My experience of becoming a female mayor—and just getting into politics, I must say—has made me very aware of how support for women is not very good. It’s forced me to conclude that my country is still not women-friendly when it comes to being actively involved in politics and taking on decision-making positions.
Deep issues in our culture still make the experience quite difficult. People think that women shouldn’t be in positions of responsibility. I’ve interacted with too many women—for example, councillors in our rural authorities— who share the common experience of being in meetings where some men refuse to be addressed by a woman. It’s the reality of being a female leader in my country. During elections, female candidates struggle to secure funding for their campaigns, while their male colleagues have disproportionate access to financial support.
I think we need laws and policies that compel the election commission to mandate that every party contesting an election has 30% female candidates, and if they cannot meet that quota, they cannot take part in any election. Only then will we be given the space we need as women. It’s difficult to work in an environment in which there are no laws to back us up. We need action, not just talk in boardrooms about this. We need to promote gender equality. It’s good for society. I can confidently say from experience that female politicians and technocrats have more commitment to what they are entrusted to do. We respect our mandate more than the men. That’s what I think. We deliver. But it takes more than just women to change this.
We need men who are gender champions to advance the cause of having more women taking part in advancing the political reforms we desperately need.
We also need a mechanism to make sure that central governments are more responsive to the needs and difficulties experienced by many local governments across the continent. I am an opposition mayor in the country’s capital city and I’m having difficulties working with the central government: this affects our being able to deliver on our promises to the people. So, we need to have mechanisms to address these sorts of issues. This could be a Congress formed by existing local government associations across the continent such as South Africa’s Local Government Authority (SALGA), our own Association of Local Government Authorities of Zambia (ALGAZ), and the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG). This can be a mechanism to make sure that central governments are more responsive to the needs and difficulties experienced by many local governments across the continent. The Congress should interface directly with the African Union which needs to establish a full department focused on local government rather than just a Steering Committee as is the case right now.
The African Union is uniquely positioned and possesses enormous potential to shape the future of African cities, but its impact on local governance depends on the extent to which it engages local authorities directly. That’s where we should start. Currently the AU primarily engages with national governments and, unfortunately, the priorities and policy directives at the national level in many cases do not trickle down to the local level, largely due to ineffective coordination.
*Edited for clarity and length
