Ministry of Gender Permanent Secretary Mainga Kabika has called on political parties to revise their party constitutions to accommodate more women into leadership positions.
Mrs Mainga explains that this will help address critical issues affecting women and girls in the country.
Equal participation of women will enhance development , she reasons, by addressing some of the issues that hinder women from realizing their potential as they contribute to social and economic development.
Speaking at the side-lines of the Commonwealth Women’s forum in Kigali, Rwanda, Mrs Kabika said the Electoral Commission of Zambia ( ECZ ) should also compel political parties to field 50 percent women among candidates seeking political office.
ZANIS reports from Kigali, Rwanda that the Permanent Secretary maintained that it is important for Zambia to participate in the women’s conference as it will provide the country an opportunity to share ideas and learn from successes of other countries with regard to equal participation in decision making positions.
“We can take lessons from countries such as Rwanda where 61 percent of parliamentary positions are held by women while Zambia is lagging behind at 14 percent,” she said.
The Permanent Secretary said the country can enhance women participation in key leadership positions and be able to leverage funding.
Mrs Kabika demanded that that funding institutions should assist women to access loan facilities.
She noted that access to finance has been inhibiting women engaging in entrepreneurship and politics stating that few women have the financial muscle to participate in politics.
Meanwhile, Karen Nakawala, a member of the taskforce on the ‘Elimination of Cancer’ stressed the need for the commonwealth countries to look at ways of reducing cervical cancer especially among countries with the highest cases of the disease.
Ms Nakawala observed that Zambia is ranked third from Malawi and Eswatini and called for more collaboration on issues such as access to treatment.
“Though treatment of cancer in Zambia is free, we have a challenge because there is only one facility which is specialized in cancer treatment and it also provides services to other countries in the region so we need more facilities that are accessible,” she said.
Ms Nakawala , who is a Cancer Survivor , further stressed the need for enhanced access to HPV vaccine among eligible girls stating that this is the only way to eliminate cervical cancer.
She also noted that information sharing on best practices will help the country adopt similar lessons regarding sensitization and treatment of cancer.
We are all suffering under your govt regardless of gender. Fuseke!
Everyone should have equal opportunities not just women because you want to be gender sensitive and not just men because you think they will do a better job than men.
More women like the Govt Spokeslady who never said anything tangible in the last 6 months …just there to draw a salary and make numbers for women!!
Because of your f00Iishness you persuaded your fellow ignorant tribal supporters to vote for this incompetent government and now you choose to criticise the same people you wanted in power. You are a chicarla!
WE employ more women and there will be more development-In what way? You mean to say that jobs and businesses will immidiately jst fall from trees or what? If anything, not that iam anti-women but truth is truth, Women in most cases are actually non productive or they tend to sit on jobs-nothing gets done and its ussually just a circus kind of business operation. Kagame yes has 61%,yes, and so was Gadaffi. I guess you now know why he has more women than men. Those are not women, they are Gov spies and Sex dummies to satisfy his sexual pleasures jst like Gaddaffi did. They are ussually recruited at very very tender ages(under ages) & they grow into the system. It is every dictators or ganster ‘s priority- Front Women.as security. Go into the Rwandan parliarment & u wont find a single…
You wont find a single document in any Rwandan Government or Parliament that promotes women rights. Women are infact more unhappy in Rwanda than in Zambia with that 14% of ours. Women here are happy and independent. In Rwanda they are Kagame’s dummies,spies or security wall fence. No one can shoot thru a group of beautiful women,hence dictators recruit these gorgeous women. But if are to ask them about governance or what there job is there-thats when you ll find out how empty their heads are or how clueless they are cos they are told what to do each morning. Without these instructions, they cant function. Super empty tins. Women empowerment is genuine in First world countries but not these Dictator countries.
The empowerment is also genuine in countries like Zambia despite the slow space but atleast it is legimate.
If we copy and paste the system that Kagame is using to empower women, two things will happen, 1. most of you women will start committing suicide. and 2. Most of you will leave Zambia and never wish to come back. And maybe to add on 3. Most of you who ll stay, will become slaves to your men for life as our president himself would become a pimp himself. And so when you are mistreated by a pimp back in your house, where wud u got to complain ? to another pimp in statehouse?