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Count Down To Beijing+10
Zimbabwe Women's Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN)
Extracted from the Gender Budget Watch IV, August 2004
October 20, 2004

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Preparatory processes towards the 2005 review of the Beijing Platform of Action on progress made in advancing the empowerment of women and promoting gender equality are in progress in Zimbabwe, Africa and the world over. October 2004 has been set as the date for the Africa review meeting whilst a sub-regional meeting to review progress by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in achieving the Beijing commitments was convened by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Lusaka, Zambia, from 26 – 29 April 2004 (the April Meeting).

Since the United Nations Beijing Fourth World Conference for women held in 1995, some positive legislative developments to protect the rights of women have been put in place in Zimbabwe. There has been advancement in the area of women’s legal rights, including inheritance and custody. Many strides have also been made in the world of work in terms of maternity leave, equal pay for work of equal value, and non-discrimination on the grounds of sex. The education sector has also witnessed substantial gains in the first five years after Beijing+5, with more girls getting into school up to tertiary level and a decline after 2000 as girls drop out of school due to the current economic hardships in the country.

HIV and AIDS, an emerging post Beijing problem, has posed a great challenge to the lives of Zimbabwean women and girls more than men and boys. The state has defaulted on its obligation to provide care and has reduced almost every woman to a home nurse in contravention of the provisions of Convention on all forms of Elimination and Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Poverty has also exacerbated the pandemic, making women more vulnerable as 90% of the population is believed to be poor (ZCTU). Apart from culture and norms that prevent women from negotiating safe sex, their biological and physiological make up further compounds their vulnerability to HIV and AIDS.

HIV and AIDS policies in Zimbabwe are not responding to realities of the gender inequalities that women are facing. There is no deliberate attempt to target resources for women to cater for the very pertinent issue of home-based care in the National Aids Trust Fund. Statistics have shown that one in every four sexually active people in Zimbabwe is HIV positive, with sixty percent (60%) of those infected being women. The government is still working on a treatment policy that is long overdue, whilst the country is losing 2000 people every week to HIV and AIDS related illnesses.

Despite some progress by Zimbabwe towards gender equality and gender mainstreaming, disparities between women and men still exist in the areas of legal rights, power-sharing and decision-making, access to and control over productive resources, education and health, and women still constitute the majority of the poor.

Constraints to achieving gender equality include the application of dual system of laws, with Section 23.3 of the Constitution prohibiting discrimination on one hand but allowing it on the other on the basis of customary law. The negative portrayal of gender issues by the media, lack of capacity in government to effectively mainstream gender, lack of political will, negative customary beliefs and practices, poor implementation of laws and policies, and non-domestication of international instruments like CEDAW are some of the challenges. Zimbabwe ratified CEDAW in 1991 and has been reporting as is required by the provisions of CEDAW, however it has not domesticated CEDAW into national law and policy. Reporting on an international instrument as important as CEDAW is difficult when the relevant holistic domestic legislation has not been put in place.

The current severe socio- economic and political challenges that have been compounded by a hostile external and internal environment, has resulted in sanctions and reduced investor confidence. The country is struggling to reduce inflation, which is estimated to be 364 % as at May 2004.

The impact of this economic crisis and is more severe for women than men. The economic crises has resulted in additional work loads for women where they are now working harder both inside and outside the home to make up for reduced incomes and reduced private services. Their paid and unpaid workloads have increased in comparison to that of men. Secondly, the current economic crisis has led to increased social and domestic violence as some dimensions of masculinity, such as the male breadwinner ideology, are challenged when men get retrenched or incomes cannot sustain the family and as men attempt to regain a sense of power.

Other problems range from prevalence of domestic violence, gender-based violence, inequality between women and men in accessing credit facilities, decision-making positions, and sexual, physical and psychological abuse for girls.

At regional level Zimbabwe adopted the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development in 1997 and the Addendum on the Prevention and Eradication of Violence Against Women and Children in 1998. Zimbabwe also adopted a National Gender Policy in 2001 and launched it in 2004. However, domestic violence, gender-based violence, inequality between men and women in accessing credit facilities, decision-making positions, and sexual, physical and psychological abuse of girls are still prevalent

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