Country summary:
Board Member(s) | Visit the Zimbabwe board page |
Staff Members |
Priscilla Maposa, Director GL Zimbabwe and Regional Programmes Tapiwa Zvaraya, Programme Coordinator, GL Zimbabwe Rudo Saruchera, Senior Finance Officer GL Zimbabwe Juliet Rusawu, Finance and Administration Officer, GL Zimbabwe Loverage Nhamoyebonde, Programme Officer, GL Zimbabwe |
When registered | 2012 |
Address | Nicoz Diamond Building, 30 Samora Machel Avenue, 6th Floor, Harare, Zimbabwe |
Email and phone | zimmanager@genderlinks.org.za +263 242 798 600 |
Alliance Focal Network | Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe |
Government COEs | 92 View the Centres of Excellence |
Media COEs | 2 |
Key partners | Ministry of Local Government and Public Works; Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development; The Embassy of Sweden; Diakonia UNWOMEN; Zimbabwe Local Government Association – Association of Rural District Councils of Zimbabwe (ARDCZ) and Urban Councils Association of Zimbabwe (UCAZ); International Centre for Local Democracy (ICLD); National Junior Councils Association of Zimbabwe |
View the Zimbabwe Facebook page. You can learn more about the Zimbabwe programmatic area on this page. 2022 marked 10 years since Gender Links Zimbabwe (GLZ) became operational. The office has since grown to be a model hub country, managing and supporting operations in other GL offices in the region namely Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, and South Africa. In 2022 the office conducted the following activities:
You can read the Hub and Spoke handbook for gender mainstreaming here.
The KARIBA REDD+ project is a community based programme that seeks to empower local communities in providing several alternative income generating projects with a low environmental hazards. The project is located in the north west of Zimbabwe and spans over four provinces. It is administered by four rural district councils namely Binga, Nyaminyami, Hurungwe and Mbire. Community responsibility and efficient natural resource management in the fight against climate change is part of the mandates of the programme. The programme is a good practice as it is seeks to benefit whole communities, specifically including the poorest members of society, improve the availability of social, educational and health related services to the local populations which is critical to gender promotion and empowerment of women.
â € ¢ Council has a mandate to provide service to its residents one of such is health, HIV AND AIDS services which has an effect of improving the lives of the people and Reducing GBV through prevention of Parent To Child Transmission.
â € ¢ Council through its two clinics teaches the community on reducing the burden of women caring for the sick in the family
â € ¢ Caring of the sick involves the whole family (Both spouses) but traditionally it has been the womenâ € ™s job to the extent of men transferring their sick spouses to their maiden homes for their mothers to attend to them
â € ¢ Council envisage to maintain a health community as the nation is judged by the health status of its citizens through educating both spouses to take charge @ 50/50
Á¯ ƒ ˜ A random baseline survey reviled a capacity gap of:
â € ¢ Lack of adequate and appropriate information with the correct message to re-enforce efforts in mainstreaming gender and HIV/AIDS and Childrenâ € ™s Rights
â € ¢ Unemployment after even passing highest education and tertiary school and lack of utilisation of the learned skills acquired there from.
â € ¢ A more suitable platform which has a broader focus that looks at transforming the youth and vulnerable child while at the same time supporting service organizations in performing their roles effectively.
Lack of platform to facilitate information sharing between children and childrenâ € ™s service Organizations
â € ¢ Today, world over there is growing consensus about the importance of women as essential economic actors. Globally, womenâ € ™s growing participation in employment is offering an important contribution to national economic growth rates, economic viability and poverty reduction. However, gender gaps in the world of work remain in most countries, affecting productivity and competitiveness. The full participation of women as economic actors is essential to build healthy and economies as well as substantial poverty reduction.
The story submitted focused on how long distance relationships between married couples affected their relationships. Infidelity came to the fore when men and women in various occupations brought them apart.
It also highlighted the issue of maintenance whereby certain men sire children out of wedlock and marry elsewhere. The fact that men normally left their children – be they boys and girls in the care of their mothers highlights the extent of the burden given to women when they support their children on their own in cases of divorce.
Women are generally regarded as drivers of reproduction in the society we live in. From as early as creation itself, women are considered as child bearers. Biblically, when Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, God commanded that Eve would endure pain at child birth.
Prior to that, there is a depiction of Adam as a lonely man in the Garden of Eden. While Adam enjoyed the abundance of flora and fauna in the garden, God saw that he needed company. Thus he forced Adam to fall into a deep sleep and removed a rib from him through which he formed Eve who was to be Adamâ € ™s wife and companion.
This is how men and women started living together. Before sinning, we hear that the two lived equally as mere companions. This means they shared everything and took care of everything in the Garden of Eden on an equal basis.
Adam and Eve received the same commandments on eating all the other fruits of the garden except the tree of knowledge which was in the middle of the garden. The Bible is silent on who wielded greater authority thus we would assume that men and women enjoyed equity and equality. There was no discrimination on gender basis.
We only hear that Eve sinned when she had parted ways with Adam her companion and met the cunning serpent which persuaded her to taste of the forbidden fruit. Thus we would assume that maybe Adam would have given wise counsel to Eve to disregard the evil machinations of the serpent. Thus we find that it is important to work together as men and women at all times.
Still on the form of punishment for Eveâ € ™s sins, God commanded that Adam would be the head of the family. He was to work hard to toil for the family. This is when gender discrimination in terms of allocation of work started among men and women.
The Zimbabwe Council of Churches believes that all people are created in Godâ € ™s Image (men and women, boys and girls) according to scriptures. The society which defines the roles, behaviours and qualities appropriate for men and women, is seen to be promoting vulnerability among sex groups. This is creating gaps in exercising rights and opportunities in social, economic, health, education, cultural issues.
The Zimbabwe Council of Churchesâ € ™ activities are influenced by the economic, social and political situations in the country and the programs including gender justice are endeavouring to address the related problems. Many people accept and respect ZCC because it promotes human dignity, integrity of creation and is found in every corner of Zimbabwe through its member churchesâ € ™ structures. The ZCC secretariat plays an enabling role for its members. It builds the capacity of member churches to bring change in communities and unites them to develop a common voice on issues of national advocacy.
The advocacy for non-violence and resolution of conflicts and promotion of good local governance is a good practice because of various reasons. It is a good practice because it has been on the forefront of ensuring the realisation of the millennium development goal number three which aims at eliminating gender disparities, promotion of gender equality and women empowerment. The program is there to prevent, manage, resolve conflicts and give referrals to mention just a few. It is also there to help counsel the victims and perpetrators of violence in different households and in the community as a whole. Widespread sexual violence itself has been increasing the levels of the conflict in the district.
Sexual violence has been preventing women from accessing education, becoming financially independent and from participating in governance and peace building.
Womenâ € ™s exclusion from peace processes contravenes their rights including their perspectives in decision making.
Therefore the advocacy for non-violence and resolution of conflicts and promotion of good local governance is there to ensure:
– The right to be treated with fairness and respect for dignity and privacy
– The right to offer and receive information
– The right to protection
– The right to assistance
– The right to compensation
– The right to restitution.
o I was ordained Pastor 20 years ago and I was working under male Pastors. In 2001, I founded a Ministry called Word of God Deliverance Ministries and I have three male Pastors under my leadership. It was difficult for me to work with male Pastors from other churches in my locality in the Ministersâ € ™ fraternal as they were hostile because I was a female and single. I attended workshops which were gender related and learned quite a lot on gender issues. The information which I learnt from these workshops empowered me to stand for my own rights as a woman.
During the outreach programme on Constitution making process I was involved in consultations and collecting peopleâ € ™s views. This was in 2010 when our country was drafting our Zimbabwe Constitution. I had sent my application and was one of the few recognised women chosen to be in the Constitution making process. I was one of the 210 rappoteurs.
Those days the situation in the country was tense. We were working hand in hand with other political parties and organisations. I felt it was going to be a challenging horrible time. I wondered how I was going to cope up with strange people, but thank God, He made this possible. The first day we met at Gweru Polytechnical College. In my team we were only three women and the rest were men, During these first days at work we could not trust each other. Even to mix with other counterparts you would feel like you were going to be killed. As days went on we got used to each other, but with little trust.
We were going to work for the next 3 months in that situation. During the second week dust started to settle down. As women we started sharing food with our male counterparts. We could organise for a drink or braai after work. This made us familiar with each other. We became a family. As a group, the fears and political differences were not displayed during working hours.
As time went on everything stabilised. However, there were some people who remained impossible. They would come and provoke some of the individuals from the other political parties to do bad things or use unethical language just to cause commotion.
There were men who scolded me as a woman, saying â € ˜women should be busy at home preparing meals for your husbands and childrenâ € ™. My response was â € ˜no job is meant to be men and womenâ € ™s domainâ € ™.
What I learnt during this process was that as women we are sometimes enemies of our own destiny. We have different perceptions against women who fight for our rights. The pull her down syndrome is common. I fought for equality during my presence. I could defend myself and cause and at last these men were saying you are not a woman but a man. This was because I could bring to the table issues pertaining women and take men head on in defending them. It also built confidence and trust since these women can participate in critical issues such as keeping confidential issues and are not corrupt. I also travelled different areas meeting different people with different cultures, thus boosting my interactive skills.
The good practice is called secure and safe boarding houses for school children. The project is situated in Mtorashanga area which is a mining community surrounded by farming communities. There is no boarding school in the area. There are two day secondary schools in the area which cater for Mtorashanga community, Urungwe farm, Landfall farm, Jester farm and 3 sisters farm. Some of the school children live a distant from school and have looked for some lodging places in Mutorashonga. ZIMSCO a mining company in the area which is the authority in Mtorashanga was/is renting houses to these school children.
The motivation that brought about the project was that most of the school children renting houses come from poor families and end up in promiscuity in trying to augment the meagre income that they get from their families. Some girls are just abused by male adults who take advantage that these children live away from their parents. Even boys end up doing some ills which are detrimental to their lives such as smoking drugs.
In order to bring sanity and parental guidance to these children, as the local councillor after noticing the abuse of these children I decided to accommodate these children under one roof. It is a good practice since these children will be living under boarding environment with boarding supervisors acting as loco-parents which reduce the abuse of these children by bad members of the community.