Migiro: Change doesn’t come on a silver platter

Today, Tanzanian women join their counterparts across the word to the mark the International Women’s Day.

In light of this, The Citizen News Editor Esther Mngondo interviews the Tanzanian High Commissioner to Britain, Dr Asha-Rose Migiro, on her experience of people, who have inspired her to be what she is today and what needs to change to make gender parity a reality. Excerpts:

Question : Can you draw from personal experience on people or experiences that have inspired you to reach where you are today in your career?

Answers: Growing up from a little girl to who I am today I cannot say I have drawn inspiration from a single experience or one source only. Different kinds of experiences and people have inspired me in different ways through the various stages of my life.

Mentoring started when I was growing up – it is from my parents and family that I drew profound experience and inspiration. My family was the first school before school, this is where I learnt all that has made me what I am today and built the foundation that came to see me getting the honour and privilege to serve nationally and internationally. It is from my family, both immediate and extended, that I learnt a lot, from simple life skills to core values of my community and country.

Then, when I started school the motivation and experience were diverse. What is unquestionably clear is the inspiration I drew from my teachers throughout my school life. Being in a class of young pupils in primary school the first adult that I looked up to was my teacher.

In those formative years it was that sense of care, protection and service from my teachers that left a lasting impression on me. I saw in them the compassion that made me feel they were my parents away from home.

My teachers became my role model and inspired me – that I should work very hard, learn diligently so that one day I too will stand in a class, impart knowledge like my teachers were doing and wear that mantle of caring and serving.

Then, surely the process of learning continued. I finished high school and joined the National Service (Jeshi la Kujenga Taifa). This was an experience of its kind and I look back with some sort of nostalgia.

There, young women and men from different parts of our country spent a year-long service to our nation – living in military camps, learning a number of things - from endurance and discipline to patriotism, from acquiring skills in agriculture, poultry, vocational to military training. Then, came the university, where I built on what I had acquired.

In reaching where I am today, apart from the political vision of our national leadership, my family, teachers, lecturers, fellow students and workmates inspired me in various ways from their discipline, hard work and dedication to serve.

What challenges have you personally faced in your journey to be bold for change?

#BeBoldForChange… is indeed the campaign theme for this year and I am happy to share my experience. My journey to work for change started, in a way, when I finished my LLB Degree at the University of Dar es Salaam.

At that time, I was attracted to join the judiciary to work as a magistrate, like my father. But after the final examination results my lecturers convinced me to pursue a career in the academia. I started working as a tutorial assistant.

In the course of time, I followed closely what a good number of my professors and senior colleagues did apart from lecturing in law. They provided legal aid to the needy on specified days of the week after their usual academic work.

This was very inspirational. So, after a short time I too joined the legal aid scheme of the faculty. Through this, I learned a lot of the challenges that our communities faced in the pursuit of their legal rights. Ranging from pure ignorance of the law to systemic issues that affected timely and smooth access to legal recourse.

In addition to serving through the Faculty of Law legal aid scheme, I joined the Tanzania Women Lawyers’ Association, Tanganyika Law Society and later on the Women’s Legal Aid Centre. My membership in these and other non-governmental groups gave me a chance to join forces with other women and men to bring about change.

Bold for change? Yes, together with colleagues and friends from within and outside the legal fraternity (through the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme, Women’s Advancement Trust, Tanzania Media Women’s Association, to mention but a few) we worked tirelessly to bring about change through sensitisation on legal rights and especially women and children’s rights and human rights in general.

We knew that sensitisation was not all that was needed. So, we were in continuous engagement with political leaders, in particular Members of Parliament, and through them with the relevant government institutions. Our joint efforts bore fruit.

The Parliament took bold steps to enact such laws as the Special Offences (Special Provisions) Act, 1998, the Land Acts of 1999, made various amendments to the Penal Code and the Law of Evidence. Apart from these many other administrative actions were taken by government to address the challenges we are talking about in accessing access to justice. There are many other examples of what stakeholders and government worked together on to bring about positive change. But there were also challenges!

As we well know, change is not always easy to effect especially, where some of the things one is dealing with are deeply embedded in society – culture, practice or tradition.

Getting people to change their attitudes or getting the support of community leaders and the people in general can be an obstacle. Then, once society welcomes change it remains for legal and administrative institutions to work towards tracking that change. This can take a long time and in that way discourage those, who want to spearhead change.

But if there is anything we can learn from our work, it is staying the course, persevering and staying focused. Good examples are the pieces of legislation that we have just mentioned.

There are many other achievements recorded from the work of those, who came after us – one example is the recently enacted piece of legislation on access to legal aid. This is a huge step in the way to make justice timely and accessible.

The theme for International Women’s Day on March 8, 2017 focuses on “Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030”.

To what extent do you see us moving towards attaining this? What do you think needs to be done to narrow the gender gap?

The 2017 United Nations theme: “Women in the Changing World of Work: Planet 50-50 by 2030” comes at an appropriate time. While there have been notable achievements since the Fourth World Conference on Women (held in Beijing in September, 1995), a lot more needs to be done to complement subsequent global action on women’s advancement and gender equality. This theme is intended to be a mobiliser moving forward to achieving gender equality in the workplace so that “the world of work works for all women” (UN-Women).

At global level, we commend the stellar work being done by UN-Women under the leadership of Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.

I am confident that, working with member states, the anticipated goals are within reach.

Closer to home, I can say that our country is on the right track. Tanzania is ahead many other countries in creating a favourable environment for women’s advancement at places of work.

Our labour legislation provides for equal pay for equal work, provides almost 90 days for maternity leave, allows for breast-feeding time during working hours for women with small children and encourages employers to provide crèche if possible.

This legislation has in this regard put in place the necessary framework within which a lot more can be done. Apart from rights and facilities the legislation needs to be complemented by developing concrete programmes to ensure further advancement and equality at places of work.

Studies in the world have shown that many women employees are only semi-skilled or without the necessary skills for the jobs they have, making them vulnerable to layoffs or dismissals.

Those, who are skilled are in low-paid jobs, working in precarious conditions and without security of tenure. It is, therefore, important to develop programmes that will provide the right education for women to access the employment market, ensure that they are equipped with skills necessary to meet the demands of the day especially taking into account all the technological developments that have changed the face of the workplace.