The Sunday Mail
Moses Magadza
SADC lawmakers met in Johannesburg, South Africa, recently to discuss opportunities and challenges presented by social media in their work.
They met ahead of national elections in 11 SADC countries between this year and next year.
The meeting, led by the Regional Women’s Parliamentary Caucus (RWPC), was held under the theme “Leveraging Social Media to Advance Women Political Participation in the SADC Region”.
Officially opening the meeting, chairperson of the RWPC, Ms Regina Esparon, from Seychelles, said the SADC Parliamentary Forum (PF) has been creating a conducive environment for free, fair and credible elections in the region through a review and adaptation of legal frameworks governing electoral systems and processes, based on experiences and best practices.
However, limited resources have made it difficult to deploy election observer missions (EOM).
“This is a cause for concern that needs our collective action to ensure that resources are mobilised for the election observer missions to discharge (the forum’s) mandate,” Ms Esparon said.
She said SADC PF had received submissions from SADC citizens on various issues that affect women political participation in the region.
The submissions are aimed at answering questions on how to promote women’s participation in decision-making processes, measures that can be put in place to increase women’s representation in parliament and boards of corporations, and whether budgets passed in parliament should consider women’s issues.
The lawmakers noted that women are largely under-represented in decision-making structures in both public and private sectors.
The meeting focused on the use of social media to enhance women’s participation in politics. The objective of the training was to give women parliamentarians the requisite skills to use social media to effectively participate in political spaces.
Social media has become a powerful tool for advocacy and communication, with its ability to increase reach, create real-time engagement and amplify voices.
Said Ms Esparon: “Media in general plays a very important role in disseminating information in society and can help to shape citizens’ opinions, views or actions on any subject matter.”
She, however, said that limited or biased media reporting can affect career prospects of women in politics if it continues unchecked.
Social media experts Mr Mwila Chriseddy Bwanga and Mr Misheck Gondo jointly highlighted the many opportunities and dangers associated with social media.
They argued that social media can be leveraged to advance women’s political participation in the region.
They proposed a six-module framework for using social media. It includes understanding social media, creating engaging content, crafting a social media strategy, managing social media accounts, digital security and tools, and measuring success.
They said social media managers play a vital role in political leadership, developing communication strategies, monitoring conversations, managing brand image and responding to crises.
According to Bwanga and Gondo, social media has become a tool for change, with successful campaigns such as #FeesMustFall in South Africa, which led to a freeze in fee increases, increased government funding for higher education and free tertiary education for low-income students.
Bwanga noted that “beyond economic and political liberation, we need to digitally liberate our people so as to bring them closer to the new demands of today’s world”.
Overall, the two experts said social media presents opportunities and challenges for advancing women’s political participation in the SADC region, but with effective management and strategies, it can be a powerful tool for change.
Youth activist Ms Gugulethu Sihlali, who works closely with UNFPA, highlighted the need for comprehensive solutions to the issues of gender inequality, forced child marriages and gender-based violence (GBV).
She called for a recognition of systemic power imbalances that underpin issues such as child marriage and GBV.
She also stressed that these issues cannot be solved by simply educating girls and bridging the gender equality gap, but rather by dealing with the root cause of power imbalance.
Ms Sihlali highlighted the need for men to be involved in the conversation and rethink their attitudes towards these issues.
The activist also emphasised the importance of recognising the individual experiences of women and youth, particularly the intersectionality of different social discriminations.
