Published by the government of Zimbabwe
12 November 2009
Harare — GOVERNMENT is committed to curbing domestic violence in society through enactment of strict gender legislation, a Cabinet minister has said.
Officially opening a three-day workshop of the Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Training on Advocacy and Resource Mobilisation for Violence Against Women in Harare on Tuesday, Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development Minister Olivia Muchena, said women should break gender barriers and ensure that their voices were heard.
"Domestic violence is inextricably linked to gender-based inequalities. Thus, effort should be made to break gender barriers and ensure that the voices of women and girls are heard," she said.
Minister Muchena said gender-based violence programmes continued to be under-funded and this had slowed progress in prevention and management of gender-based violence.
She applauded organisers for bringing in African women to share experiences and help curtail gender-based violence.
"I would like to applaud the United Nations Population Fund and the Young Women's Christian Association for bringing in actors from East and Southern Africa who have experience to share and strengthen the resource mobilisation efforts against gender-based violence.
"This initiative will also open opportunities for networking and shared resources," she said.
Minister Muchena urged parliamentarians, youths, women and the media to advocate and mobilise resources against gender-based violence.
She said Government had put in place mechanisms for effective implementation of the Domestic Violence Act.
"Anti-domestic violence counsellors are being appointed from ward level to provincial level, with the responsibility of advising, counselling and mediating in cases of domestic violence.
"Critical service providers, like the police, judiciary, traditional healers and medical practitioners, have been trained with the support of civil society on how to handle survivors of domestic violence," Minister Muchena said.
Participants at the workshop said there was need to empower women as they played an important role in society.
They said women advancement and empowerment was at the centre of good governance and service delivery.
Women argued that there cannot be sustainable economic growth and human development as over 50 percent of the country's population is excluded from development activities of the country.
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