The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa
Post Correspondent
The Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) has trained focal persons from various Government ministries on the monitoring and evaluation of gender equality within their respective departments.
The program was supported by United Nations Women.
In an interview on the sidelines of a two-day training workshop, ZGC chief executive officer, Mrs Virginia Muwanigwa said the initiative is aimed at ensuring effective implementation of gender equality policies within Government ministries.
“The commission has a constitutional mandate to monitor compliance on gender equality provisions in the Constitution, and other international and regional normative frameworks which the country has subscribed to.
“To support this process, and as part of strengthening the commission’s oversight role, we developed the monitoring and evaluation framework with support from UN Women under the Spotlight Initiative,” said Mrs Muwanigwa.
She said as the commission moves towards full operationalisation of the framework, it is important for key stakeholders in all Government departments to build their capacity to ensure competent and effective utilization of the system.
“They play a critical role as they are ZGC’s foot soldiers in implementing the system, utilisation and generation of reports that allows lessons to be shared easily. Therefore, successful implementation of the system will be instrumental in accelerating efforts to address the glaring gender disparities across Zimbabwe.
“Further, it will support informed evidence decision making processes on developing programme interventions and policies which are critical in addressing identified gender gaps,” she said.
As a human rights institution, one of ZGC’s objectives is to promote accountability and transparency in both public and private institutions to ensure achievement of good governance and democracy.
The framework allows the tracking of progress against set benchmarks.
Mrs Muwanigwa said the monitoring and evaluation shall provide a sound basis for achieving accountability and transparency.
The framework is premised on selected regional and international conventions that include the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Protocol, the Maputo Protocol and the Sadc Protocol on Gender and Development, as well as the UN minimum set of gender indicators.
“The framework was established in consultation with stakeholders and guided by the national constitution, regional and international normative frameworks on gender equality and equity.”
