GL@15: A Luta Continua e a Victória é Certa!


Date: July 29, 2016
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Marta CumbiMozambique is one of the countries where women and girls are still facing challenges due to social and traditional norms that prevent them from realising their rights. Although funding from traditional donors is shrinking due to the impact of the financial crisis, Mozambique is a promising country because of the discovery of mineral resources that can result in alternative sources of funding from the private sector.

The government has been active in ratifying international and regional instruments that protect the rights of women and girls such as CEDAW, SADC Protocol on Gender and Development and the Convention on the Rights of Children. The newly approved Sustainable Development Goals that defines a stand- alone goal for gender equality while pushing for gender mainstreaming across all other goals will bring a new impetus in the promotion of women rights across the globe.

The country is in a process of formulating the second National Action Plan to fight Violence and the National Plan for the Advancement of Women. GL has been contributing to the country´s efforts to end gender inequality through the implementation of activities in the areas of local governance, media and women empowerment.

A lot of work has been done to build the capacity of local government for the inclusion of the gender dimension in their activities. To this end, 19 councils benefited from our work by completing the 10 stages of the Centres of Excellence and we have started engaging with other 8 councils.  We are also work with the media by strengthening their capacity to report in a gender sensitive manner. Work with women victims of violence has been crucial in empowering then economically to overcome and reduce their vulnerability to violence.

Challenges that have been encountered in the course of programme include high unit costs of project implementation, lack of donor funding and the establishment of the right balance between project implementation and fundraising. With a lot of dedication from the staff, GL Mozambique managed to mobilise resources from two donors, Diakonia and Amplify Change. Additional work is underway to expand fundraising efforts to the private sector, with special attention to the extractive industries. We believe that with the right fundraising strategies we can establish medium to long-term partnerships with the private sector that will contribute to raising their profiles while increasing resources to promote gender equality in the country. Mozambicans are always sure about a brighter future. For this reason we say: A Luta Continua e a Victória é Certa!

Written by Marta Cumbi, GL Board Member