Gender Based Violence (GBV), has become a worrisome global pandemic rearing its ugly head in most of our communities especially here in Zimbabwe. The effects of violence against women remains a deep tear on the psychological, social, economic and political fabric of communities stifling personal and community growth. The outbreak of Covid19 has exacerbated this situation.
This year, Action Aid Zimbabwe (AAZ) join hands with Savanna Trust in encouraging policy makers and the nation at large in recognizing, reducing and redistributing Unpaid Domestic and Care Work by women especially because of its nexus to GBV. This partnership is part of the broader and on-going 365-day campaign against GBV.
In 2020 the ActionAid global theme for the 16DOA is 2020 Amplify Voices of Women Workers in the Informal Economy, Ratify ILO C190 and End GBV in Private and Public Spaces.
In Zimbabwe the burden of unpaid care work is heavily skewed towards women leaving them with less or no time to engage in more “productive” work. Even if they engage in what may be termed productive work through buying and selling, agriculture and animal husbandry, it is usually at a subsistence level hence not counted in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
This not only affects women, but the general citizenry as there is a misrepresentation of actual GDP per capita as well as illicit financial flows. Women and girls are spending an average of 14 hours per day engaging in UCW (Family AIDS Caring Trust, 2019) as opposed to engaging in decent work which is remunerated.
Care work, including early child development accounts for the greater part of women and girls’ time diary. Zimbabwe is currently experiencing a chronic water shortage in both rural and urban settings.
While repeated droughts have been blamed for the inadequate water supply by duty bearers, the inadequate supply is also largely due to lack of prioritization of water issues by the duty bearers and this has piled on the burden for women.
Lockdown measures resulting from COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated the burden of UCW for women and girls in both urban and rural areas. The Zimbabwe COVID-19 response has seen government pledging more support to public services making them more gender responsive especially the Health and WASH sectors.
The past years has witnessed the surfacing of private and public partnerships between local government and the private sector as service delivery authorities try to survive in a tricky economy.
This privatization of social services has resulted in social services getting out of reach of many, thus exposing women who do most of the domestic and unpaid care work to risks of sexual and other forms of gender-based violence.
Through a series of activities using the arts and other participatory strategies, AAZ and Savanna Trust are working on making communities and leadership recognize the value and burden of unpaid domestic care work by women as well as informal work through Gender Responsive Public Services. This is so women can have more time to participate in the socio-economic and political activities of their lives and communities.
The activities lined up by ActionAid and Savanna Trust during these 16 days include radio drama episodes, a live theater play and a breakfast meeting with policy makers highlighting Women’s Unpaid Care in public spaces and domestic.
There will be studio discussion after the drama with experts on UCW leading the discussions. Listeners will be allowed to call in on the radio shows and even send WhatsApp messages participating in the discussion on UCW, informal work and its nexus with GBV.
All the activities will climax with a 7000km #WalkForSurvival against GBV #16DOA starting from 8-10 December 2020 organised by AAZ. AAZ’s various partners and supporters drawn from community leaders, partners, MPs and the general public to ensure that as many Zimbabweans around the country are encouraged to take part. It is anticipated that 2000 people will be mobilized for this big walk. Everyone, including members of the press are invited to this important walk. To join and register for the walk open the following link: https://www.walkforsurvival.org.
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