Women’s Lobby happy with high female representation

Thu, 25 May 2017 12:19:00 +0000

By KALOBWE BWALYA

THE increase in the number of women at both parliamentary and local government level raises hope that many women could ascend to decision making positions, says Zambia National Women’s Lobby national board chairperson Beauty Katebe.

Ms Katebe said the number of women elected during last year’s general elections especially at parliamentary and local government from Luapula and North-Western Province would have been even higher, but many aspiring candidates were disqualified on account of academic requirement stipulated in the amended constitution.

Speaking during the closing program on “Count me in Project” in Lusaka yesterday, Ms Katebe said the said project contributed to the increase in the number of women holding political leadership positions in the two provinces.

“The benefit of the “Count me in Project” will continue to trickle down to many more female politicians in the two provinces. We have so far achieved one practical example through mentorship programme,” said Ms. Katebe.

She said the women politicians who have been mentored would in turn groom others, thereby allowing more to benefit from the project as well as continue facilitating women’s access to political leadership for many years to come.

Ms. Katebe also said inclusion of women in leadership and decision making is critical to the socio-economic development of Zambia such as gender balance in leadership.

She said it was important to continue building and nurture partnerships that promoted women’s participation in leadership.

Ms Katebe thanked the American people and USAID for being in support of Zambia’s democracy by promoting the participation of women in leadership and the electoral processes.

“Partnerships are often more successful than organisation endeavours because of the shared responsibility and avoidance of doing everything within one group’s own constraints of perfection, knowledge, skills or other resources,” she said.