Political empowerment of women a tool for sustainable development
Story by Tambaoga Gora
SUSTAINABLE development beckons for communities countrywide as the government walks the talk in promoting the participation of women in local decision-making processes.
As the country consolidates the gains of the National Development Strategy One, the establishment of the women’s quota system as a deliberate policy to promote women’s political participation is envisaged to usher in more gender-sensitive policies and projects at the grassroots level in line with the detects of the devolution agenda.
“We can applaud the government for this quota system. Before the system, Hurungwe RDC used to have only two women, now we have 10 of them, which is a plus to the development of the country, taking note of the vision of leaving no place and no one behind.
“As women can now stand for their development, there is a lot of development that women need that men can not recognise, for example, need clinics nearer, water and again they take care of school children, they make noise in the board room for schools to be nearer,” said Hurungwe Rural District Council Acting chief executive officer, Ms Felistus Mutetwa.
Hurungwe District Development Coordinator Andrew Tizora said, “We are happy that we have a fairly large component of women to represent issues of fellow women children and even men because women represent everybody.”
Women who benefited from the quota system are fully aware of their mandate.
“We are very happy that the President has opened up space for women and this post requires to do service delivery. In most cases, it’s women who suffer. We need clinics and roads, it is, therefore, my duty to ensure that service delivery cascades down to women,” said one of the female councillors.
Another added, “As women, when we go to the council our major challenge is water, we are going to work hard to ensure that is addressed.”
The government introduced the quota system to increase women’s representation in the legislature and local authorities, and promote gender parity and inclusive development.
