Women’s lobby gets funding to support women
By Staff Reporter
Zambia Women’s Lobby (ZWL) has launched a project aimed at building capacity for women seeking leadership positions.
The four year project dubbed ‘Empowering Women for Effective Participation in Politics is being implemented in Kaoma, Kapiri Mposhi and Lusaka with financial support from the Democratic Political Parties of Finland (DemoFin).
Project Coordinator Lombe Nambeya explained that the project focuses on building capacity in women wishing to run for political office, especially at local government and constituency levels in the targeted districts.
Nambeya said this during a seminar for women aspiring to run for political positions drawn from various political parties, the church and business community in Kapiri Mposhi district.
“We are going to work with women from nine different political parties in the target districts to capacity build them and provide them with necessary support to aspire for political office in the 2021 general elections and beyond,” she said.
Nambeya stated that the current statistics on the number of women occupying political offices in Zambia were not encouraging.
She said the country needed to do more to attain various regional and international treaties it has ratified on women representation in decision making positions.
“Currently, for example at councilor level we have a total of 1,624 councilors but only 126 are women. This is a clear indicator that we need to do more in ensuring parity,” she said.
And Kapiri Mposhi District Women’s Lobby Chairlady Ruth Mweemba challenged the women to seek influential decision making positions in their various political parties.
“Women in politics should not downgrade themselves to being experts as political party dancers, we should rise up and inspire confidence for us to be taken seriously in the political arena and confidence will not come if we continue to dance and sing for others,” she said.
The seminar drew participation from several political parties and stakeholders.
