WOMEN AND POWER: Strategizing on Women’s Political Leadership

Patricia Munabi Babiiha, Executive Director of Forum for Women in Democracy (FOWODE) was one of the African women from 15 countries across the continent who gathered in Nairobi Kenya from April 23^rd to the 24^th to deliberate and strategize on women’s political leadership in Africa. Convened by FEMNET (African Women’s Development and Communication Network) and Urgent Action Fund – Africa (UAF-Africa), the meeting engaged seasoned politicians, aspirants, women’s rights activists, leading organizations engaged in enhancing women’s political leadership, donors, UN agencies and the media.

Participants discussed the varying socio-political contexts in which women in politics operate, including increasing militarism and fundamentalisms across the region. Personal accounts of political journeys were also shared over the course of the two days. Ms. Munabi Babiiha in her presentation which looked at “Women’s shifting position and condition in East Africa’s political landscape: A critical analysis of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania” noted that although all the countries had constitutions that had quotas which subsequently led to an increase in the numbers of women in legislatures this had not necessarily translated into transformation of the lives of the ordinary women. She ended with some questions to enable interrogation of our work with women in politics: Do we have women in Parliaments that have been given power but are without power? Shouldn’t we begin to interrogate how the change we expect happens? What other spaces do we need to create to build feminist leadership so that we can have a pool from which leaders can be drawn? Is it feasible to think that we can create change from within in view of how governance and politics is practiced in our countries? The meeting was a vibrant gathering that enabled dialogue and debate on issues of political leadership, fostered cross continental learning and served as an agenda setting and planning meeting for a larger convening on African Women’s Political Leadership that will take place in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire in November 2014 that is expected to bring together over 200 participants.

The Abidjan conference will be a follow up to the Women Steering Innovative Leadership in Africa (WSILA) International Conference that was convened by Urgent Action Fund-Africa and her partners including FEMNET in Malawi in September 2013. The conference addressed the obstacles to women’s integration into leadership, contributed to the process of bringing gender equality issues to the centre of national priorities, and helped to build the expertise of African women leaders to impact on significant socio-political, economic and environmental issues.

By the end of the two-day meeting a collective roadmap for the Abidjan conference and an action-oriented agenda for furthering women’s political leadership across the African continent had been agreed.