Minister calls for rigorous efforts to end GBV

MINISTER for Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups Dr Dorothy Gwajima has called for concerted efforts in the fight against Gender Based Violence especially in changing negative perceptions which are barrier to women development.

Dr Gwajima made the call recently when gracing the Women’s Leadership Summit to mark the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Based Violence organised by Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP).

“I call upon Tanzanians and the public in general to join forces in order to change the perceptions which affect women’s and girls’ development and their participation in leadership,” Dr Gwajima said.

She also called upon people who entrusted to oversee plans, policies, strategies and budget at various levels to ensure that they consider the needs of all groups during the execution of their duties especially in resource allocation.

She said that this year’s dialogue theme which states that “Invest Resources to Increase Women Participation in Leadership to Curb Gender Based Violence,” emphasises on the importance of equal resource allocation in fighting  GBV.

Dr Gwajima commended TGNP for being a champion of grooming women for leadership roles through various interventions such as training women for leaders and encouraging them to become leaders, to recognise and write narratives of women’s journeys in leadership in order to inspire other women to become leaders.

“It is obvious that in order to get women leaders in future, we must start grooming them now, this dialogue is one of the interventions,” Dr Gwajima said.

She further detailed that, in coordinating the National Plan of Action to End Violence against Women and Children in Tanzania which ended in June this year, her docket has started to identify its achievements.

She said one of the achievements of the plan of action is the drop of gender violence cases reported by Gender and Children desk by 31 per cent from 42,413 incidents in 2020 to 29,373 in 2021.

“Children cases reported at the desk has dropped by 28 per cent from 15, 870 incidents in 2020 to 11499 in 2021,” Dr Gwajima said.

She said, likewise 18,186 women and children protection committees out of 20,750 (equivalent to 88 percent) have been formed at national, regional, council, ward and village levels in 2021/22

Dr Gwajima said that  until April this year  a total of 21 hand-in-hand centers have been established in various government hospitals in 12 regions in which a total of 1,857 victims  received  integrated services  including medical , police , legal aid and  social welfare

She noted that, the government will continue to work together with development stakeholders to continue establishing such centres in other regions.

The Minister called upon TGNP and other stakeholders to continue informing the public about the gender desks and other centres so that they can use them in efforts to fight and end GBV.

On her part, TGNP Board Chairperson Gemma Akilimali said that  the  commemoration  of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence provide an opportunity to  reflect, discuss  and share success in the  fight against GBV, reflecting challenges and come up with joint strategies to counter the problem.

“This dialogue give us an opportunity as women leaders our position in ending GBV including pushing for investment of sufficient resources in overcoming GBV,” she said.

According to Ms Akilimali  GBV is a serious problem in Africa … we witness  many deaths, disabilities , humiliation and dehumanization of women, girls and children due to acts of sexual violence including rape and prostitution.”

TGNP Executive Director Lilian Liundi said that there is a strong relationship between investment of resources by considering gender and gender violence.

“When we talk about investment it does not mean money only but also investing in enabling policy environment, laws, plans and budget with a gender focus,” she said.

TGNP executive director Lilian Liundi said that the network’s mission in this year’s celebration is to encourage public and the private sector investment to increase participation of women in leadership to end gender based violence.

She said investing resources in grooming leaders with gender focus including women, men and other groups is an important issue which needs appropriate strategy and commitment.

The summit brought together more than 200 participants from various parts of the country.