SARPCCO Women’s Conference

In 2007, the SARPCCO Police Chiefs approved for the establishment of SARPCCO Women’s Network. The following are the objectives of the SARPCCO Women’s Network:

• To provide a strong support network structure for women employees within SARPCCO Countries;
• To facilitate the career advancement of women through leadership training programmes;
• To develop an assertive cadre of women leaders capable of independent thinking, thereby contributing to quality service delivery;
• To market career opportunities for women at all levels within SARPCCO member Countries in an attempt to develop a full representative workforce in Police Agencies

The history of women in policing has been a long and a difficult one. In most of Member Countries women were not allowed to be in policing, it took decades for women to be allowed in policing, and as such women are under-represented in the police workforce of most Member Countries mostly in the leadership positions.

Most Member Countries are signatory to the National and Regional Instruments that seek to empower women; this includes the Beijing Platform for Action, the Convention on Elimination of all Forms of Unfair Discrimination Against Women.

The establishment of SARPCCO Women’s Network was to enable for Member Countries to ensure that International, Regional and Local Instruments are implemented to ensure that the overall lives of women are improved.

Since its inception the network has grown in leaps and bounds with women taking massive strides within the organization. The women's network also focuses much of its efforts on empowering women within the organization and proactively addressing the concerns of women. Members use the forum to share ideas and knowledge from their countries to increase the impact of policing. This network also plays an active role in championing service delivery and social crime prevention programs by women especially programme related to crimes against vulnerable groups.

Women have taken up centre stage in the SARPCCO and are occupying decision making positions including those of Police chiefs. This was evident when the Acting National Commissioner of the SAPS Lt General J K Phahlane took over the reins of chairmanship of SARPCCO, becoming the first woman to chair the organisation.

Another major achievement in the region was the hosting of the 51st International Association of women Police (IAWP) training conference in Kwa-Zulu Natal in September 2013.

We would like to welcome you all to the 2015 SARPCCO regional training conference. Empowered women empower women.

The SARPCCO Women’s Network also focuses on the empowerment of women, which resulted in development of courses specifically for women:

• SARPCCO Command and Leadership Course for Senior Women
• SARPCCO Command and Leadership Course for Emerging Women

These courses are focusing on issues of leadership, which amongst the other include strategic Management, Performance Management and Financial Management, to enable women to compete equally and be able to function in decision making positions.

The SARPCCO Regional Training Conference for women will be an opportunity to expose women in various training interventions and skills in relation to policing and leadership in order to contribute meaningfully in the fight against crime.

The training will focus on the four critical pillars i.e sharpening investigation skills of members, prevention of gender based violence, importance of leadership in policing and self- mastering.