BY ABDUREZAK MOHAMMED
Women’s full and effective political participation is a matter of human rights, inclusive growth and sustainable development. The active participation of women, on equal terms with men, at all levels of decision-making and political involvement is essential to the achievement of equality, sustainable development, peace and democracy.
Women more than men tend to work across party lines, are highly responsive to constituents’ concerns. They also help secure lasting peace and encourage citizens to nurture democracy through their own participation.
The participation of women in political decision making positions was recognized as a political right after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Right (UDHR) in 1948.
In Ethiopia, the participation of women in political arena has been very poor. But, the past few years have seen some progress. From the parliament to the cabinet, the number of women has shown upward trajectory.
Women’s representation in the House of Representatives has gradually increased. The level of women’s representation in the HoPR of the FDRE grew from 21.4 percent in 2005 to 27.9 percent in the 2010 parliamentary elections. This is a remarkable increase compared to the 1995 and 2000 elections in which women held only 2.83 percent, (13 out of 547 seats) and 7.7 percent (42 out of 547 seats) respectively.
Currently, women hold 212 of 547 seats, which is 38.8 percent in the House of Peoples’ Representatives and 49 of 153 seats which is 32 percent in the House of Federation from the 2015 elections. This improvement leads us to speculate that in the coming 2021 election, though it is still controversial among various parties about the representation, will be enhanced.
Since three years ago, there has been also a pragmatic change in the number of women’s representation in the executive branch. After the reform that has occurred in Ethiopia in March 2018, the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) filled 50 percent of the cabinet seats with women, and that was 10 women ministers out of 20. Such measure, however, is made possible by the will of the Prime Minister, and is not supported by institutional and legal means to secure the 50 percent positions of the cabinet for women.
In relation to the 50 percent of the cabinet, positions were being held by women it is difficult to conclude that these women do have the real power to exercise the position in representing women as the current event exemplifies the case.
The highest positions like President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Election Board Chairperson and President of the Supreme Court are given to capable women by the leadership of the reformist administration.
Similarly, he also gave the higher political position to women and has even made 50 percent of the cabinet members to be women. He as well set the examples for all the States in the country to increase women assignment in higher political positions in which Oromia State took the lead.
This measure should be evaluated in two ways. First, it indicates that the Premier wants to empower women and he also knows that women are naturally gifted in leadership and hospitable to every humankind to care for them which is needed in democratizing a nation. Secondly, it demonstrates that the Prime Minister has decided to fight corruption as the percentage of women’s participation in corruption is less when compared to that of men’s. Due to this the country would be benefited and save billions of dollars that the country has lost prior to his coming to office.
Active political engagement includes voting, standing for office, joining political party or taking part in political campaigns and exerting influence in the decision making processes through public debate and dialogue or exercising public power by holding public office at different levels of administrations- local, regional, national and international, documents show. In the previous political arena, Ethiopian women had been excluded from public sphere for a long period, especially from politics. In view of the fact that political participation increases gender equality and empowerment by promoting women’s direct engagement in public decisionmaking, their involvement is very important.
Women have to come to the front and show their capacity without any pressure. In the same way, like other critical issues, we have to work on woman participation as women’s participation is low in competing political parties.
Even though Ethiopian women are less interested in politics in general due the domestic burdens and political stigmatizations, political parties have to follow the footsteps of the Prime Minister.
Recent study shows that this gap between the increasing number of women in parliament and the parallel inversely lack of capacity and condition to enable women to speak for themselves and others. Hence, it is legitimate to ask what the real impact of women’s political representation is.
At regional states level, women are represented by 50 percent at the councils, although not much by the executive, so said Abeba Yosef, Chairperson of the Women, Youth and Social Affairs Standing Committee of the House of Peoples’ Representatives.
In her previous interview with The Ethiopian Herald, Abeba stated that the participation of women in politics is good, but it is not enough compared to the total number of women of the country – about 51 percent of the total population.
According to her, the national reform has greatly contributed to the growth of women’s political participation. For the first time in Ethiopian history, President of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, President of the Federal Supreme Court, Chairperson of the National Election Board of Ethiopia, and Mayor of Addis Ababa City Administration are females, she further said. “In previous years, women were excluded from these positions; they seemed to be reserved for only men,” she noted.
When we come to the lower echelons of government, it is not as it should be, she further indicated.
All concerned politicians and communities have to bring women forward in all aspects of leadership, be it local committee or political affair. And the political leaders have to be committed to enhance women’s involvements understanding their innate leading capacity and truthfulness.
The Ethiopian Herald August 29/2021
