Zimbabwe: Spotlight Initiative Makes Anti-GBV Call

By Development Diaries
March 10, 2021

Spotlight Initiative in Zimbabwe has called on authorities in the country to address gender inequality as cases of violence against women and girls continue to rise.

The Spotlight Initiative is a global, multi-year partnership between the EU and the United Nations to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls.

The EU-funded campaign was launched in response to a research report that one in three Zimbabwean women between the ages of 15 and 49 experience physical violence in their lifetime, while one in four experience sexual violence.

Minister of Women Affairs, Sithembiso Nyoni, in her report on gender-based violence (GBV) in parliament revealed that 900 girls below 18 had been raped in the last quarter of 2020 alone.

In a statement, Spotlight Initiative said, ‘The world has come to understand that violence against women and girls is one of the most pervasive violations of human rights’, it said in the statement.

‘Such a recognition illustrates that gender-based violence is not as a result of women and girls’ innate vulnerability, but a deeply-rooted structural discrimination against women and girls that perpetuates gender inequality.

‘Gender inequality lies at the very root of gender-based violence, and unless the issue is addressed, a future where women and girls live free from violence and discrimination is futile’.

Designed to reach 11 million people, including rural women and girls, persons living with disabilities and HIV, the four-year Spotlight Initiative project aims to ensure that all women and girls benefit from adequate legislation and policies.

It also aims to ensure they benefit from gender-responsive institutions, violence prevention programmes, essential services, comparable and reliable data, a strong social movement against violence as well as harmful practices at the national and sub-national levels.

The campaign, according to a UN communique, will spread messages intended to end violence against women and girls through visual and digital means.

Source: New Zimbabwe