Zambia commits Sh4.4 billion to fight GBV
President of Zambia Hakainde Hichilema. His government has committed Sh4.4billion to empower women and youth economically, a move meant to enable them escape from GBV.
What you need to know:
- Zambia has committed Sh4.4billion to empower women and youth economically, a move meant to enable them escape from GBV.
- The lifetime physical and sexual intimate partner violence for women in the Southern Africa country, is currently 45.9 per cent.
The government of Zambia has committed Sh4.4billion to empower women and youth economically, a move meant to enable them escape from gender-based violence (GBV).
The lifetime physical and sexual intimate partner violence for women in the Southern Africa country, is currently 45.9 per cent, which President Hakainde Hichilema seeks to zero.
“As a government, we are committed to ending GBV… we have set aside over K700 million (Ksh4.4 billion) of the total constituency development funds (CDF) exclusively for women and youth empowerment,” he said on Saturday through his social media accounts.
“Let’s stand together and kick out GBV,” he added while emphasising that the offence violates the rights of the attacked and dehumanises them.
Last year, the country performed poorly in building the socio-economic resilience of women having been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.
A Covid-19 Global Gender Response Tracker by UN Women and United Nations Development Programme found the country had instituted only four gender sensitive measures out of the 10 responses executed to combat the disease. Egypt had the highest gender sensitive responses at 21, followed by South Africa and Uganda, which had 16 each.
GBV cases
The analysis found the government was deliberate in addressing GBV cases. It deployed police from other crime units to work on GBV cases. And they were proactive in contacting all individuals who filed domestic violence complaints.
As of December last year, the Zambian government had jointly with the US Embassy in Zambia, established 28 fully operational one-stop centres for comprehensive GBV response and care.
“We have trained magistrates, police officers, and doctors to improve access to justice for child survivors,” said US Embassy Chargé d’Affaires David Young, last December, during the launch of the newest four shelters in Kitwe, Mufulira, Sesheke and Solwezi districts.
Virginity testing
The country’s Anti-Gender Based Violence Act (2011) which the African Union (AU) describes as one of the most comprehensive laws on GBV in the Southern African Development Community region, prohibits forced virginity testing, forced marriages, sexual cleansing and child marriages.
The AU, however, notes that ineffective implementation of the Act and lack of public awareness of the law, inadequate financial and human resources as well as weak monitoring and evaluation strategies derail the country in tackling GBV.
