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Amanda Mlevu, Sunday News Reporter
ZIMBABWE has recorded steady progress in ending gender-based violence and harmful practices with more than 2 500 women having benefitted from a US$30 million fund advanced by the European Union under the Global Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls.
Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Minister Dr Sithembiso Nyoni said there was a lot of progress in the area of empowering women courtesy of the funds advanced by the European Union in the fight to ending gender-based violence in the country.
Presenting a report on the progress made so far, Dr Nyoni said the fight against GBV could only be won when women and girls have equal access and opportunities in the social, economic and political spheres.
She said a total of 2500 of the most marginalised women (GBV survivors, women living with HIV, impoverished women in rural areas) have benefitted from the empowerment initiatives under the spotlight initiative programme.
“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 the spotlight initiative, 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 High Level Political Compact (HLPC), financing for GBV, gender equality and women rights to achieve our commitments to the Sustainable Development Goal 5, which is one of the country’s priorities,” said Dr Nyoni.
She said Zimbabwe was selected to be one of the eight African countries to benefit under the Global Spotlight Initiative to eliminate violence against women and girls which was funded by the European Union to the tune of US$30 million over the period 2019-2023. Dr Nyoni added that based on the global implementation data, Zimbabwe had been identified by the secretariat as the best performer for the Africa Region.
She said 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) which was officially launched and signed by President Mnangagwa in October 2021.
“Since 2022 to date, the Ministry took it upon themselves to use that money into changing people’s lives with the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development working with the UN and other partners convening several stakeholder engagements to popularise the initiative among communities.
“Using the President’s mantra of leaving no one and no place behind, the women’s movement and organisations of persons with disabilities signed a memorandum of understanding to build a stronger coalition against gender-based violence, harmful practices and intersecting forms of discrimination against women and girls,” she added.
She expressed her Ministry’s commitment to continue working towards achieving a society that was totally opposed to gender-based violence and harmful practices in Zimbabwe.
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