Spotlight on women empowerment at CSW68

National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Deputy Chairperson Sylvia Lucas has told delegates at the 68th annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68) that advancing gender transformation necessitates parliaments to regularly assess prevailing gender norms in communities. 

This, she stated, will ensure that policy interventions are targeted for each community to improve the efficiency of policies.

Lucas addressed the second session of the gathering on the theme, ‘Gender-sensitive Institutions to Break the Poverty Cycle’.

In her address, she said parliaments’ capacity to craft gender responsive law-making and policy interventions is a critical area that needs attention. 

Parliaments should also continue to build women’s capacity to advocate for gender-responsive oversight and law-making processes across important sectors like development and transformation.

The Deputy Chairperson is accompanying National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to the CSW68, which is organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and United Nations (UN) Women. It is taking place in New York until 22 March.

Lucas said parliaments have a critical role to play in reducing poverty through gender transformation by enacting laws that are gender-responsive and which are framed with dexterity to disrupt gender-regressive norms and behaviors across society at large.

“In working towards achieving gender transformation, we must continue to be guided by existing international and national protocols and legal frameworks, including prescribed norms of gender transformation, which can be used to strategically shape policy-making and promote gender equality,” she said.

Lucas told the session that South Africa has recently adopted the 2021 Women’s Charter for Accelerated Development. This charter is based on international best practice and mandated by South African women. It outlines critical areas for parliamentary intervention in policy, legislation and programming. The charter’s goal is to meaningfully advance gender transformation and reduce poverty.

“To this end, critical policy areas highlighted through our Women’s Charter Review process include the recommendation for the amendment of budget policies, money bills, fiscal policies and tax laws, including macroeconomic policies, which we view as critical areas for sustained and high-level analysis and amendment. 

“If amended to make them more gender-responsive in their shape, form and content, these policies and legislative instruments will serve as enabling instruments to achieve poverty reduction and gender transformation objectives,” Lucas said.

Lucas said some of the capacities and resources parliaments should continue to invest in include gender-responsive budget analysis capabilities and law-making, gender-responsive oversight and oversight agenda-setting, and increasing capacity to use gender-disaggregated data to shape budget decisions and commitments. – SAnews.gov.za