On January 21^st, 2008, WRC, with the collaboration of West Africa Regional Office (WARO), held a conference on the theme of “Decentralization in Sub-Saharan Africa:  What has it meant for women’s political participation and access to services?” in Dakar, Senegal. This event was aimed at sharing experiences and identifying next steps for development research and policy implications in the area of decentralization and women’s rights in Ghana, Namibia, Lesotho, Uganda, South Africa, Senegal and Sudan.

 

There were three presentations: Dr. Penda Mbow, Professor and Researcher, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar;  Dr. Alison Todes, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa; and Asha El-Karib, Director and Program Manager at Gender Centre for Research Training, Khartoum, Sudan.

 

 

Dr. Penda Mbow identified challenges in the negotiation of democratic process in the regionalisation process in SSA, as pertaining to women. She argued that decentralised power is where women can best build their capacities. Specifically, decentralisation can be a vital tool in urban management, and facilitate the growth of cities. This inadvertently leads to social equity, with an increased efficiency in public services. Mbow highlighted several women’s challenges in the decentralization process, including women’s lack of access to public spaces, patrimonial attitudes and the lack of a critical mass.  She suggested several strategies to promote the articulation and adoption of women’s rights and citizenship in the decentralised system of government, such as creating a critical female mass, training and capacity building of women, removing the obstacles which hinder women from political participation and improving communication about the local development committees.

Mbow concluded the address by proposing possible areas of research: increased legislative engagement, personal empowerment and capacity building of women, the building of a critical mass of women and the identification of spaces within the decentralisation system where women have a comparative advantage.

 

 

Dr. Alison Todes’ paper presented a comparative study on the decentralisation systems in Uganda, Ghana, Namibia and Lesotho. Lack of data and literature on the implications of decentralisation was identified as a constraint in conducting research. Dr. Alison Todes surmised that contextual differences, including resources and municipality size, have an impact on women’s access to services and their political participation. 

 

The research findings demonstrated that decentralisation does not necessarily improve women’s access to political participation, and that in spite of quotas opening up spaces for women’s political participation, there is a stigma attached to these positions.  The policy and research implications of the paper provided some recommendations on possible research topics, and operational issues. These included strengthening or building a critical mass of women, and engendering the decentralisation structures and processes. Todes also stressed the importance of allocating more resources to gender mainstreaming processes.

 

 

 

Asha El-Karib’s paper presented a practical example of how women have not benefited from Sudan’s decentralisation in health, education and in the ownership of resources. She drew upon examples that the Gender Centre for Research and Training experienced in engaging with the state, and summarised by sharing the organisations’ best practices and lessons learned. She also brought to the forefront the complexities that religion, the nature of the state and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement play in hindering women’s rights and citizenship.

 

The decentralisation process has negatively impacted upon women’s access to resources such as land, water and credit.  Decentralization has also aggravated the gender differences in access to and control over labour, and land. Women are not consulted or involved in meetings regarding the need and location of boreholes, yet they are responsible for water collection.

 

Asha El-Karib proposed that the state build the capacity of key government officials in strategic ministries such as Planning, Finance and areas specific to citizenship, and development and proposed that IDRC build capacity and share and disseminate research findings. She spoke about the capacity that had been built within the Gender Centre as a result of engagement in the research study.