Written evidence submitted by WOMANKIND Worldwide

 

December 2009

 

WOMANKIND Worldwide is an international women's rights and development charity working in partnership with organisations around the world.

 

Our aim is to enable women in developing countries to voice their concerns and claim their rights and to work globally for policies and practices which promote equality between women and men.

 

The main focus of our work is to:

· Eliminate violence against women

· Advance women's status and wellbeing, through increasing their political and civil participation

· Inform and influence policy and practice at local, national, regional and international levels

 

WOMANKIND Worldwide has been working in Zimbabwe since 1998 in partnership with local and national NGOs. At the moment we are working in partnership with the Zimbabwean Women's Lawyers Association, MUSASA Project, Women in Politics Unit and the Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ). The Coalition is a network representing 56 women's organisations.

 
 

 



WOMANKIND Worldwide welcomes the International Development Committee's enquiry on DFID's Assistance to Zimbabwe. Our response focuses in particular on DFID's work to promote gender equality and women's human rights in the country, as we believe this must be at the heart of any plans to reduce poverty and increase accountability. It also focuses on some recent initiatives DFID has developed in Zimbabwe, such as creation of the Gender Support Fund jointly with the European Commission.

 

 

Key Recommendations:

 

1. Promotion of gender equality and women's rights as explicit goals of DFID's strategic objectives for Zimbabwe, and set measurements to assess progress on gender equality and women's rights in all aspects of Zimbabwe's Assistance Plan

2. Assess the effectiveness of the Gender Support Fund and ensure this funds women's organisations

3. Strengthen accountability of the government by supporting civil society and, in particular, women's organisations

4. We encourage DFID to put forward solutions to the economic crisis that include measures to address the impact on poor women, and ensuring poor women are consulted in policy-making, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of responses to the economic crisis

5. To strengthen DFID's institutional capacity in the country to enable increased focus and impact on gender equality and women's rights

 

 

1. Promotion of gender equality and women's rights as explicit goals of DFID's strategic objectives for Zimbabwe, and set measurements to assess progress on gender equality and women's rights in all aspects of Zimbabwe's Assistance Plan

· As DFID has itself acknowledged in its 2007 Gender Equality Action Plan and 2009 White Paper, gender equality and women's empowerment are essential pre-conditions for eliminating world poverty. None of the themes, which DFID's is focusing in Zimbabwe, are gender-neutral. For instance, in the case of governance, there is a failure to recognise violence against women as a governance issue, to act to prevent violence and uphold the rights of women to protection and participation. In the case of livelihoods and growth, economic patterns impact women and men in different ways due to gender inequalities in access to jobs, resources, markets and decision making. Prevention and control of HIV and AIDS have an impact on gender equality and women's empowerment as well.

· It is crucial to remind that the Millennium Development Goals cannot be achieved without urgent and radical steps to improve the rights and status of women and girls - gender inequality and discrimination against women hinders economic growth, sustainable development, peace and human rights

· In this sense, it is crucial to ensure that a gender analysis is factored into all the programmes DFID has in Zimbabwe, to ensure that they advance rather than undermine progress on gender equality and women's rights. This would also be consistent with existing commitments made by the UK government on gender equality and women's rights, in particular the Convention for the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA).

· In the information available from DFID regarding the programmes it is funding in Zimbabwe, although it mentions that the aim is to provide direct support to the poorest and most vulnerable, it does not state clearly how DFID's work in Zimbabwe will empower the most marginalised people who are mostly women. It is important to remember that women are the poorest and most excluded, and a proactive approach to addressing gender and social exclusion is fundamental. Progress on promoting gender equality and women's rights in the context of each programme should be measured through gender-sensitive indicators and sex-disaggregated data.

 

2. DFID's funding in Zimbabwe for women's rights - assessing the Gender Support Fund

· DFID has in the past taken a lead role in promoting gender equality and women's rights and it needs to continue having that role by increasing pressure on other donors and institutions to prioritise gender equality issues in all aspects of planning, monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness and impact of development work. It is important as well that DFID does that at country level and an analysis of the achievement of gender equality is factored in all processes.

· We welcome initiatives DFID has taken in country such as the recent creation in 2009 of the Gender Fund together with the European Commission (EC) to support the promotion of gender equality in Zimbabwe[1]. However, although the EC has stated that its funds will be accessible only to women's rights organisations, DFID funds are available to any organisation working on gender. We believe that this increases the competition for resources in a reality in which women's organisations do not stand the same chance than mainstream organisations working on gender when seeking funding.

· It is important to remind that one of the key objectives of DFID's Gender Equality Action Plan is to support civil society in promoting gender equality. We believe that this is one of the important roles that DFID can and should play. Women's organisations have proven their ability to address women's needs and rights effectively and their contribution, voice and experience have made a valuable contribution to processes of governance and accountability. Yet these organisations are almost always small, under-resourced and operate in a political environment that threatens both the continuity of their work and their ability to access funding.

· We consider that at the moment, given the high poverty levels amongst women in Zimbabwe due to the political and economic crisis, it would be important to see more resources allocated for women's rights and for women's rights organisations. We also consider important initiatives like this as mechanisms to set aside resources for women's rights work, but expect this does not restrict women's rights organisations access to resources through other funding streams/channels.

· In this sense, the Gender Fund DFID/EC is a first good step but we would like to see the fund increased as it is very small for the level of need that women in Zimbabwe face (DFID's allocation is £950,000 over three years and EC's allocation is 1'000,000 Euros over three years). It is also important to assess the costs of managing the grants. At the moment UNIFEM has been appointed as the fund manager, and our partners in Zimbabwe believe it is important to assess how much goes to the projects and find ways in which administrative costs are reduced so the impact of the work can increase with more funds available.

 

3. Strengthen accountability of the Zimbabwe's government by supporting civil society, in particular, women's organisations

· We welcome DFID's commitment to promote capable, accountable and responsive governance. DFID should continue its "catalyst of change" function through a range of actors. We believe it is key that as a minimum these include representatives of national women's organisations, indigenous organisations and disabled people's organisations.

· Any political analysis on governance should include a gender dimension and recognise that women are central to improving governance. DFID needs through its funding and programmes in Zimbabwe to promote women and men's equal representation and participation in informal and formal governance systems and structures, create spaces for women's political participation and develop women's leadership.

· Women's organisations' experience on the ground have been valuable resources to processes of governance and accountability, yet in the last ten years women's organisations around the world have seen a reduction in their funding creating obstacles both to the delivery of long term programmes and their organisational sustainability. We are concerned that the emphasis of donors, including DFID, on basket funds for civil society may have a detrimental impact on the capacity of women's organisations that tend to be the poorest and most under-resourced, to access the funds, deliver their work and to hold their governments to account.

· Women's organisations in Zimbabwe have already seen a noticeable reduction in funding available in recent years and a reduction in some donors and funders' responsiveness to gender equality issues. These organisations need sustainable, long-term funding, not 'quick fixes' if they are to tackle the deep-rooted inequalities and power imbalances that perpetuate gender inequality and discrimination against women.

· DFID should recognise NGOs as a crucial resource in providing advice, analysis and background studies and ensure the local NGO sector, and in particular women's organisations, are consulted on policy and governance issues and allowed the time and space to input on such matters.

 

4. Importance of using a broader definition of development and inequality

 

· DFID's plans for the region focus on implementation of the Millennium Development Goals, but this definition of development is very narrow and should be expanded to include other key measures of progress on women's rights and gender equality, in particular CEDAW, the BPFA, and other human rights instruments, if DFID is to improve the quality and effectiveness of its aid.

· Although Zimbabwe is showing signs of economic recovery, it is important to ensure that progress on tackling inequality is not only analysed in economic terms. The social inequality faced by women, indigenous and disabled people accessing public services is not decreasing. We encourage DFID to use a holistic concept of inequality that goes beyond measures of economic inequality.

· It is important to mention that the current financial crisis will increase its impact on poor households and women, and addressing this particular is likely to become more urgent in the year ahead:

- The burden of women's domestic and reproductive work is likely to increase as household incomes shrink and cuts are made to essential services, which in Zimbabwe are very few and depend on donors funds such as the education and health sector;

- Women are more likely to be fired first when jobs are scarce because men are perceived to be the 'legitimate' job-holders

- As well as receiving lower wages, women are more likely to work part-time, and are often not covered by social-safety nets

- Economic inequalities often exacerbate violence against women - women have less access to resources, which increases their dependence on men and their vulnerability to violence

 

· We encourage DFID to put forward solutions to the economic crisis that include measures to address the impact on poor women, such as directing funding to women farmers and ensuring poor women are consulted in policy-making, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of responses to the economic crisis

 

5. Importance of increasing DFID's institutional capacity in Zimbabwe to increase focus and impact on gender equality and women's rights

 

· We believe that the commitment reflected in DFID's 2007 Gender Equality Action Plan needs to be reflected at country level. It is important that DFID staff in the Zimbabwe office receive ongoing training and support to ensure they are able to promote and monitor progress on implementation of gender equality objectives and to ensure consistency of approaches across the work.

· It is crucial to equip staff to understand and work with the complexities of gender discrimination in all aspects of DFID's work in Zimbabwe. This will help to guide and support those staff responsible for integrating a gender equality perspective into traditionally gender-neutral subject areas, such as governance or HIV and AIDS.

· DFID Country Assistance Plan in Zimbabwe should be used to guide planning and implementation at country level, so we believe it is is essential that it includes clear goals and targets on gender equality and women's rights that go beyond actions limited to health and education. This should be consistent with a country and/or regional GEAPs.



[1] The fund has been set up due to the commitment of the EC and DFID. The EC has allocated €1'000,000 over three years and DFID £950,000 over three years.