Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA-Zambia)
Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) is a regional network operating in seven countries of Southern Africa (Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe).
The network has since inception in 1988, thrived to work towards improving the socio - economic, political and legal advancement of women through action research. WLSA makes this contribution through collaborative, strategic and action research in the socio - legal field while advocating and lobbying for legal reforms and policy changes on laws and practices which discriminate and disadvantage women.
Over the last fifteen years, WLSA has completed four action oriented research phases whose themes include: maintenance law; inheritance law; family and the legal position of women in the family; and women and the administration of justice - problems and constraints. The current phase focuses on the research theme - "Gender, HIV/AIDS and the Law."
Using its comparative approach as a regional organisation, WLSA research has shown how:
- Socio-cultural construction of gender, the law and people's practices impinge on the lives of women, their access to and control over resources and how this impacts on their general well-being.
- Ownership and control over property signifies command over productive resources, which enables individuals to make choices regarding livelihoods, provides security against poverty and promotes autonomy.
Beneficiaries and target groups of WLSA work include:
- Women law researchers who have constituted one of the intended or direct beneficiaries by improving their research skills;
- Women , who are the ultimate beneficiaries of WLSA intervention, whose situation with regard to legal and social rights, hitherto disadvantaged, may be improved as a result of changed attitudes and behaviour, and increased awareness among law makers and court officials brought about by the programme; and
- Policy and law makers, legal practitioners, law enforcement agencies, legal education organisations - such as universities who collectively represent a target group of WLSA intervention as users of the research results.
Because the work is organised as a regional network, this ensures mutual exchange of experiences, best practices between the participating the seven WLSA countries. The network is also extended to non-participating countries in other parts of Africa as well as in a number of Northern and Western countries through marketing and distribution of WLSA publications.
WLSA conducts its research from a gender and development framework with a focus on women and men and the belief that:
- Gender is an ascribed role
- These socially constructed roles are dynamic and changeable
- Gender and development - a set of relations and material practices varying between societies are the problem and the solution requires examination of those in terms women and men.
WLSA has been able to reach policy makers, academic, law reformers and NGOs through its research publications. It has also managed to reach the grassroots and members of the public through legal rights education campaigns and legal aid advice and services. WLSA has combined both research and action in its strategy to reach the different target audience. Action, advocacy and lobbying is integrated within the research process and is carried out simultaneously. Furthermore, WLSA has over the years built partnerships both at national and regional level and joint programmes have been implemented.
The use of a regional framework has in the past improved the comparative nature of WLSA research and has provided an opportunity for sharing best practices and advocacy strategies between WLSA countries. The regional framework has provided WLSA with a high level of legitimacy and put it in a strong position to influence policy makers and legislators.