Swaziland has a homogenous population of 800,000, 52 per cent of whom are women. The population growth rate is 3.2 per cent, with a fertility rate of 6.4 births per women. More than 70 per cent of the population live in rural areas.
Since 1968, Swaziland has been ruled as a constitutional monarchy incorporating a Westminster parliamentary system. The King also rules through various traditional institutions and councils, the main one being the Swazi National Council. The central government is led by an elected parliamentary cabinet team appointed by His Majesty the King. A modern civil service system is responsible for public administration and social and economic development planning.
The economy is dualistic, consisting of a traditional subsistence sector and a modern, highly capital intensive sector, mainly foreign controlled. The major sectors of the economy are agriculture and forestry, manufacturing and the public sector. Recorded imports and exports accounted for 88 and 61 per cent respectively of GDP.
A decade ago, according to both customary and common law, women were regarded as minors.
At national and local authority levels, decision-making roies were almost exclusively held by males. A major breakthrough occurred in 1993 when the Government agreed to support the development of a women's policy, the outcome of which will be a written policy on women's affairs detailing a structure and resources necessary to raise women's status and coordinate development issues and inputs.
SITUATION ANALYSIS BY SECTOR Political participation/decision making
Political activity became illegal after a state of emergency was declared in 1973. Any advocacy for social concern was closely scrutinized with meetings requiring security clearance. The only national women's organization operated with official sanction. The above concerns were prevalent during the period preceding the Nairobi Conference in 1985. The position has regrettably changed minimally since then. In successive parliaments since.independence in 1968, only one woman has been appointed to a cabinet post.
In 1980, of the 33 members in the House of Assembly, three (9 per cent) were women and in 1983, out of 29 members, only two (6.8 per cent) were women. In the current parliament, women account for 11 per cent of the members. Of note, however, is the appointment of a woman to the position of Deputy President of Senate. In 1994, two more women were appointed Permanent Secretaries in the Ministries of Finance and Transportation and Communication. At under-secretary level, women are in the Ministries of Finance, Commerce and Industry as well as Broadcasting, Information and Tourism.
In foreign affairs, Swaziland's first woman ambassador was appointed in 1987. The second woman ambassador-designate has been appointed in 1994. These two (22 per cent) women appointees are out of a total of nine missions. Two women are functioning at counsellor level in missions.
At national and local authority levels, decision-making roles were almost exclusively held by males.
Women's participation in government decision-making levels is minimal, a mere 5.4 per cent (1989). All traditional chiefs who exercised authority at local level were male. At cabinet level, there had been no women appointed since independence in 1968. Minimal participation of women was also observed within top government and private sector management cadres. At professional director level, there are currently
16 posts, of which five (31.5 per cent) are held by women. It is encouraging, however, that the few women appointees have been placed in strategic decision-making positions such as finance, development planning and industrial development.
Education
The censuses of 1966, 1976 and 1986 show that literacy increased sharply during the first decade and slowed down in the second 10-year period. Literacy rates of over 15 years vary by sex and region.
The male rate is 64 per cent, while that of women is 63 per cent.
Since 1968, there has been a rapid expansion in the primary school system and by 1988 the primary population had doubled. A 1991 study shows a primary school enrolment of 139,440, with girls accounting for 49.7 per cent. At the secondary level, of the 29,173 students enroled, 49.3 per cent were females.
However, at secondary level, 695 pupils dropped out between forms 1 and 5. Of these, 66 per cent were females. Drop-out rates among girls were attributed to financial difficulties, being over-age, parental pressure to assist at home, pressure on girls to leave after primary education and pregnancies.
At the secondary level, there is a marked avoidance of mathematics and science by girls. Careful research has shown that girls are not incompetent as science scholars but that they receive no encouragement since many scientific careers are seen as "not readily accessible to women".
At university, boys outnumber girls though their number in the population is small and they are more likely than girls to obtain post-vocational diplomas.
Health
The overall life expectancy at birth is 53 years. Female life expectancy was 59.9 years in 1986 compared to 52.8 years for males. The total fertility rate, which was 6.5 in 1986, has declined marginally from 6.9 live births in 1976 to 6.5 in 1986. Maternal mortality rate is 110 per 100,000 (1990), most of it due to high-risk pregnancies and are avoidable. The infant mortality rate is 98 per 1,000 live births (1991).
The under-5 mortality rate is recorded at 141 per 1,000 per live births. The major causes of high infant mortality are malnutrition, acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea and other causes such as low birth weight.
The contraceptive prevalence rate is 17 per cent. Although 80 per cent knowledge of contraception is recorded, actual use is limited partly due to pro-natal socio-cultural values.
Due to the high population growth rate, the demands of which the country's resources and economy cannot meet, women will have to play a critical role in national efforts to reduce fertility.
Access to health care facilities: Only 56 per cent of total births take place in health facilities under the supervision of trained health personnel. The remaining 44 per cent of deliveries take place in homesteads without the supervision of trained personnel. However, improvements are noted where 70 per cent of the national population is within 8 km of a health facility.
HIV/AIDS: The majority of women infected with HIV are married and monogamous. Cultural norms are tolerant of men's extra-marital sexual contacts. The chances of the spread of AIDS in these practices are very high. In addition to this is the high level of male migration in search of jobs, particularly from rural areas where the majority of the population reside.
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Employment
The total labour force was cited at 300,000 in the 1991 census. Women's share of employment steadily increased, particularly in the public sector where women are more than a third of employees. The share of jobs rose from 25 per cent in 1981 to 35 per cent in 1987. The informal sector is also dominated by women. In 1987, 28.8 per cent of informal sector jobs were held by women, representing a steady increase in women's share of the job market since 1981.
Women's legal rights
Swaziland has not yet acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The Swazi legal system is dualistic in which the Roman Dutch Law operates parallel to Swazi Customary Law. Discriminatory elements are found in both systems. For example, upon entering marriage, the woman, under the Roman Dutch system, becomes a minor and comes under the wardship of her husband. A similar arrangement obtains under Swazi Law and custom whereby a married woman becomes a child of the new family she joins. She is under the authority of all older members of her husband's family.
A change to the role definitions with their attendant authority patterns would impact on the cultural foundations of Swazi society. However, certain pieces of legislation have been incorporated into Swaziland's body of laws to ensure equality of opportunity and treatment in employment and at the workplace.
A lot still needs to be done to ensure that rights of women are protected in other areas. Marriage laws need to be amended to recognize the adult status of women and their capacity to make rational decisions about their lives.
Violence against women: Domestic violence is widely prevalent. Statistics on various kinds of assault are, however, not analyzed by sex. Only rape is identifiable as a sex-related offence of violence.
Statistics indicate that the conviction rate in rape cases is consistently low.
Participation of women in the judiciary and the police force is low. There has never been a female Judge in Swaziland since independence. There are currently 14 male magistrates and only one female.
Since 1980, there have been 56 male attorneys and 11 female attorneys. In 1985, the total number of police was 1,509, of whom 122 were women. The higher level of participation of women lawyers is a positive development, the currently acting Registrar of the High Court of Swaziland is a woman.
National machineries for the advancement of women
The Swaziland delegation that attended the Nairobi Conference in 1985 returned home imbued with the idea of the establishment of a machinery to coordinate women's affairs in the country. The establishment of an appropriate governmental machinery to coordinate women's affairs was realized when the Government agreed to develop a policy on women in 1993. From the policy statement would flow the details of structure of a coordinating mechanism as well as the resources needed such as manpower, infrastructure facilities and a strategy for programme implementation. The exercise is facilitated by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Government agencies: Two major programmes within the Government have focused on the advancement of women. The first is the WID programme designed to increase women's income and lessen their domestic burden through the introduction of appropriate devices. Upon the acquisition of skills, women could have access to a loan facility to acquire essential inputs. The second is the self-help programme, an outreach programme for home improvement. It has reached some 200 women country-wide who then formed groups of their own to sustain their activities.
The Lutsango Lwaka Ngwene is the national regimental organization which has, since independence, been the focal point for cultural national women's activities.
Non-governmental organizations
There has been a proliferation of NGOs since independence and the NGO sector is particularly active in women-related initiatives. The vast majority are self-help groups while others are involved in entrepreneurship activities.
Women's access to resources
Credit: In response to the problem of collateral, small-scale business operations, the Government and the Central Bank of Swaziland established an innovative Loan Guarantee Fund in 1990 to promote the increase of participation of Swazi nationals in small-scale business and industries. By December 1993, 21 per cent in value of loans were given to women, 39.3 per cent to men and 38.8 per cent to companies. The low value of women's loans was due to the fact that women take small loans; thus, of the total number of loans, 128 were to women, 133 to men and 108 to companies.
Land ownership: Land is allocated to the male head of the homestead who has to be screened and approved by the chiefs council. In the case of female-headed households, the closest senior male relative is requested to make application on behalf, not of the woman but of the male heir. Although women do most of the agricultural work in the fields, they have no authority to decide on land use.
The incidence of poverty among female-headed households is estimated to be nearly double (1.7) that of male-headed households. Female-headed households have less than average land, less labour and money to spend, less food and cash crops. In order to make ends meet, many women work outside the home in the formal sector where incomes are 60 per cent higher than in the agricultural subsistence sector.
Women and culture
Swaziland, like many African countries, has strong cultural traditions. Swazi society reflects a strong communalism which promotes group interests over those of the individual. Gender roles are very clearly defined, with women being the home-makers and care givers while men are decision makers and authority figures. Mothers teach their sons that boys' work is outside the home and discourage daughters from being argumentative and confrontational but encourage them to be hard workers.
International support
Two projects in the women's sector received major technical assistance from the donor community.
The notable donors are UN/DTCD, UNDP and the Government of the Netherlands which assisted in expanding the project for training in home-crafts and construction. UNIFEM's support was through the establishment of a revolving fund which has been supported by other donors like UNICEF, ECA, USAID and Zonta Denmark. UNIFEM has also given support in the form of inputs and raw materials.
Other donors include FAO which is supporting the people's participation project (PPP) based on community development; ILO is providing technical assistance and support to the Ministry of Education through a skills development for self-reliance project; EEC with support to agriculture and social infrastructure, USAID with training women's self help groups in sewing, leadership and business development. The People's Republic of China has provided extensive assistance to handicraft training to school leavers and unemployed young people.
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