Partnerships with Women’s Parliamentary Caucuses Seek Transformative Changes on Gender Equality

Over 150 women Members of Parliament (MPs), Representatives of the Zanzibar House of Representatives (ZHoR) and male MPs who are gender champions participated in UN Women Transformational Leadership workshops recently held in Dodoma and Zanzibar.

The four-day workshops, organized under UN Women’s Leadership and Political Participation programme, “Wanawake Wanaweza” Phase II, with the support of the Governments of Finland, Sweden, the United States through USAID, and Switzerland, aimed to strengthen and equip women MPs with further knowledge and skills to effectively undertake their legislative, representative and oversight functions, particularly in the advancement of women’s rights and gender equality.

At the opening of the workshop at the Tanzania National Assembly in Dodoma, Honourable Shally Raymond, the current chair of the Tanzania Women’s Parliamentary Group (TWPG), highlighted the importance of providing capacity building opportunities for women’s caucuses of parliament.

“This is a unique opportunity for all of us, and especially young and newly elected women MPs, to see how we can ensure we execute our decision-making roles effectively, for the benefit of women and girls, and all Tanzanians,” she said.

UN Women Tanzania’s Representative, Ms. Hodan Addou, said that given that statistics show that nearly half of the current women MPs are in their first term in the National Assembly, enhancing their capacities was important.

She said the training, which also included selected male members of parliamentary committees, will help ensure that women’s rights and gender equality are better promoted in parliament.  “This includes promotion through legislation, budgeting, and oversight processes, as well as through private motions.”

Tanzania has made significant progress on the advancement of women’s leadership and political participation. As the only country in East and Southern Africa to have a woman as Head of State, women currently constitute 37 percent in the national parliament –13 percent over the global average – and 38 percent of the Zanzibar House of Representatives. The President has also recently committed to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment through the appointment of more women in leadership and decision-making.

One of the MPs participating in the workshop, Honourable Ng’wasi Kamani stated that, in order to make greater progress and achieve goals for 50/50 representation in decision-making, some of the persistent key obstacles to women’s leadership still need to be addressed.  “There is still this social stigma that has been built by society, where many believe that women cannot be on the same level as men and do not have the intellectual ability to make decisions on the same level as men. This is a false assumption.  We have a lot of examples of women leaders who have demonstrated great capacity to lead and make progressive decisions in various sectors in Tanzania and beyond” said Hon. Kamani.

Programme Lead, Ms. Erasmina Massawe, said “Wanawake Wanaweza” Phase II, which has been working with TWPG for a number of years , aims to support the Government of Tanzania’s efforts to ensure women lead and participate in decision-making at all levels. The programme interventions focus on creating an enabling environment, eliminating social barriers, supporting institutional change, and strengthening the capacity of potential and actual women leaders, she said.

“In this new phase of parliament, we will scale up our work with the women’s caucus,” said Ms. Massawe, “this will include initiatives from capacity strengthening workshops such as this one, supporting the development of their strategic plan, upscaling the mentoring programmes, and continuing to work with male champions within parliament to support the promotion of discussions and initiatives on gender equality and the empowerment of women within the Parliament, and beyond.”

UN Women is also partnering with the University of Dar es Salaam to support TWPG in the development of their Strategic Plan to cover the duration of the current term, with plans in place to undertake further capacity strengthening initiatives.

“As TWPG, we are aware of the important role we play as women leaders to effectively represent the needs of women and girls across the country,” said Hon. Raymond, “with the support we are receiving, we want to build a stronger TWPG, for current members and the members that follow, working to achieve far-reaching benefits for the constituencies we serve.”