BULAWAYO, Jul. 22 (NewsDay Live) – UN Women says it is overhauling its strategy to tackle gender-based violence as abuse increasingly affects entire families rather than intimate partners alone, while chronic underfunding continues to hamper support services for women and girls.
Speaking at a Strategic Note Consultative Meeting in Bulawayo on Tuesday, Acting UN Women Zimbabwe Country Representative Loveness Makonese said the organisation’s 2027–2031 Strategic Note would be shaped by consultations with communities across the country instead of being developed primarily from Harare.
She said meetings in Bulawayo, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South were designed to ensure the next four-year strategy reflects the lived realities of women and girls at community level.
“We want something, in the spirit of devolution, that also addresses the lived realities of the people of Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South and Bulawayo.”
Makonese said one of the biggest lessons from the current 2022–2026 Strategic Note was that programmes supporting women and girls remain chronically underfunded despite growing demand.
She said one-stop centres for survivors of gender-based violence, safe shelters and other essential services continue to face funding shortages.
“The most outstanding pressing issues are issues of accountability for women and girls. You would find that consistently fewer resources are budgeted for women empowerment issues and gender equality issues,” she said.
“We are pushing for access to services for gender-based violence, the one-stop centres and the safe shelters for women experiencing violence, but those issues have remained underfunded.”
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Makonese said UN Women would continue advocating for stronger accountability and gender-responsive budgeting to increase investment in programmes supporting women and girls.
She said gender-based violence was becoming more complex, requiring governments and development partners to rethink their response.
“The persistent issue is gender-based violence. But now we are realising it’s not just intimate partner violence, where the husband or spouse is fighting or injuring the intimate partner. We are also seeing a whole-of-family approach to violence where even children are becoming survivors,” she said.
Her remarks come amid heightened concern over family-related violence following the arrest in South Africa of Zimbabwean-born British national Ndodana Mkhanyisi Tshuma over the alleged murders of his wife, Nothabo Zandile Tshuma, and their two young daughters in the United Kingdom.
Makonese said such cases underscored the need for broader, community-based interventions.
“We are saying zero tolerance towards gender-based violence, but we are also realising we now need to go a step further and have a more holistic and community-based approach towards ending violence within families and communities,” she said.
She acknowledged that UN Women’s current strategy had focused largely on supporting national policies and legislative reforms, but consultations had shown that inequality often begins within households and communities.
“You’d find as UN Women our major entry point had been a centralised approach where we were pushing for policies and reforms at national level. But as we are getting down to provincial and community levels, we are realising inequality happens within the family. Inequality happens within the communities.”
Makonese said the next Strategic Note, which will guide UN Women’s work from 2027 to 2031, would place greater emphasis on community-driven solutions, partnerships with local stakeholders and strengthening grassroots services for women and girls.
