BY CATHERINE MUCHIRI CIVIC society organisations (CSOs) have called for more research on the impact of gender-based violence (GBV) to come up with new models that are effective in reducing the violence.
Stakeholders at a Sharing and Learning Symposium on GBV held in Harare on Wednesday agreed that GBV data must be collected, generated and shared among stakeholders to encourage communities to end the scourge.
The GBV data must be specific to different regions in the country.
Tetra Tac team leader for evaluation and learning, Julliene Corboz also urged institutions to come up with appropriate approaches to tackle GBV.
“It is important to make distinctions of what works and does not work in reducing GBV as it directs institutions on what approaches to pursue,” Corboz said.
“The impact of GBV can be gauged through theory failure or implementation failure. Theory failure is when a policy, strategy or programme was implemented as intended, but did not have the desired impact, while implementation failure is when the policy was not implemented as intended.”
According to Corboz in Zimbabwe, the highest form of GBV is violence on an intimate partner, while the prevalent risk factors associated with it include one of the partners resorting to frequently taking alcoholic drinks.
Stop Abuse and Female Exploitation (SAFE) team leader Netty Musanhu said: “SAFE integrates social empowerment and economic empowerment in order to reduce the perpetration of intimate partner violence as this type of violence is driven by economic insecurity and social norms. Through this integrated program, we have managed to significantly reduce cases of GBV in the areas we are working in.”
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GBV sub cluster coordinator for Spotlight Initiative Verena Bruno called for more research and analysis of data collected from a wide base to help eliminate violence on women and girls.
Women Affairs minister Sithembiso Nyoni said GBV became more prevalent in the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Zimbabwe is one of the few countries that has signed the high level Political Forum, a United Nations platform for follow up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and women are mentioned in the 17 goals set to transform the world,” she said.
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