This was revealed recently by the release of a report by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in collaboration with the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa and the SADC Parliamentary Forum.

According to the report, the rate of increase in women's political participation in Africa in the past few years has been greater than that experienced at any other time in the past four decades, rising tenfold to over 14 per cent since 2003.

The report looked at 18 African countries, including Namibia, and found that the dominant perception of women not making it in significant numbers to parliaments on the continent, was in fact untrue.

On the contrary, Africa is something of a trendsetter in the world in this regard.

Rwanda scored highest in Africa, and indeed the world, with 48 per cent of parliamentarians being women, and seven of the top 25 countries in terms of women's representation in parliament came from Africa.

A spokesperson for IDEA said important progress in terms of women's political participation had been made in Africa in the past decade, and she added that quotas were increasingly viewed as an important policy measure for boosting women's access to decision-making bodies throughout the world.

It should go without saying that this newspaper would support higher representation of women in all sectors of life, including parliament, and so it is encouraging that there is an upward trend in this regard in Africa in general, and more particularly in Namibia.

However, more importantly, it is vital that we also assess whether this increase in women's representation in our parliament, as well as others in the world, is in fact making a tangible difference in terms of promoting progressive legislation with the emphasis on policies that will make for tangible changes for the better for the marginalised in our society; to combat corrupt practices; and elevate transparency and accountability of political leadership in general.

We need to strive for more than simply numerical increases in women's representation in parliament, or elsewhere for that matter.

For to emphasise numbers alone may not necessarily change the status quo as determined primarily by male parliamentarians.

We would like to believe that most of these women come to parliament with very specific agendas, no matter which political parties they represent, to change things for the better, especially in areas where women themselves remain vulnerable.

We need to see that these women are taken seriously by their male counterparts; that their comments, proposals and suggestions in parliament are not simply laughed off or shrugged aside.

We would also like to see the women being innovative and creative when it comes to posing solutions to societal problems that plague Namibia and some of which are mentioned above.

It is vitally important that society as a whole sees these women as role models, and not simply tokens in parliament for the sake of gender balance.

So while we fully subscribe to greater women's representation, particularly in areas traditionally dominated by men, we would like to see women with strength, vigour and vision to bring about change in the societies they live in.

Both men and women politicians should equally be put under the spotlight by voters and/or the electorate as a whole to measure their performance and ability to make a difference.

We would also like to see IDEA, and the other groups that participated in this survey, take it to another level next time around, and try to establish whether women's enhanced presence in many parliaments is in fact achieving just this and that it is not simply tokenism, which could be one of the risks of the quota system.

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