DDP Policy Forum: “Strengthening women’s participation in local governance - lessons and strategies beyond the local government elections”.

As we approach the local government elections, it is worth noting that South Africa has made great strides in establishing a constitutional and legislative framework for building a participatory democracy. There is a need to explore the extent to which existing participatory mechanisms enable active participation by women in municipal processes, and possible alternative approaches and models to strengthen this.

The DDP invites you to the first Policy forum for 2011 entitled:
“Strengthening women’s participation in local governance: lessons and strategies beyond local elections”.

We are pleased to invite Ms Janine Hicks (Commission on Gender Equality), Dr Roshini Bob/ Ms M Ntsiki (eThekwini Municipality) and Ms Sizani Ngubane (Director, Rural Womens Network) who will make presentations on the dynamics of women’s participation in local governance.

The forum expects to bring to discussion the following, among a range of other issues:
 The need to assess existing public participation mechanisms in the local government sphere in order to determine whether these are accessible to the marginalized and poor women, and the need to develop alternative mechanisms that are accessible and empowering to women
 How gender equality has been addressed in structures such as ward committees and how the eThekwini municipality provides for women’s participation in local governance
 How gender equality is being addressed internally within municipalities and the implementation of national gender policy framework, and gender mainstreaming of IDPs
 How women’s groups experience participation in local governance

The Forum will be facilitated by Mr Imraan Buccus who will prepare a Policy Brief summarizing the key findings and recommendations to feed into the policy process.
(Imraan Buccus is Research Fellow in the School of Politics at UKZN and at the Democracy Development Programme)

Forum Details
Date: 24 March 2011
Venue: Southern Sun, Elangeni
Time: 08h30 – 16h00 (Full day session)
RSVP: No later than 10 March 2011 to Suraksha Singh via
Fax (031) 306 2261 or e-mail: suraksha@ddpdurban.org.za