Women parliamentarians face challenges in CAR

Hurdles include lack of finances and discriminatory behaviours and mindsets, but women parliamentarians are meeting the challenges.

CAPE TOWN, March 19 (ANA) – A female member of parliament in the Central African Republic says women parliamentarians face issues at many levels.

Bernadette Gomina, a member of parliament for the administrative division of Bayanga, cited challenges such as lack of finances and discriminatory behaviours and mindsets.

“But us women… we have our part to play, we must change our mindsets and get to work, together, to change this situation,” said Gomina.

Gomina was one of two women elected in the first round of the 2020–2021 legislative elections in the country.

She detailed the challenges that women leaders face and how the Forum of Women Parliamentarians has helped spark change.

“I can tell you, perseverance pays,” said Gomina, who ran unsuccessfully for the legislature in 2005 and 2010. She was elected in 2015 and re-elected in 2020.

The country’s first-round presidential and parliamentary elections on December 27 were mired in violence and attacks by rebel groups. UN peacekeepers and local and Rwandan soldiers patrolled the streets of the capital Bangui in armoured vehicles posted outside polling stations.

Rebels, who the UN said were backed by former president François Bozize, sought to take control amid allegations of voting irregularities. Many voters were unable to cast their ballots due to armed groups’ disruption of the vote at the time.

According to “Africa Renewal”, a magazine published by the UN, many candidates in the provinces, women in particular, were threatened, robbed and even physically assaulted.

In response to complaints by women candidates, UN Women and the UN Police established a hotline to receive reports of violence against women.

“I didn’t get discouraged by all the negative experiences,” said Gomina. “My constituents continued to encourage me, giving me the strength to continue campaigning.”

She said when she was first elected, she found out that the schools in her locality had no teachers or equipment.

“Of course, each locality has a small budget, but it was managed by local authorities who were not responsive,” she said. “I had to respond to these challenges on my own, through donations and hiring high school teachers that I paid from my own salary… because I couldn’t stand to see children in my locality lack a proper education.”

A former midwife, Gomina submitted several project proposals to international organisations and built a women’s centre in Bayanga with the support of MINUSCA, the UN peacekeeping mission in the CAR.

She also championed open days in parliament, when girls from high schools interact with women parliamentarians and job-shadowing initiatives are promoted to encourage more young women to get into politics.

Since 2015, UN Women supported women’s political participation by establishing the Forum of Women Parliamentarians, in collaboration with the UN’s Development Programme (UNDP), and by building the capacities of women parliamentarians and community leaders alike.

“The forum has been an important (impartial) tool to advocate for women’s rights,” said Gomina, its vice-president during the past legislature.

“It is also a great platform for experience sharing. When other parliamentarians talked about their initiatives, they gave me ideas as well. For example, I got inspired to bring solar-powered street lamps to our villages following the testimony of another woman parliamentarian.”

Between 2015 and 2020, with support from the Peacebuilding Fund, the governments of Canada and Sweden and UNDP, and through the Ministry of Women, UN Women supported the revision and adoption of gender-sensitive laws, including the 2016 Parity Law, which provides for a 35% quota for women in all decision-making bodies, the UN magazine wrote.

However, implementation of the Parity Law remains a challenge because of lack of enforcement. Although parties are required to have a minimum number of women on their lists, they can provide a simple explanation to the constitutional court why they haven’t met the quota to get their party validated.

“When it came to the Parity Law and other laws on gender, (forum members)… all agreed to convince fellow MPs and members of our respective parties to vote in favour. …It is because we were there, and we worked together, that today the Central African Republic has its Parity Law,” Gomina said.

Leading up to the 2020/2021 elections, UN Women, in partnership with UNDP, MINUSCA and the European Union, also advocated for and supported a gender audit and gender strategy for the National Elections Authority and revisions to the 2019 Electoral Code.

As a result, women represented 38% of local electoral authorities, compared with 11% during the 2015 elections.

– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher