Madagascar's Halting Progress on Gender Equity - Building Gender Balanced Business

• Political gains for women in much of southern Africa, and Madagascar in particular, come slowly and only sometimes steadily, but there are positive signs.

• 3 of Madagascar’s 22 regional heads, who are appointed by the national government and oversee local development, are women, as are 4 of the 21 ministers who make the appointments.

• The number of women in Parliament doubled after the 2007 elections, with women making up five of the 33 senators though only 11 of the 127 deputies.

• But there is a huge disparity between the national government’s tepid but real move toward gender inclusivity and a local preponderance of men: Only 63 of the 1,547 mayors in the country are women.

• Madagascar was already committed to tripling the number of women in political posts, but the country now is a signatory to the Southern African Development Community Gender Protocol, which calls for gender parity in leadership positions by 2015.

• “The presence of women in decision-making positions is very weak; it does not exceed 10 percent,” said Ginette Ralimanana, director of gender at the ministry of health, family planning and social protection.

• Angéla Rabozakandraina, in charge of relations with SADC at Madagascar’s ministry of external affairs, said some women lack confidence in their abilities while others delay starting their political careers until their children are grown.

• For Rabozakandraina, the main thing is not to wait for gender parity but to eliminate gender inequality in the first place: “The promotion of equality between girls and boys from birth: that must be the priority.”

The AllAfrica portal to the Inter Press Service News Agency report