Zambia

Women for Change (WfC) would like to encourage traditional leaders to emulate Chief Mulolo of the Chewa people of Chadiza in Eastern province of Zambia by promoting positive cultural practices that protect and promote the rights of girls and women.

WfC is concerned with the continued cultural practices that perpetuate gender inequality and consequently impact negatively on the future of girls and women in Zambia.

A consortium of civil society organisations (CSOs) of which Women for a Change is part, has reiterated its call on government to suspend the current non-governmental organisation (NGO) registration exercise and immediately initiate a process to repeal the Act.

The civil society organisations said they will remain resolute and unshaken to any innuendos and manoeuvres by any section of society to force them to be registered under an instrument that they claim was aimed at ‘killing’ the country’s democratic liberty.

Empowering women. (Photo: WfC)

This report tracks the extent to which Zambia is making progress towards achieving the MDGs focuses on Goals 1 to 7 and assesses Zambia’s national development plans, the main tools for achieving economic and human development, particularly the Fifth National Development Plan (FNDP). It also analyses problems in the way the MDGs are formulated, arguing that unless these are taken care of, the human development conditions of countries such as Zambia will remain poor for a long time. Finally, it makes proposals for post 2015 reform.

At the launch of the MDGs in 2000, Zambia’s human development indicators were weak, owing to the steady deterioration of the economic and social conditions since the mid-1970s, when prices of its main produce copper fell on the world market. From the late 1980s and 1990s Zambia implemented the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund inspired Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), under which significant cuts to public expenditure were applied, considerably weakening delivery of social services in the health, education and other sectors. This period is also when the HIV and AIDS pandemic hit Zambia the hardest.

Dr. Emily Sikazwe, former SW Coordinating Committee co-chair, was selected as exceptional women to celebrate International Women’s Day and also to launch VIDEA’s 35 profiles of exceptional women.

Emily Sikazwe. (Photo: St. Francis Xavier University)

Zambian civil society organizations, especially those devoted to women’s rights, are demanding for the Republican Constitution now on debate to be approved through an assembly and a referendum. The first draft, launched by an official technical committee, contains progressive provisions on gender equality and the promotion of women’s rights, said Women for Change executive director Emily Sikazwe.

Inspector-general of Police Stella Libongani. (Photo: Government of Zambia)

Sex workers who parade the streets of Zambia at night will suffer harsh jail terms or fines in a crackdown that shall commence soon, according to the inspector-general of Police Stella Libongani. The Non-Governmental Organization Coordinating Council said the arrests will not solve the problem, reported the Daily Maill.

In terms of gender equity Zambia lags well behind the Sub-Saharan African average and most of its neighbours.

President Sata talks to new Inpector General of Police Stella Libongan. (Photo: Thomas Nsama/State House)

Women for Change (WfC, focal point of Social Watch) and the Non Governmental Organizations Coordinating Committee (NGOCC) hailed the appointment of Ms Stellah Libongani as Inspector-General of Police.

Emily Sikazwe. (Photo: DanChurchAid)

Religious leaders and politicians have to combine efforts against gender based violence and sexual assaults on children in Zambia, urged Emily Sikazwe, executive director of Women for Change, focal point of Social Watch in that African country.

The Zambia We Want Campaign launch. (Photo: Women for Change)

Emily Sikazwe, executive director of Women for Change (WfC, one of the focal points of Social Watch in Zambia), congratulated Michael Chilufya Sata on his election as the 5th Republican President of that African country. She also called on “all peace loving Zambians to embrace the change of government with dignity and unity”, according to Q FM radio station.

Sources: BantuWatch, IPS, Global Voices, Reuters, AllAfrica 

The electoral campaign and the polls held on Tuesday in Zambia counted on unusual but effective observers: the citizens themselves could report irregularities via Twitter, SMS, Internet and telephone thanks to BantuWatch. That’s the name of an initiative headed by the Southern African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (Saccord), with the technical support of the Dutch Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation (Hivos) and the Social Development Network (Sodnet, focal point of Social Watch in Kenya).

The Zambia We Want Campaign launch. (Photo: Women for Change)

Sources: IPS, Women in News

Women must "start working hard" to have a stronger political representation and to include gender issues for the 2016 elections, given they are not properly represented for the September 20 general elections, said Emily Sikazwe, the executive director of Women for Change, a gender focused non-governmental organization working with communities, especially women and children in rural areas and national focal point of Social Watch in this African country.

WfC empowering their fellow countrywomen. (Photo: WfC)

Sources
Women for Change
Women in Touch newsletter
IPS report

Women for Change (WfC, focal point of Social Watch in Zambia) has been working for months to increase the participation of citizens, women and men, in the campaign towards the general elections to be held next September.