Makinda urges gender activists to fight for equality

“What we have achieved so far is still relatively little, but it cannot be ignored. The voice of women is now heard and appreciated in different decision-making organs of the government,” Ms Makinda remarked in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday.

The retired Speaker said there was sufficient reason to be upbeat about the increase in number of women in decision- making organs of the government and afterwards the achievement of the fifty-fifty agenda.

“But our optimism must be mediated by awareness of the obstacles and challenges that come in between the way,” she observed when officiating at the international constructive dialogue on women political empowerment in Tanzania.

Ms Makinda on the other hand hailed the Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) for embarking on several programs on political empowerment during the past ten years.

“The programs include training women local councilors in various districts in Tanzania, supporting female parliamentarians through the “Tanzania Women Parliamentary group as well as coaching female aspirants interested in entering into a political career,” the retired speaker noted.

Briefing journalists at the sidelines of the dialogue, the Resident Representative of HSF in Tanzania and Uganda, Ms Julia Berger, note of the fact that Tanzania had made significant progress in empowering women politically compared to other countries in the African continent.

“It is due to these reasons that we have continued to support various programs to enable enhanced participation of women in politics,” she stated. The views were shared by veteran politician and first President of the Pan-African Parliament, Ambassador Getrude Mongella, who expressed concerns however that women were currently being left out of politics due to limited financial resources, among others.

“In the past we worked voluntarily to serve the people but the situation has changed; women are currently being left out because they lack financial resources which has become a driving force in politics,” she noted. At the same occasion, the National Chairperson of ACTWazalendo,

Ms Anna Mghwira, urged fellow women leaders to effectively make use their positions to serve the people. “We (women) have all what it takes to equally serve the people, we should stop complaining use our positions effectively,” Ms Mghwira, the lone women presidential aspirant during last year’s General Election stated.