EU to launch E27m gender action project
MBABANE - European Union (EU) Ambassador to Eswatini Dessislava Choumelova said the EU strongly condemn all forms of violence against women and girls.
She said these include harmful practices as a blatant violation of human rights.
Choumelova said it was unacceptable that women were violated, abused or harassed, while girls were forcibly married or mutilated.
The ambassador was speaking at the launch of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence (GBV) at the United Nations building on Friday.
The ambassador further disclosed that gender equality for girls and women empowerment would be pursued as a priority in line with the objectives of the EU’s Gender Action Plan III.
She informed stakeholders that a dedicated gender project would be launched later in 2023, to the value of EUR1.5 million (approximately E27 million).
Accessing
“We will aim to remove the barriers they face in acquiring skills and accessing the job market,” she said.
Choumelovu said the EU had an unwavering commitment to help ensure that the rights of women and girls were respected and safeguarded in all the EU’s partner countries.
She said their commitment was to ensure the full participation of women and girl’s in public life, including decision-making.
She disclosed that the EU had collaborated with a number of institutions and organisations to promote women’s rights and gender equality, including ending violence against women and girls.
“Through the partnership with the Foundation for Socio-Economic Justice and COSPE, we worked with rural communities across the country to raise awareness on gender-based violence,” said Choumelova.
This, according to the ambassador, meant establishing and training of community focal points on gender matters, conducting dialogues with the communities, involving schools and police officers.
She further said they also held ‘woman to woman’ meetings that were leading to increased awareness of GBV and knowledge of the Sexual Offence and Domestic Violence Act.
Strengthened
She further shared her happiness that the engagement of community members had led to a strengthened referral mechanism in 20 communities across the country.
She further said, in partnership with Women and Law of Southern Africa (WLSA), they had trained 200 traditional leaders and 1 213 young men between the ages of 15 to 30 on women’s rights and gender equality in rural communities.
“We engaged with 218 influential male community leaders such as pastors, chiefs, zone leaders and inner councillors among others, to talk about the challenges that women face in the country,” said the ambassador.
She also said to transform gender-based attitudes from an early age, the project established 13 Human Rights Learning Groups in 13 school communities in the Lubombo and Manzini regions.
The ambassador further informed stakeholders that currently, EU was partnering with UNICEF to address the impact of COVID-19 among vulnerable groups, with a primary focus on pregnant adolescents, adolescent mothers/parents as well as young people with disabilities.
She said this included providing psycho-social support to pregnant adolescent girls, adolescent parents and adolescents with disabilities who dropped out of school as a result of the pandemic.
“To increase independence for these young women, the project offers life skills training, while also working on school reintegration, remedial education and drop-out risk reduction of pregnant adolescents and adolescent parents and adolescents with disabilities who dropped out of school as a result of COVID-19,” said the EU ambassador.
She further shared that there was another new project to be implemented in partnership with COSPE and a number of local non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
She said they would specifically look at the strengthening of CSOs and grassroots groups as they respond to GBV and other women and the youth’s human rights violations.
She said the project would create emergency response funds for victims of GBV.
“These funds will provide for temporary relocations, health and first aid support, psychological counselling and other socio-economic and psychological needs of the victims,” said the EU ambassador.
On another note, the ambassador said they would focus on providing targeted and specific social services to women and young people, including girls, who were the most affected by the social ills of poverty, inequality and lack of basic services and opportunities to thrive.
Outreach
The ambassador expressed hope that the upcoming outreach programme during the 16 Days of Activism to rural areas would openly discuss GBV with communities, provide the support and comfort to those who were suffering and who may ultimately speak out against their perpetrators in a safe environment.
The ambassador further noted the rising poverty levels and how the cost of living increased the risk of women becoming trapped in cycles of violence. She also said the impact of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine on all women and girls was of grave concern.
She disclosed that there was growing evidence of sexual and GBV, as a weapon of war, by Russian armed forces as well as paramilitary entities controlled by Russian armed forces.
“Cyber violence is at an alarming all-time high, with cyber harassment exponentially affecting young women,” said the ambassador.