Gender Links (GL) and Women’ Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) held a Southern Africa Protocol Alliance National meeting and launch of the 12th edition Barometer titled “Voice and Choice” in the Capital city Tuesday.
Officiating at the event , Zimbabwe Gender Commission Chief Executive Officer Virginia Muwaningwa applauded WCoZ,GL and other members of the Health Cluster for organisng the important alliance meeting.
“The aim of the meeting is to take stock of Alliance work in each country and link with the regional work, to review or develop action plans on Sexual Reproductive and Health Rights(SRHR), economic justice, climate justice and governance and to present findings of the 2020 # Voice and Choice Barometer and launch the publication as well as the SRHR policy checklist”, she said.
The 12th # Voice and Choice Barometer reflects slow progress in advancing women’s rights in the Southern African Development (SADC) region.The Covid-19 pandemic presents an overt threat to the SRHR gains made to date as thace been a 20% surge in domestic violence cases during the Covid-19 induced lock down.
The 12th Barometer has 16 countries as Comoros is now being included.
“As a Commission, we believe that negative patriarchy based socio-cultural norms and practices are a hindrance to the enjoyment of women’s human rights and are the major underlying factor to gender inequality”, added Muwaningwa.
12th # Voice and Choice Barometer not only highlights key issues but also offer practical solutions that can be adopted to translate the legislative framework, transform institutions and regulate practices to address the negative social norms and consequently accelerate the achievement of gender equality in Zimbabwe.
The Barometer measures 100 indicators in seven thematic areas, sexual and reproductive health;adolescent SRHR; safe abortion;Gender- base violence, HIV and AIDS;harmful practices; and sexual diversity. The 2020 Barometer adds chapters on Climate Change, Economic Justice and Women’s Political Participation which the Southern African Gender Protocol Alliance deal with.
In a sideline interview, Charity Mandishora WCoZ Harare Chapter chairperson said there should be equal representation of men and women at workplaces.”Gender equality is amiss at governance from grassroots level to national level.The issue of 50-50 is not being implemented. We want to ensure that whatever is done is in sync with Section 56 of the Constitution which speaks about 50-50 representation of men and women at work”, she said.
In a solidarity speech, Muchanyara Mukamuri Director of Young Women Christian Association (YWCA) said YWCA was offering economic empowerment training to young adolescent girls for them not to depend on the males.” Gone are the days when girls should engage in prostitution for them to be economic”
independent”, she said.
She bemoaned erratic supply of piped water in Harare and advocated for free sanitary wear.
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