Original title "Zimbabwe's remarkable Progress Recorded in Gender Equity Programmes"

Posted on All Africa.com 10 March 2008, added on this website April 2008

Harare

"The Governement of Zimbabwe has made tremendous strides in implementing gender equity programmes that need to be complemented through a budget that pushes women empowerment", the Minister of Women's Affairs, Gender and Community Development", Oppah Muchinguri said yesterday.

Although this year's international commemorations are being held under the theme; Financing for Gender Equality, Zimbabwe has adopted a national theme of "Gender budgeting for women empowerment."

Speaking at the launch of the International Women's Day, Muchinguri said this year's theme has come at a time when Government is implementing the gender budgeting programme launched in April last year.

The theme also focuses on the equitable distribution of national resources of the country.

The International Women's Day is commemorated annually worldwide on March 8 and Zimbabwe will launch its official commemorations on March 14 at a local hotel.

"Zimbabwe has made remarkable progress in institutionalising the gender budgeting initiative. Our engagement with the Ministry of Finance has resulted in the 2007 Call Circular (which) mandated all line ministries to have gender consideration in their ministerial bids," he said.

She said the Government has also established and trained gender focal persons in gender budgeting with the main responsibility of ensuring that their ministries' budget is gender sensitive.

"This has resulted in the increment of the ministry budget allocation from 24 percent in 2007 to 98 percent in 2008 of what the ministry had requested," she said.

Muchinguri said women constitute more than half of the population in Zimbabwe and 70 percent live in rural areas while the majority live below the poverty datum line.

"Through the gender budgeting programme, the Government has invested more in women in agriculture, mining, health environment and education.

"This is in line with achieving the Millennium Development Goal number one on poverty eradication and number three of achieving gender equality and women empowerment," she said.

She called on all stakeholders including Government, civic society and the corporate world to join hands and ensure that the country's budgets, programmes and policies are gender-sensitive.