Staff Writer
Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Minister Monica Mutsvangwa says closing gender inequality gaps and reaching the most vulnerable requires holistic, coordinated, and well- resourced programmes and partnerships.
Speaking at the Spotlight Close Out Event in Harare, Mutsvangwa said efforts to achieve gender equality and to eliminate all forms of GBV must be mutually re-enforcing.
“We need far more joint initiatives and programmes involving Government, Civil Society, Private Sector, Independent Commissions and Oversight Institutions, Development Partners, among others, which create and respect national ownership.
My Ministry, as the convenor of the Inter-Ministerial Platform during the Spotlight Initiative, already started consultations between Government Ministries, departments, Independent Commissions and our technical partners in the UN on the development of a new country programme outline for a joint programme on gender equality to expand the gains,” she said.
She said Government had committed in the HLPC to increase financing of the GBV response by 2030 through gender-
responsive budgeting, public-private partnerships and other domestic resource mobilization models that will be explored.
“We still need financial support from development partners for programmes and initiatives on gender equality, the empowerment of women and girls and for the elimination of GBV.
“We need coordinated, consistent and collective approaches and actions to address these urgent issues. What the Spotlight Initiative model has shown us is that when all stakeholders are coordinated in a comprehensive manner with a shared vision and objectives, we can move the needle faster towards change,” Mutsvangwa said.
She said the Government was commitmentted to achieving SDG 5 and to the creation of a society where women and girls can freely, without the threat of violence in the public or private spheres, exercise choice, have a voice and agency, and are respected, valued, and treated as equal citizens.
“Our Constitution, laws, and policies and the High Level Political Compact on Ending GBV and Harmful Practices (HLPC) signed by the President, His Excellency Dr. Emmerson Mnangagwa on
behalf of ALL of Government, and all the international and regional gender equality and women’s rights Conventions and Protocols signed and ratified by Zimbabwe, was testament to the commitment.
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