UN rep optimistic on ending gender violence
United Nations (UN) resident representative Rebecca Adda-Dontoh says Malawi is taking the right steps to build on community structures in ending violence against women and girls which is still rampant.
She was speaking in Machinga District yesterday when the UN team toured some projects to appreciate the impact of the Spotlight Initiative which seeks to eliminate all forms of violence by 2030.
Adda-Dontoh said with the initiative built into existing structures such as chiefs and other community leaders, gender-based violence (GBV) would end.
She said: “Gender-based violence is still pervasive everywhere. But if we build this initiative into existing structures like the chiefs and scale up all that the Spotlight Initiative has done, I’m sure that in time, we will end violence against women and girls.
“It’s not going to be today or tomorrow, but I think that the right steps are being taken, especially with this Spotlight Initiative that builds on community structures and has community ownership.”
Adda-Dontoh said she was pleased with Traditional Authority (T/A) Kawinga’s sentiments that although the Spotlight Initiative is coming to an end, the community will sustain it because the GBV fight is about the community.
“It’s good that the community has taken ownership and are holding meetings to see how to incorporate this into their own programmes,” she said.
Minister of Gender, Community Development and Social Welfare Jean Sendeza commended the project for empowering women.
She said: “Women have really been empowered and trained on how they can come out and break the culture of silence when subjected to gender-based violence. They have also been empowered economically and can stand on their own, and can no longer stay in abusive marriages.
“Girls are also being withdrawn from marriages and going back to school, getting educated and becoming self-reliant.”
The minister also commended the UN family for the support given to the ministry through the Spotlight Initiative and asked that the project be scaled up to all the other districts.
Under the initiative, T/A Kawinga has formed chiefs forums through which they have ended child marriages, and harmful cultural practices.
A GBV survivor Eneless Dayitoni from Ngunga Village in Machinga testified that she is now economically empowered through support from the Spotlight Initiative.
Among other things, Machinga District has concluded 1 236 cases of GBV; withdrawn 381 girls from child marriages; readmitted 686 girls in school; and has 3 948 male champions promoting positive masculinity through ending violence against women and girls through the Spotlight Initiative.
The Spotlight Initiative, is a UN initiative funded by the European Union and in five other districts, namely Mzimba, Nkhata Bay, Ntchisi, Dowa and Nsanje.
