Swaziland

Good Governance

System of Governance 

Swaziland system of governance is characterised by the interactions among the traditional system and Westminster models of governance. In pursuit of this unique governance system, the Kingdom has endeavoured to develop modern political and administrative structures whose electoral, appointive and operational legitimacy are rooted in, and complemented by the traditional institutions.

At the centre of the system are the Tinkhundla, a non-partisan system that blends the Swazi traditional system with the modern Westminster system. This unique representative system of government provides a channel for the Swazi electoral process. One of its major objectives is to decentralise power and government administration to an extent that the delivery of services is both assured and efficient.

At the base of the system are the communities in their respective chiefdoms, a cluster of which form an Inkhundla. The Inkhundla is the first entity for the co-ordination of development. The Inkhis administered by regional offices which are directly under the supervision of the Deputy Prime Minister's Office, which is the ministry responsible for for local An Inkhundla is essentially the second level of government, with Local Council, which administers its affairs. The Local Council is composed of a Chairman (Indvuna yeNkhundla) and a committee made up of Bucopho (those elected to represent each chiefdom). In addition, there are urban local authorities (towns and cities), which are administered by the Town or City Councils. Frequently, the roles and responsibilities of these various institutions overlap and sometimes at the cost of service delivery.

The Parliament of Swaziland has two houses; the house of assembly and house of senate. The House of Assembly has 65 Members, 55 of them are elected directly from the 55 Tinkhundla Centres and the other 10 are appointed by His Majesty, King Mswati III. Senate has 30 Members, 10 of them are elected by members of the house of assembly and the other 20 are appointed by the King. Parliament elections are held after every five years, with the last elections held in October 2003.  The Attorney General is an ex-officio member of parliament. The King appoints the Prime Minister, who in consultation with the king appoints the Cabinet Ministers.

The dual system extends even to the judicial system. Cases are tried through established Western Court System as well as Traditional system.  In the Western Court system there are magistrates courts, the High Court and the Court of appeal. The King appoints Court personnel, that are like Judges, Magistrates and National Court Presidents. There are other established traditional systems of trying cases, most of  which are presided over, by the Chiefs who are often seen as custodians of culture and traditions. Chiefs are answerable to the king, who also appoints and they report to him.

Another important structure in the Swaziland governance system is the Swazi National Council Standing Committee (SNCSC) The SNCSC is appointed by the king and is responsible for advising him on all political, socio-economic and traditional issues.

UNDP Democratic Governance Programme: 

The Country Programme outcomes for Governance seek to support:

 a)    Fostering Democratic Governance:

 Decentralization of local government systems for improved service delivery at community level

This component provides support to strengthen the capacity of key national and local level institutions for improved governance and service delivery.

 b)    Ratification and domestication of international conventions into national laws with particular emphasis on CEDAW

Initiatives under this outcome will address legal inequalities affecting women, taking into account the government’s commitments to the relevant international and UN conventions and support to domestication in national law of international human rights and other commitments as well as to enhance protection of vulnerable groups thereby reducing HIV risk. 

 c)      Enhanced accountability, transparency, probity and participatory decision-making processes

Under this component of the Democratic Governance and Gender Mainstreaming Programme, support will be directed at operational issues relating to the enhancement of accountability and transparency, increased participation of Civil Society Organizations; and communities in national development processes through advocacy and awareness raising campaigns.

d)       Equal access for all citizens to justice and respect, protection and fulfilment of rights (e.g. legal, economic, political);

This component envisages the harmonisation of the legal regime as well as strengthening the justice delivery system. It entails providing training to magistrates and judges and the National Court Presidents (boNdabazabantu) and improving the mechanisms for the enforcement of judgements. It also envisages strengthening the capacity of the Attorney General’s Chambers as well as the Directorate of Public Prosecutions

e)      Support to initiatives aimed at effectively addressing corruption in the country

This component aims at assisting the country in ensuring that resources are optimally used.

f)  Improved and strengthened coordination mechanisms on gender issues

 Initiatives under the governance outcome will address legal and all other issues promoting the eradication of inequalities affecting women. Capacity building on gender, law reform and dialogues will be used.  

g)  Constitution Implementation

All these components of the Governance and Gender Mainstreaming Programme will be addressed under the broad umbrella of UNDP support to the Constitution implementation.

For more information on this programme contact the the Acting Governance Advisor Sakinah Morris.

• Project Sheet:  Governance
• Project Sheet:  Anti-Corruption
• Support to Anti-corruption Project Information (pdf.19.2kb)

Gender Mainstreaming

Objectives of Programme:

Swaziland is a patriarchal society where male superiority is embedded into all social, political, cultural and economic spheres. The socially ascribed roles assign men as head of households and breadwinners and women as care givers. These roles permeate the whole social system illustrated at family, community and national level.

UNDP continues to be committed to enhancing development that is truly gender equal. One that fosters the creation of an enabling environment for policy change by highlighting women concerns such as greater representation in decision-making bodies and by questioning institutional structures that continue to perpetuate the inequalities.

UNDP Swaziland’s Upstream policy dialogue initiatives are targeting the promotion of gender equality and the advancement of women. They will continue to focus on the removal of the minority status of Swazi women.

The following programme initiatives are intended to address the issue of the minority status of women;

• Support to the formulation and operationalisation of the National Gender Policy. 

• Support to the formulation and implementation of the National Gender Programme (2006-2010)

• Gender, Human Rights and Law Reform

• Domestication and implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and other regional and international instruments
  
  National Gender Policy: 
  
  In line with its new mandate, the UNDP Country office has made a deliberate effort to shift the focus of activities upstream geared towards policy advisory services and institutional capacity building. The support to the gender policy formulation process carried out in 2001 was a clear demonstration of this shift.

  UNDP therefore welcomes the revised document of the draft gender policy, which has been produced and awaits Cabinet approval. It is hoped that once the policy has been approved it will pave the way for legal reforms along side with the constitution of Swaziland. A national gender programme support document covering the years 2006-2010 provides an action plan for implementation. The draft policy was reviewed in 2005 to capture current challenges in gender.
  
  The draft of the National Gender Policy is  “To promote government’s effort in providing equal opportunities for both men and women, boys and girls at all levels of society for the attainment of Gender Equality”.  Fosters the attainment of MDG 3, Promotion of Gender Equality and Empowerment of women.
  

Capacity Building for Women Parliamentary Caucus (WPC)

In 2005 the programme supported a workshop aimed at developing a strategy for WPC.  An implementation plan for the strategy has been developed.

In 2006 the project supported a three-day capacity building workshop on gender and human rights, national, regional and international instruments.  The capacity building was targeted at empowering the WPC with skills and techniques for advocating for the ratification, domestication and implementation of these instruments and lobby for reporting on them where necessary.

 Capacity Building for UNDP, UN Agencies and Partners

The programme supported capacity building on gender mainstreaming for UNDP, UN agencies, NGOs, government officials including gender focal points in 2005.  Capacity building for UN agencies and partners on MDGs and Gender was conducted during 2006.  The workshop was a great success with the gender unit in the Ministry of Home Affairs making presentations on Gender, Ministry of Economic Planning and Development presenting on MDGs, Central Statistical Office presenting on gender and MDGs.  The Johannesburg Regional Service Center and UNIFEM also made presentations in the workshop.

For more information on this programme contact Sakinah Morris, the Gender Focal Point.

Governance and Gender Mainstreaming Project Information (pdf.30.3kb)