Government has been urged to increase the participation of women in community share ownership trust schemes (CSOTs), land reform and indigenisation programmes in line with the country’s national gender policy.
by VENERANDA LANGA
Zimbabwe United Nations Association peace and governance officer Timothy Mapedzamombe, who participated at the recently held Beijing +20 conference, said inclusion of women in such programmes would ensure they also benefited from the country’s national resources.
“Despite significant strides made in the areas of policy and legislation reforms, Zimbabwe has many gender disparities in policy formulation and legislation aimed at bringing about development within societies,” Mapedzamombe said.
“The Zimbabwe government adopted the land reform programme, indigenisation and economic empowerment policy and CSOTs aimed at developing the livelihoods of ordinary Zimbabweans, but these policies must be implemented in line with the gender policy and internationally signed conventions like the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw 1980) and the 1995 Beijing declaration aimed at ensuring equality between men and women in terms of access to resources and means of life.”
Mapedzamombe said access to resources by women, especially in the agriculture sector where 80% of people in the sector are women, was very low.
He said agriculture was critical in economic recovery, adding government and other relevant ministries must ensure that women in rural areas were provided with farming inputs, necessary equipment and finances to increase food output.
He said women self-groups and community social groups should be restored and equipped as they produced greater results in the 1980s.
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In politics, he said men still dominated the Presidium, Cabinet, as well as Parliament where less than a quarter of the seats were occupied by women.
“This scenario can contribute to a deficit in the presentation of women concerns and needs in policy making and its implementation. Inclusion of women in top decision-making processes will enable a balance of resources distribution between men and women thereby lessening the inequality gap which is halting developmental projects within the country,” he said.
For the past 10 years, Zimbabwe had a female Vice-President Joice Mujuru who was recalled last year over allegations of plotting to oust President Robert Mugabe.
Mujuru was replaced by Vice-Presidents Emmerson Mnangawa and Phelekezela Mphoko.
