The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
THE United Nations in collaboration with the government and development partners is going to implement a US$30 million programme to help fight child marriages and harmful practices that are threatening to undo the gains the country has made so far in safeguarding women and girl-child rights as well as promoting community development.
This was revealed at the launch of the State of the World Population (SWOP) report on Tuesday morning. The report focuses primarily on child marriages, female genital mutilation and gender-based sex selection which are three prominent harmful practices that devastate millions of girls and women globally.
Mr Timo Olkkonen, European Union Ambassador in Zimbabwe said the United Nations was pledging more financial support for programmes in this regard.
“The UN is collaborating with the government of Zimbabwe and Civil Society Organisations in its implementation of this USD$30 million programme. The initiative has identified child marriage as one of the urgent harmful practices that need to be addressed in Zimbabwe. Child marriage is a gross violation of child rights and robs girls of their childhood, preventing them from reaching their full potential and in most cases, resulting in increased poverty. Let us allow girls to be children first before they become wives and mothers,” he said.
According to the 2015 Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey (ZDHS) violence against women is rife and affects all women, regardless of geographic location, wealth or education also stating that at least 35 percent of women and girls, 15 to 49 years, have experienced some form of GBV at least once in their lifetime.
“The Sexual and Reproductive Health consequences of early marriage can be devastating,” said Dr. Esther Muia, UNFPA Zimbabwe Country Representative.
“Teenage pregnancies, from the many young girls married off at an early age, result in early pregnancies, increasing the risk of maternal deaths and birth injuries such as fistula to the mothers and brain damage to babies due to prolonged, obstructed labour as the young girls’ bodies are not yet ready for child birth,” she added.
This year’s State of the World Population report launch comes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic that has affected programmes and work to end GBV and harmful cultural practices.
“Globally, Covid-19 will disrupt efforts to end child marriage, potentially resulting in an additional 13 million child marriages between 2020 and 2030. While progress has been made in ending some harmful practices worldwide, the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to reverse,” reads a report by UNFPA.
Zimbabwe is among 20 African countries with the highest child marriage rate. According to MICS 2019, about 1 in 3 (34 percent) of women of the ages 20-24 were first married or in union before the age of 18. Accelerated action is urgently called for in Zimbabwe to address this problem amongst other harmful practices that are obstacles to growth and development.
Although GBV remains a huge problem affecting women and girls progress has been made to ensure an appropriate legislative framework is in place to address this.
“The 2006 Domestic Violence Act highlights provisions available to address sexual, psychological and even financial abuse in domestic settings. Also, the 2013 Constitution of Zimbabwe supported by the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act, the National Gender Strategy, the National GBV Strategy, the National Plan of Action Against Rape, the National Plan to End Child Marriage sets the framework for protecting women and girls that remain the large populations affected by violence,” noted UNFPA.
