Story by Memory Chamisa
Adequate funding has been noted as critical for an effective aid response to prevent and address the impact of violence and discrimination against women and girls.
Development Partners have played a pivotal role in ensuring the Gender Based Violence (GBV) Response Fund is able to provide much needed support for communities greatly affected while also serving as one of the largest donors and active partners in ensuring the protection of beneficiaries.
This emerged at the GBV roundtable meeting held in Harare aimed at addressing the urgent issue of gender base violence-response funding.
French Ambassador to Zimbabwe, His Excellency Paul Bertrand-Barets said, “The committed resources will ensure that identified gaps are adequately addressed and ensuring the continued work of community-based organisations. Together, the GBVF Response Fund and Team EU aim to enhance prevention, protection, and support mechanisms for those affected by GBVF.”
A UNFPA representative also noted, “The UNFPA together with its agencies are committed to combatting GBV and fostering safer, more resilient communities. By working together, we strive to create lasting change and empower survivors while addressing the root causes of GBV.”
Minister of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Senator Monica Mutsvangwa acknowledged the support of development partners as instrumental in enabling the fund to offer crucial assistance to communities impacted by GBV.
“Sustainable funding solutions are therefore critical, equipping these institutions with the necessary resources to provide high-quality support to survivors. The needs of those institutions range from stationery, food provisions, hospital equipment and supplies, operational costs, allowances and salaries for GBV specialized services (counselling and legal aid) dedicated staff to provide administrative and security duties as well as continuous training of staff. There is also need for income-generating projects at the safe shelters and infrastructure maintenance and development where new institutions need to be set up. We cannot sit on our laps but rather dream big to consider even setting up more institutions to cover all provinces and districts of the country considering that the available institutions are not able to meet the growing demand while at the same time, they have to be within reach of those in need,” she said.
The last Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey reports that nearly 50% of women and girls aged between 15 and 49 have experienced either emotional, physical or sexual violence at some point in life.
These statistics represents a life disrupted, a future derailed, and a community weakened.
