Govt committed to nipping gender based violence in the bud

Amanda Mlevu, Sunday News Reporter

THE MINISTRY of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development has said they remain committed to ending Gender Based Violence (GBV) in the country, noting that despite the achievements they have made there is still need for a more consented effort.

Presenting a brief on the Spotlight Initiative achievements and the implementation of the high-level political compact on ending gender based violence and harmful practices, Women Affairs Minister, Dr Sithembiso Nyoni said the Spotlight Initiative has facilitated strong and active grassroots engagement to end GBV.

Zimbabwe became a pioneer in the Global Spotlight Initiative as the first country to launch and sign a multi-sectoral High level Political Compact on ending GBV and Harmful Practices (2021-2030).

This High-Level Political Compact was officially launched and signed by President Mnangagwa in October 2021.

Dr Nyoni said her Ministry began to work with the United Nations and other partners to convene stakeholder engagements on the Compact and to popularise the Compact among communities.

“Let me express that GBV remains a serious challenge and impacts negatively on the country’s advancement and achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment and threaten to set the clock back on women’s rights and gender equality.

“I am hopeful that we shall continue to sustain the gains of Spotlight, but this can only be possible if we increase our actions through effective Gender Responsive Budgeting and through the creation of Public-Private Partnerships to mobilise resources for the implementation of the HLPC, Financing for GBV, Gender Equality and Women Rights to achieve our commitments to SDG5, which is one of our Country’s priorities,” said Dr Nyoni.

The Minister pointed out that based on the global implementation data as the programme moves towards closure in 2023, Zimbabwe has been identified by the Secretariat as the “best performer for the Africa region”.

“My Ministry shall continue to play its important coordination role to ensure that we maintain the momentum gained through Spotlight, ensuring that every stakeholder plays their part towards implementation of the HLPC.

“We acknowledge the support towards strengthening my Ministry’s coordinating capacity at National, Provincial and District levels and pledge to continue to ensure this role delivers coordinated multi-sectoral teams to address GBV and Harmful Practices,” she said.

“And also by using our collective voice to advocate to Development partners including the Team Europe Initiative on Gender to continue to support with meaningful resources to sustain the gains of Spotlight,” said the Minister.

“As a Ministry, we commit to double our efforts and strengthen our partnerships to achieve the commitments in the HLPC in line with NDS1 and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as well as Zimbabwe’s vision to become upper middle-income society by 2030,” added Dr Nyoni.