Hosia Mviringi
The Women Rise in Politics initiative in partnership with the Zimbabwe Gender Commission and United Nations Women is launching a mentoring and Training Program for all aspiring women politicians.
The initiative, which dovetails with the Constitutional mandate of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission, is aimed at bridging the gap between men and women in positions of influence and in public leadership spaces.
“Pursuant to its mandate, the Commission has partnered the United Nations Women to develop the initiative Women Rise in Politics (WRiP), a mentorship and training program to build capacity and confidence of aspiring women political candidates,” said the Commission in a statement calling for applicants.
The initiative has a soft spot for rural and disadvantaged women, young women, disabled women, women living with HIV among other groups to be identified.
The program that cuts across the political divide is an affirmative action initiative that identifies women as a vulnerable and disadvantaged group in a largely masculine and patriarchal society and more so in the cutthroat arena of politics.
It seeks to offer hand-holding services to aspiring women leaders and politicians to try and encourage more and more women to take up political positions.
“Zimbabwe Gender Commission is established in terms of Section 245 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe to promote, protect, enforce and advance gender equality”.
“One of the functions of the Commission is to recommend Affirmative Action programs designed to achieve gender equality as provided for in the Constitution,” said the statement.
This initiative is a timely fulfilment and confirmation of the government aspirations to empower women through a legislative process which saw the Women’s Parliamentary quota being extended by a further ten years under the recently adopted Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Number 2 Act of 2021.
“And for our women, we have an agenda of women empowerment, and in the constitution, we, had agreed that we will have a women’s quota for ten years, but it’s come to an end now, and as a country, we, decided that let’s extend the tenure so that perhaps after that time we can then review,” said Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Honourable Ziyambi Ziyambi soon after a vote in the Upper House on May 4, 2021.
The significance of this bill is that it now empowers the Government as well as political parties to plan for 2023 elections knowing very well that the women empowerment agenda is still on course.
All aspiring women candidates, political party affiliated and independent alike, with interest in running for elections, both national and local, have been called to submit a motivational letter and a brief profile to the Commission through established channels.
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