heightened ICT usage
by women as a contributing factor to development.
The participants concluded
the workshop by a discussion on national post 2015 targets and indicators. The
target and indicators’ clusters included gender and responsive governance,
economic and climatic justice, gender management systems, voice and women
rights. Other clusters which were not included for reason of lack of reliable
data among others are constitutional and legal rights, violence against women
and peace and security.
Participants finally
highlighted the need for use of GMS’ and being experienced in it TGNP was asked
to guide other stakeholders in the use of GMS. Also participants raised a voice
on the need to mainstream gender budget (GRB) in every aspect.
However there is a
challenge of access to official information on gender issues especially in the
fields of media, climate change to mention a few which makes it difficult to
incorporate some of the key issues in the barometer because there is no
evidence to support the information.
Group discussion
during the workshop
The stakeholder are
thus looking forward to hold a reference group workshop earlier next week to
finalize the process of drafting Tanzania Gender Barometer, as a participant
said “it is a good tool for advocating for women access to economic resources
and against women violence.
TGNP Mtandao over the
years has been developing an annual national Gender Profile and this barometer
is expected to feed year’s gender profile.
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