By Harry Kalaba(Citizen First, President)
As we celebrate the International Women’s Day this Friday, 8th March, 2024, I wish to re-echo my statement in 2021 that there was no need for the UPND government to abolished the Ministry of Gender upon assuming office. I advised then, as I do now, that the UPND government should re-establish the Ministry of Gender because Gender, has a huge and cross-cutting portfolio. However, understanding that our colleagues have very little experience in governance, they have not taken keen interest in implementing various gender portfolio functions in the area of gender equality and the empowerment of women and the girl child.
Let me remind the UPND government that the National Policy and Action Plan on the Elimination of GBV in Zambia has a significant contribution to strengthening the normative framework for the prevention and response to GBV if implemented at ministerial level. It’s sad to note that after abolishing and reducing the ministry to a mere division, it is not effective to implement gender programmes because activities should be informed by various sectoral initiatives to address gender programing at a multi sectoral engagement level of engagement. One would agree that currently, as a division, there is no extensive stakeholder consultations and engagement for effective practice in a multi-sectoral coordination of gender related matters. Once the ministry is re-established, there will be a renewed spirit at a ministerial level in areas regarding the strengthening of a legal framework, mechanisms, systems and structures for gender programmes and GBV prevention and response including, data and information from sectoral national surveys, research and documentation as well as increased public awareness and advocacy which the division has failed to do.
This is not the kind of work that Government should relegate to advocacy NGOs.From the time when the ministry was abolished, there are glaring gaps related to gender which I have noted. For example, there has been little or no high-level ministerial led policy implementation and ownership by stakeholders within their respective mandates with very little coordination mechanism e.g. little High Level Policy Dialogue on the GBV Policy implementation (which initially should be chaired by the Minister of Gender in order for the nation to continue with advocacy and information sharing for better understanding of gender issues and mainstreaming.Little has been achieved in Research and data collection for evidence-based policy decision making at all levels mainly because of the absence of the planning and research department which does not exist at division level.
As such, there is no engagement in increased capacity building with other institutions for service delivery to prevent and respond to GBV among duty bearers including Police, Health Workers, Judicial Officers and Social Workers. Usually, and I stand not even to be corrected on this issue, there is inadequate financial resources to support service delivery required at division level compared to ministerial level.
The sad reality is that today, there is little integration of actions for gender programmes/GBV prevention and response within service delivery by other sectors and institutions.The abolishment of the Ministry of gender has indeed affected the establishment of the gender equity and equality commission in some ways. And although it is provided for in the Republican Constitution for the establishment of the Gender Equity and Equality Commission, it is not ideal to establish a Commission without the mother body, in this case, the Ministry of Gender. As we celebrate International Women’s Day this year, I urge the current government to rekindle the momentum to attain gender parity of 50/50 agenda by making sure the Ministry of gender is brought back. Government should implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and integrate the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls as standalone Goal No 5 of 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. One of the areas of focus should be on the elimination of all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres. It is important for government to revisit the Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995. The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW, was adopted in 1979 as a legally binding instrument) and the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (DEVAW, of 1993) which provided a global legal gender framework to be used for and is reflected in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. At regional level, the Inter-American Convention on the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence against Women (Convention of Belém do Pará). In a nut shell, in order for government to implement the Beijing Platform for Action which was reached at in 1995, it is important for UPND government not to feel ashamed but re-establish the Ministry of Gender. Women and girls for example require special attention, they are the highest in population and voted highly to usher in UPND which later cares less for them.
