Tanzania can close gender gap in parliament seats

By   Dr Ananilea Nkya

Rwanda is one of five countries in the world and the only African state that have attained gender equality in parliament seats. However, in 2025 Tanzania could become the second African country to achieve this feat if the three bills on election matters passed by the Parliament on February 2, 2024, would have abolished special seats.

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2023 which measured the difference between men and women in accessing political leadership, economic opportunities, education and health care; apart from Rwanda, other countries that have fully attained gender party in parliamentary seats are Mexico, Nicaragua, the United Arab Emirates and New Zealand.

The report says: “The level of progress toward gender parity (the parity score) for each indicator is calculated as the ratio of the value of each indicator for women to the value for men. A parity score of 1 indicates full parity. The gender gap is the distance from full parity.”

The Women and Constitution, Election and Leadership coalition in Tanzania bringing together more than 200 organisations and networks,  had proposed that special seats be abolished, instead administrative districts be converted into constituencies and each constituent represented by two people, a man and a woman, but the women’s activist’s  proposal  did not feature in the draft bills passed by the Parliament.

Abolishing special seats, an old model of implementing affirmative action, would not only close the gender gap and make the House socially inclusive, but would also reduce the Parliamentary costs and enable women and men Parliamentarians have equal status, hence ending discrimination which special seat women parliamentarians face.

“Special seat MPs are not allowed to take up the role of chairperson of Parliamentary Standing Committees, chairperson of Council or hold the position of Prime Minister and are not entitled to receive constituency development funds to enable them implement citizen-cantered development projects,” noted Professor Ruth Meena, the women’s coalition Chairperson.

The current Tanzania Parliament (2020-2025) has a total of 393 Members of Parliament of which 264 are elected from constituencies and whom only 26 are women (approximately ten percent) while 113 women MPs are from special seats.

Professor Meena says: “All that is done to women who become MPs through special seats is gender discrimination and it is against the Constitution of our country.”

She noted that Part Three article 12 (1) of the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, 1977 states that: “All human beings are born free, and all are equal.” Article 13 (1-5) further elaborates by prohibiting all forms of discrimination, including gender discrimination.

Moreover, the activist’s proposal could reduce 94 MPs from the present 393 MPs in Parliament because as of 2024, the United Republic of Tanzania has 138 districts, 128 in Mainland and 10 in the Isles, and if each constituency is represented by two people - man and woman, then Parliament will have 276 parliamentarians elected from the constituencies.

Similarly, in case inclusivity in parliament is also considered, for example, by setting aside 12 seats for people with special needs (disability) - six men and six women; and also if it is decided to maintain the current feature of the Parliament where the Attorney General automatically becomes an MP; and the President is allowed to appoint 10 Parliamentarians - five women and five men, in total the August House will have 299 with 100 percent gender parity in seats as opposed to the current 393 where women are only 36 percent.

In fact, having a parliament of 299 people instead of 393 would enable the government to save more than Sh200 billion in five years - being the costs of their salaries, sitting allowances and the end of the five-year gratuity of the 94 Parliamentarians, reduced from the current Parliament.

Additionally, having a Parliament with a huge number of parliamentarians while it is possible to cut the number is “misuse of taxpayers' money,” argues Gemma Akilimali, the women coalition member who championed a campaign that enabled the government to mainstream gender budgeting few years ago.

Nonetheless, the Sh200 billion, for example, could be used to pay health insurance of Sh35 billion annually for the period of five years for children of Tanzania who are under 18 because in the year 2023, the government stopped paying for the insurance stating that it doesn’t have funds.

The women activists’ movement had also proposed that in each elective post, from local to national level, gender equality must be considered to ensure that in the future, for example, Constitution and legal frameworks assure that where we have a male President, the Vice President is a woman and the vice versa and where we have the village Chairperson who is a woman, the Vice Chairperson is a man and the vice versa. 

The Global Gender Gap Index was first introduced by the World Economic forum in 2006 to measure progress towards gender parity between women and men across countries and regions in four outcomes - political leadership, economic opportunities, education and health.

The Global Gender Gap report 2023 which covered 146 countries including a set of 102 countries that have been covered in all editions since the inaugural one in 2006 noted that: “For a country to be included, it must report data for a minimum of 12 of the 14 indicators that comprise the index. The index aims to include the latest data available, reported within the last 10 years.”

The women human rights activists’ coalition proposal on Tanzanian women representation in elective posts was in line with the promise that President Samia Suluhu Hassan made when addressing the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 23, 2021, seven months after she became President of Tanzania following the death of President John Magufuli.

President Samia told the UN General Assembly that: “My government is reviewing policy and legal framework in order to come up with actionable and measurable plans to ensure the economic empowerment of women as well as other aspects pertaining to gender equality and gender parity.”

Currently, Tanzania is one of the few countries in the world led by a woman. The Global Gender Gap Report 2023 shows that as of 31 December 2022, approximately 27.9 percent of the global population, equivalent to 2.12 billion people, live in countries with a female head of state.

The women rights activists’ proposal  to have two people - man and woman presenting one constituent where administrative districts are converted into constituencies, could help Tanzania make a notable difference in closing the gender gap in Parliament after 2025 general elections.

However, for the activists' transformative proposal to be realistic “minor changes are required in the constitution,” noted Mary Ndaro, Deputy Chairperson of the women activists coalition.

Obviously, transformative laws could be produced if the government first presented to the Parliament a bill aimed at making minor changes in the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania.

Therefore, it is important for the government and the current Parliamentarians to understand that the three election laws to be enacted; President, Members of Parliament, and Councillors’ elections law 2023; the Law on Political Parties, 2023; and the law for the National Election Commission, 2023 will not enable Tanzania make any meaningful progress in achieving gender parity in parliamentary seats.

Dr Ananilea Nkya holds a PhD on Tanzanian News Media Engagement with National Development issues and is an activist on women rights. Share your feedback on +255 769 400 402 or Email: [email protected]