80 Zvobgo and Dziva/African Women’s Rights Protocol in Zimbabwe to achieve the ideal of 50-50 participation of women, which may be derived from article 9 of the Protocol. To this end, Zimbabwe needs to undertake electoral reform including changing the electoral system from the FPTP to proportional representation ensuring for a certain percentage of women in elected decision-making. Legal quotas have proved crucial in improving women’s representation in political and decision-making institutions. Instead of making the quotas a temporary measure, there is a need to extend the life span of the women’s quota for legislators in the Constitution. It is also recommended that Zimbabwe extends the constitutional quotas to local government elections and governance. Furthermore, the government must introduce mandatory quotas to political parties, so as to affirm equal participation and gender balance in internal party structures, and lists of candidates for national elections. Legalising party quotas allows for the electoral body to sanction or disqualify noncomplying political parties. Alternatively, the government may offer incentives to political parties such as additional funding or more free broadcast time for inclusion of equal number of women amongst their candidates. The government should also level the playing field for female political participants by discouraging all forms of violence in society. One way is to ensure that the rule of law is respected, and that impunity for the perpetrators of politically-motivated and gender-based violence is curbed. Similarly, efforts should be made to improve women’s access to education, funding, and to reduce levels of poverty. The national gender machinery, political parties and civil society must sensitise society and political party leadership on the basis and justifications for special measures and gender equality in general. This may persuade women in society to participate in politics and take up leadership positions. Sensitisation efforts may also make the society and party leadership to seriously consider, embrace, and implement quotas for gender equality. In this technological era, effective awareness raising methods can take the form of print and online media platforms, including social media. Through these platforms, experiences of women role models as cabinet members, legislators, party members, or civil society leaders around the globe can be more widely shared. Efforts should also be made to sensitise and train print and visual media journalists to effectively profile and ensure responsible coverage of women leaders. These efforts motivate women to participate in politics and decision-making, and above all reinforce, among society and party leaders, the value of women in political and decision-making institutions. For women activists, one way to force leaders to ensure gender balance is through constitutional petitions and public interest litigation, seeking the nullification of gender imbalanced appointments on the basis that they are contrary to provisions of the Constitution and article 9 of the African Women’s Rights Protocol. The AU and state parties to the African Women’s Rights Protocol must continue engaging policy makers and academics to conduct