CIVIL society organisations have called for Gender-Based Violence (GBV) services to be explicitly stated in the national budget to boost provision of GBV amenities.
Speaking at a workshop in Harare yesterday, Poverty Reduction Forum Trust (PRFT) programmes manager Nyasha Nyatondo said the country’s heavy reliance on external funding for GBV services was unsustainable due to declining global donor support.
PRFT is implementing the Advancing Gender Equity and Equality in Public Health Financing Project under the Christian Aid Zimbabwe Health Work-Stream Consortium that includes the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) and Community Working Group on Health (CWGH).
“The national budget allocation for GBV services in Zimbabwe is not explicitly stated in the national budget,” Nyatondo said.
“While several provisions are made through the Women Affairs (ministry), Home Affairs (ministry) and NPRC [National Peace and Reconciliation Commission] budgets, there is a need to explicitly state the GBV vote to enhance monitoring of progress towards provision of GBV services in the country.
“GBV in Zimbabwe is largely financed by external donor partners, with the government only able to meet around 10% of the required funding.”
GBV remains a significant problem, with one in three women aged 15 to 49 experiencing physical or sexual violence.
Available statistics indicate that the country has recorded a staggering 16 444 cases of GBV and 31 deaths since January this year, with men cited as the main perpetrators.
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CWGH legal officer Lorraine Mumba said there was need for more community engagement on GBV and family planning.
“There is a need to specifically target youths in mining as they are often left out in these programmes,” she said.
“There is a need to engage health worker on the issues of confidentiality.”
Sadc Parliamentary Forum SRHR, HIV, and governance project researcher at the Parliament of Zimbabwe, Munashe Tofa, said there was a need to lobby the government to implement policies that addressed health challenges.
