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THE Ministry of Gender and Child Development has come up with a national baseline survey to strengthen the monitoring and evaluation framework of the Gender Based Violence (GBV) National Plan Action for 2010-2014.
Gender and Child Development Deputy Minister, Esther Banda said in Lusaka yesterday that the baseline survey would provide data on GBV in all the provinces.
Ms Banda said the data would be used to monitor and evaluate the efforts of
Government and civil society to halve the current levels of GBV by the year 2015 as provided in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
The GBV indicators survey is part of a Southern African initiative to establish the true levels of gender-based violence to speed up progress towards achieving the SADC Gender Protocol target of halving gender violence by 2015.
Speaking when she delivered a speech during the Gender Violence Researchers Workshop in Lusaka, Ms Banda said the practical implementation of the plan should be accelerated in an effort to address GBV at community and local levels throughout the country.
UNICEF country representative Hamid El Bashir said the plan of action should be strengthened to achieve the desired goals.
Ms El Bashir said violence against women had continued to be one of the most common and serious human rights violations occurring in the SADC region.
Meanwhile, the Ndola District administration has formed a task force that will monitor the provision of contraceptives and post-exposure prophylaxis, a short-term anti- retroviral treatment to reduce the likelihood of HIV infections after potential exposure to rape and defilement victims.
District Commissioner Rebby Chanda said the task force would be composed of eight members from his office who would conduct inspections every three months.
The task force would ensure that treatment for rape and defilement victims was available at all times.
Mr Chanda said this during the end of 16 Days of Activism against GBV at Masala Market in Ndola yesterday.
The activism started on November 25 and ended yesterday.
Gender District sub-committee chairperson Angela Munthali said the committee would continue acting against GBV through sensitisation campaigns.
And the Non-Governmental Organisations Coordinating Council (NGOCC) has urged all stakeholders helping in the fight against GBV to come up with well-coordinated information on the scourge.
NGOCC executive director Engwase Mwale said there was need for various organisations to have a coordinated and proper data management system on GBV.
Ms Mwale said GVB was a pandemic that could not be approached as a separate phenomenon without looking at aspects of human rights of women.
She was speaking in Livingstone yesterday during the launch of the improved GBV data management and coordination project.
Ms Mwale said the launch came at a time when there were calls for quality data on GBV so that it could be fought effectively.
