Gender

Gender in Zambia focuses on disparities in women’s roles and limited opportunities for women in relations to those of men. Without an improvement of women’s rights and participation in social and economic life, it will be impossible to achieve sustainable development and reduce poverty and violence.

It is for this reason that the Embassy supports the GRZ in the implementation of the gender policy framework in the Fifth National Development Plan (Word doc). The Embassy plays an active role in the gender sector, in line with the policy of the Dutch Minister of Development Cooperation who has chosen gender as one of his 4 priority areas.

The Embassy’s involvement in gender consists of three entry points:

Support to the Joint Gender Support Programme
Support to the National Legal Aid Clinic for Women
Mainstreaming gender equality in all sectors and activities of the Embassy

In the context of the Joint Assistance Strategy for Zambia (JASZ), the gender sector is led by the United Nations system.

6.1 Gender disparities in Zambia

Even though women constitute 51% of the Zambian population, they are underrepresented in many areas of socio-economic activities. Women in Zambia have lower levels of education, limited access and control over resources of production, face a high maternal mortality rate compared to other countries and are the ones most affected by poverty and HIV/AIDS. Zambian women are on average poorer than men with 70% of the female-headed households being poor, compared to 63% from the male-headed households. In education, there are gender imbalances. Despite gender parity at primary level, there is a higher drop out rate for girls as from grade 5, when girls are 12-14 years old. In the health sector, the maternal mortality ratio has been high at a rate of 729 deaths per 100,000 live births. Even though the 2007 Zambia Demographic Health Survey shows an improvement down to 442, this remains nevertheless high. Women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS is a consequence of cultural practices such as polygamous practices, sexual cleansing etc. The dual legal system with customary and statutory law also contributes to these inequities and to a high incidence of gender based violence. As a result, on the UNDP Gender Development Index (GDI), Zambia ranks 143 of 157 countries, revealing large discrepancies in conditions for women and men.

6.2 Joint Gender Support Programme

The Embassy is one of the donor agencies, together with the UN, Irish Aid and Norway, to support the Joint Gender Support Programme (JGSP). This programme aims to strengthen the capacity of the national gender institutional framework to mainstream gender. The gender institutional framework is comprised of the Office of the Minister of Gender, who is supported by the Gender in Development Division (GIDD) at Cabinet Office. There are Gender Focal point persons in all line ministries and the provincial and district level who lead Gender Sub- Committees, while the issue is also monitored in the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs, Human Rights, Governance and Gender. Such mainstreaming entails that the specific women’s issues are considered in the design, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes so that women can participate and benefit equally. The focus of the JGSP is the Gender in Development Division (GIDD), whose capacity will be strengthened to ensure that gender is mainstreamed in all government operations. The programme further focuses on legal reforms, advocacy for gender and women’s economic empowerment. The donor agencies support to the JGSP is through a UNDP Trust Fund (for more information on GIDD see www.gender.gov.zm).

6.3 National Legal Aid Clinic for Women

The Embassy supports the National Legal Aid Clinic for Women (NLACW), which is a Zambian organisation that provides legal aid services to needy women (and children) for improving their overall legal and social position. Women’s rights are one of the most pervasive human rights abuses in Zambia. The target group has limited recourses to pay for legal services since poverty in Zambia is hitting women harder than men. Most of the cases dealt with by NLACW are related to divorce, issues of violence against women and the inheritance law. NLACW seeks to empower women and protect them from injustice. Every case that is won in favour of women is a success for all future cases, since the Zambian law system is based on precedence. Through three offices in Lusaka, Ndola and Livingstone, NLACW delivers services, mainly in urban areas. Through mobile clinics, workshops, radio programmes and disseminating legal literature, NLACW brings rescue to women in need of legal assistance. The focus of NLACW is on matrimonial law (including divorce, abuse, maintenance of ex-wife and children, property grabbing, custody of children and marital counselling) and inheritance law (wills, conversion, property grabbing).

6.4 Mainstreaming gender equality

The Embassy attaches great importance to mainstreaming gender, and in particular the equitable involvement of women, in all the initiatives the Embassy is supporting. This entails that the specific issues for women are considered in the design, budgeting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes within all sectors and activities of development cooperation. In addition, this requires Embassy staff to convince key stakeholders in government, donor agencies, civil society and the media to continue paying attention to women’s inequality. As a lead agency in education and private sector development, the Embassy endeavors to keep gender high on the policy agenda. In education, the Embassy supports FAWEZA, the national NGO lobbying for girls’ education, and brings up gender often in the regular dialogue mechanisms. Several PSD supporting institutions have integrated gender equity and gender disaggregated monitoring in the activities, such as Zambia Development Agency (voucher scheme), Zambia National Farmers Union, PSD Reform Programme, Zanaco bank.