By Prof. Ruth Meena
The CCM presidential candidate John PombeMagufuli names ten pillars of its government if given mandate to continue with power during this elections. None of which addresses women equality pillar. The pillars include: tight budget, increase of national income, improved service delivery, removal of cumbersome taxes, enlist all laws needing revision as well as dealing with general issues affecting citizens. Promoting growth does not necessarily lead to inclusive growth. Tightening budget will not automatically lead to women specific budget needs. While improved of service delivery mightnot trickle down to services that benefit women.
Similarly, the CCM election manifestohas four priorities which includes, fighting against poverty, employment for youth, fighting corruption, defence and security of the people and their property. Although economic empowerment is not part of the priority focus areas for CCM the section which covers economic empowerment of citizens has a section on women’s economic empowerment. In this area, the CCM government will continue to support women in accessing loans, form economic groups including micro finance groups popularly referred to as VICOBA. In politics the CCM government if given mandate to go back to power, pledges to work towards the realisation of 50/50 target of women participation in decision-making organs, as well as remove discriminatory laws, and protect women against discriminatory practices. The question here is, how will CCM government deal with these issues which are not priority areas in the first five years of its rule if we give it mandate to reclaim power?
The opposition camp under the flagship of CHADEMA which represents the coalition of CUF, NCCR-Mageuzi and NLD have not considered gender equality issues as a campaign message or priority focus during this year campaign. There seems to be a disconnect between the constitutional principles of these parties and electoral commitments and priority focus arrears of the manifesto.
In its introduction CHADEMA constitution declares a commitment to principles of equality and bans all forms of discrimination based on race, religion, as well as ideology. These commitments are further elaborated in Chapter four of its constitution which states that “the primary goal of CHADEMA is to promote, protect educate and advocate for the rights of people as provided in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and all other international, regional human rights instruments (Chapter 4.1.1). In spelling out its social economic goal, the party commits to take measures that will promote the rights of women, children and people with disability.
The NCCR-Mageuzi socio-economic and political goals are anchored on inclusive and participatory democracy which acknowledges complementarity and interdependency of human community. It state that the party believes in a society free from all forms of discrimination based on religion, sex, race and ethnicity (paragraph 7:13). In the light of this, the party recognizes the right to institute affirmative action that will enable rectification of historical imbalances in the society (paragraph 7:4). Purposeful measures will be undertaken to support marginalized groups in development processes (paragraph 7:9).
Contrary to the constitutional commitments the election manifesto of CHADEMA identifies four main principles of its philosophy which do not include gender equality philosophicalprinciples. These include: The supremacy of peoples power, peoples power key foundation for building democracy, peoples power has ultimate mandate in enhancing awareness, education, control over resources and creatively protect national resources for their benefit. We are aware that gender-neutral language (e.g. People’ power) has not been inclusive and many times ends up discriminating against women. The manifesto further spells out what it terms ideological principles. These principles do not include gender equality principles as spelt out in the constitutions the political parties constituting UKAWA. Some of the principles include: promoting growth (does not say inclusive growth), promote and protect national interest (national interest has not always included interests of women and other marginalised groups).
The central question here is: What is the gender implication of these electoral positions of the major competitors in the electoral race? If any of the two political giants in the race wins, gender equality and women’s empowerment is not going to be part of their priority focus, which means, women and human rights activist should not expect serious transformations in the current system which excludes them in decision making organs.
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