By Francis Chipalo
The Non-Governmental Gender Organisations’ Coordinating Council (NGOCC) has called on political parties to adopt women in constituencies where they have a real chance of winning, ahead of Zambia’s 13 August general elections.
NGOCC Board Chairperson Beauty Katebe said parties must move beyond token representation and honour pledges to increase women’s inclusion in candidate selection.
“True inclusion requires more than token representation. It means placing women in constituencies where they have a genuine chance of winning, not relegating them to unwinnable seats,” Katebe said.
Katebe urged parties to recognize women who have shown credibility and effort on the ground, and not sideline them for male candidates with less engagement.
She noted that NGOCC had already shared lists of qualified female candidates with parties, leaving no excuse of unavailability.
“The council wants at least 30 percent of adopted candidates to be women,” she said.
Katebe also warned against using Proportional Representation seats to deny women access to the 226 First-Past-the-Post seats.
“PR seats should complement, not replace, genuine adoption. Restricting women to PR seats risks structural exclusion disguised as inclusion,” she added
Meanwhile, Katebe said NGOCC would monitor and publicly report on adoption processes by gender, constituency type, and party stronghold, and called on parties to honour commitments under the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development and the Sustainable Development Goals.
