By Rakiya A.Muhammad
The low participation of women in active politics has remained increasingly of global concern.
The UN General Assembly Resolution on women’s political participation observes:” Women in every part of the world continue to be largely marginalised from the political sphere, often as a result of discriminatory laws, practices, attitudes and gender stereotypes, low level of education, lack of access to health care and the disproportionate effect of poverty on women.”
GENDER GAP
The situation is even worse in some countries, such as Nigeria, where the Global Gender Gap Index 2022 rankings placed 123 out of 146 countries globally and 27 out of 36 African countries.
It also notes, “the widest gap that Nigeria has to close is political empowerment, which has been widening since 2012 and currently stands at 96%, with Nigeria ranking 141 globally.”
Before the 2019 general polls in the country, the ECOWAS Female Parliamentarians Association (ECOFEPA) noted the nation had the lowest female representation in elective positions in West Africa, with 7 per cent of women’s political participation since the 2015 elections.
But the outcome of the 2019 elections showed a worse situation- the proportion of seats held by women in the national assembly nosedived from 7 per cent to 4 per cent.
It is worse in some states in Nigeria. For instance, Sokoto Northwest Nigeria has no women in the State Assembly and zero representation in the House of Representatives and Senate.
“Women participation in politics in Nigeria is very appalling and unsatisfactory and very, very unacceptable,” observes Beatrice Eyong, UN Women Representative to Nigeria and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
“If you look at the African Region, Nigeria is one of the lowest as far as representation in parliament is concerned. Nigeria is just 4.1 per cent in the parliament as we speak to the national parliament, while in other countries like Rwanda, it is 67 per cent, Senegal is 57 per cent.”
Even as Nigeria prepares for another general poll in 2023, women have fared no better.
The Women in Politics Forum (WIPF), which researched the policy interventions to increase women’s participation in governance in Nigeria, complained about the low number of female candidates contesting next year’s elections.
Only 8.9 per cent of the candidates are females, with 381 women out of the total of 4,259 contestants for the presidential and National Assembly seats in the next year’s poll.
Executive Director of Gender Strategy Advancement International, GSAI, Adaora Onyinchere, underscores the need to proactively tackle barriers affecting women’s political participation.
“From our investigation, there is no sense of duty to women’s inclusion at the community level,” she states.
“So, there needs to be more effective in implementing policies at the grassroots.” Many others have urged the effective implementation of quota systems towards gender equity.
FRACTURED WORLD, BROKEN CONTRACT
However, gender inequality is not peculiar to Nigeria, as it remains a significant global issue. The United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) 2022 Flagship Report notes that women hold only 26 per cent of all seats in national parliaments, with a severely limited civic space in 87 per cent of countries.
The report titled ‘Crisis of Inequality: Shifting Power for a New Eco-Social Contract describes the world as fractured with a broken social contract.
The UNRISD report shows how inequalities and crises reinforce and compound each other, leading to extreme disparity, vulnerability and unsustainability.
“Increasing inequalities in income, wealth and opportunity and social outcomes intersect with inequalities in access to rights and participation which are under threat in many parts of the world,” reveals the report.
“Political inequality has significant implications for the possibilities for realising progressive change, with a particularly devastating impact on vulnerable groups. Women and minorities face challenges stemming from social norms that place them at the bottom of power hierarchies, as well as institutional barriers and limited access.”
It adds: “While women have achieved an expansion of basic capabilities such as voting rights, there have been little improvements in advanced capabilities such as active participation in political decision-making; only 26 per cent of all seats in national parliaments are held by women.”
The UNRISD report cautions that high economic inequalities often convert into steep power imbalances, undermine sustainable development, and prevent transformative change.
When intersecting with inequalities related to group identities such as gender or race, they can lead to protracted marginalisation and oppression, it adds.
“The social contract that has dominated the twentieth century –an implicit bargain between the economic imperatives of growth and productivity and social imperatives of redistribution and social protection- has broken down and cannot sustain the transformative vision of the 2030 Agenda,” the report argues.
NEW PATHWAYS
“Considering the linked economic, social, ecological and political crises faced worldwide, organisations and movements are calling for the creation of a new social contract among the people, between citizens and governments and between people and nature.”
According to it, the United Nations has a strong voice in this process based on its charter and comprehensive human rights framework; its different organisations working for peace, security and economic stability and sustainable development and emerging climate governance regime.
It adds that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development represents a high-level global consensus and commitment of UN member states on the key objectives that a new eco-social contract needs to fulfil.
“This new eco-social contract needs to be grounded in a broad consensus between different stakeholders, embarking on a democratic, inclusive and participatory decision-making process at multiple levels and feeding evidenced-based policy and proposals into decision-making forums,” the report points out.
“The basic idea of a new eco-social contract is to foster a new range of deliberative processes at local, regional, national, and global levels in different sectors and with different stakeholders to arrive at a shared vision, concrete objectives and commitments and accountability mechanisms.”
UNRISD holds that a vision to make social contracts more inclusive, just and sustainable could guide the new eco-social contract by applying seven principles.
The principles include human rights for all, gender justice, progressive fiscal contracts, transformed economies and societies, a contract for nature, historical injustices addressed, and solidarity.
The policy recommendations for reducing inequalities include Universal Social policies, Gender Equality policy, Anti-discrimination policies and Affirmative Action, Democratic Governance and Access to Rights Global Governance Reforms and Global Redistribution.
Others are Socially Sustainable Environmental policies, Urban policies, Labour Market and Employment Policies, Business and Market regulation, Food Systems Sovereignty and Nutrition Policies.
“Gender equality-enhancing policies can provide women with access to decent work, social protection and social services and ensure gender-inclusive public institutions (including political representation),” UNRISD explains.
“Gender equality policies need to be based on an intersectional approach to uncover compounding disadvantages and discriminations based on different categories such as gender and race or ethnicity.”
