The Non-Governmental Organisation Coordinating Council (NGOCC) in Central Province says the International Women’s Day (IWD) should serve to remind world governments of the desire for a society where women fully participate and benefit from social, cultural, economic and political development of countries.
NGOCC Provincial Chairperson, Rabecca Mseteka, said despite countries commemorating the IWD over the years, women globally continue to face numerous challenges in the 12 critical areas enshrined in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 1995.
Mrs. Mseteka noted that issues of poverty, education, health, violence, economy, decision making, human rights, media, environment and the girl child among others remain alive today.
She said despite the fact that women constitute about 51 per cent of the population in Zambia, they continue to face challenges to fully participate and benefit from various local and national development processes and programmes.
She said the country is faced with the challenge of ending violence against women, reducing maternal mortality and realising sexual and reproductive health rights.
She added that participation in leadership and decision making at all levels also remains a challenge in Zambia.
Mrs. Mseteka observes that women generally have inadequate economic, social and political power culminating into their inadequate participation and failure to benefit from national development.
She indicated that the country’s rural population constitutes the majority of people living in poverty at 76 per cent and many of them are women.
The NGOCC Chairperson said poverty has been found to be a major contributor to the high prevalence of child marriages in the country at 31 per cent adding that it is much higher in rural than urban areas and mainly affects girls than boys.
Mrs Mseteka also cited lobola and polygamous marriage to be among the major drivers of child marriages that affects the advancement of girls and eventually women because it limits their rate of progress in life.
She urged the government to demonstrate strong, determined leadership and commitment to advance women’s rights.
Mrs. Mseteka also wants government to reach the most marginalized women and girls by tackling stark and rising inequalities and multiple forms of discrimination.
She further urged the government to strengthen accountability for gender equality and supporting national gender mechanisms and women’s movements to exert influence in policy decisions.
That’s not true. I was not poor, but started having girls as “wife” very early. Ukubuta, it’s cultural.
That Poverty will sue somebody.
Poverty is what we call long term effect and will end gradually and in slow rate if we all support education although its expensive