Namibia: Councillors Seek Ways to Empower Women

	Email This Page Print This Page Comment on this article

New Era (Windhoek)

28 August 2008
Posted to the web 28 August 2008

Petronella Sibeene
Rundu

Councillors in the Caprivi and Kavango regions recently met at Rundu to discuss ways through which women programmes could be given priority in the national budget.

Councillors of both regions during the gender budgeting workshop, sponsored by Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung, said the Government should set aside funds for programmes aimed at empowering women in Namibia.

"We want the Government to set aside money from the national budget for the benefit of programmes meant to uplift women. That is a very feasible task," said the Mayor of Rundu Town Council, Joseph Mukoja.

The workshop is part of a series of meetings held in different regions of the country by the Namibian Elected Wo-men's Forum (NEWF) as it strives to see gender-sensitive legislation introduced.

Mukoja says, "The same way that the national budget puts aside money for, say, building a bridge, it should do the same with for instance, financing income-generating projects run by women."

One area where Government could consider putting money would be in agricultural projects where presently, many women are involved but cannot progress due to lack of financial resources.

The mayor added that projects that possess growth potential and can uplift many women from the existence of poverty should be supported.

"Our task therefore, is to identify both the projects that have actual importance and those with potential. Thereafter budgeting should start with the projects with the most urgency," he emphasised.

Governor of the Kavango Region, John Thighuru, acknowledged during the workshop that women, as one segment of the population, warrant special attention due to their vulnerability brought about by lack of access to resources.

He said the purpose of gender budgeting was to assess the adequacy of allocation of resources for women and establish the extent to which gender commitments are translated into budgetary commitments.

Gender budgeting, the governor added, does not seek a separate budget for women only but attempts to break down Government's mainstream budget according to its impact and the changes it brings in people's lives.

Because of that, Thighuru said, issues of gender equality should explicitly be addressed at the planning stages of national development priorities.

"Planned policies and programmes must be analysed to determine any differential impact on women and men and adjusted accordingly before decisions are taken so as to ensure that they support the achievement of the gender equality goal," he said.

No barrier - be it religious or cultural - should today discourage women's participation in matters of decision-making and generally empowerment, commented Chairperson of NEWF, Lucia Basson.

Kavango has two women councillors out of nine, while Caprivi has one woman out of six.

Read comments. Write your own.

AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.

Share this on: Facebook Digg Del.icio.us StumbleUpon Muti

Copyright © 2008 New Era. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.

Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed Sign up for FREE daily 'top headlines' by email >>

Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | My Account

Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement.