Gender equality necessary to achieve SDGs, says Minister Kalima

By CHIBAULA D. SILWAMBA (Mr.)
First Secretary for Press and Public Relations
Permanent Mission of the Republic of Zambia to the United Nations
www.zambiaun.com Tel: +12128885770, Email: chibaula@zambiaun.com Twitter: @ZambiaUN

NEW YORK, Thursday, 16 March 2017 – Zambia has told an annual UN meeting on women that gender equality, especially for women and girls, is a fundamental human right and necessary foundation for prosperity and full realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and related targets.
Delivering Zambia’s national statement at the 61st Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW61) at UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday, Gender Minister Victoria Kalima said women’s economic empowerment is cardinal to the attainment of the SDGs, through which Governments committed to adopting sound national policies and enforceable legislation to promote gender equality and economic empowerment for all women and girls.
“All barriers and constraints such as discriminatory laws, social and cultural norms that restrict women’s participation in the labour market should be removed,” she said.
She said the Zambian Government has revised its Employment and Labour Market Policy to transform the labour market to be inclusive for all by 2030.
“The policy, inter alia, seeks to address emerging issues on the labour market such as gender disparities in working conditions and unequal access to employment opportunities for women,” the Minister said. “My Government has enhanced the participation of women in agricultural by encouraging women to form cooperatives and equipping them with machinery like Tractors and tillers.”
Ms. Kalima said the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission has been directed to enforce the 30 percent financing for women with the remaining 70 percent to be competed for by both men and women.
The Minister said the Zambian Government acknowledges that education is fundamental in breaking the cycle of poverty. She said the Government launched the Girls Education and Women Empowerment in Livelihoods (GEWEL) project in 2016, aimed at increasing access to education livelihood support for girls.
“So far 67 percent of the targeted14, 000 vulnerable girls have been identified and granted bursaries with the rest to be identified and enrolled in school before the April 2017. The rest will be put on board in phases to reach the 75,000 target by 2019,” Ms. Kalima said. “I would like to report that ending child, early and forced marriage policies which have been cascaded to all the chiefdoms and already we are seeing the campaigns bearing fruits, as we have dropped from 42 percent to 31.”
She said the Government has taken a multi-sectoral approach to ending child, early and forced marriage by taking on board various stakeholders such as the traditional leaders, Non-Governmental Organizations, Faith Based Organizations and Cooperating Partners, to ensure that there were sustained interventions towards ending child marriage.
The Minister said Zambia and Canada together with a core group of countries is happy to have once again, co-facilitated a resolution on ending child, early and forced marriage during the seventy-first session of the General Assembly, which was co-sponsored by more than 100 countries.
“Let me take this, opportunity to express my gratitude on behalf of Government, to all delegations for the support rendered during the negotiation of that resolution,” said Ms. Kalima. “We cannot ignore the pivotal role women play in efforts towards ensuring climate change adaptation. To this end, the Government has developed the Climate Change Gender Action Plan (CCGAP), which will provide a framework to mainstream gender into climate change programmes and strategies.”
However, the Minister said despite all efforts being made to achieve gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls, challenges still persists, including limited resources for sustenance of programmes for empowerment of women, limited access to health-care facilities for women particularly in the rural communities, limited access to productive resources such as capital and technology as well as, limited educational facilitates for girls especially boarding facilities which would ensure security and retention in schools.
“Having adequate facilities for girls especially boarding schools would accelerate the number of girls in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, which still remain a hindrance to the advancement of women and girls in the scientific world of work,” said the Minister
CSW is the largest annual women’s gathering, which draws hundreds of participants from Government Ministers and officials, First Ladies, princesses, policy makers and implementers, heads of UN agencies and other international organizations, donor agencies, civil society organizations, corporate executives, women’s movement, human rights activists and other stakeholders from across the world.
Zambia’s participation at the CSW is cardinal to share the country’s best practices in women’s issues with the international community and to learn from others for possible implementation at home. CSW also provides a platform at which Zambia could consolidate its positive image and mobilise finances to support entrepreneurial women and the needy in the country
The priority theme for CSW61 is “Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work” and the Review theme is “Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls (agreed conclusions of the fifty-eighth session) while emerging issue and focus area will be “the empowerment of indigenous women”.
Issued by:
CHIBAULA D. SILWAMBA (Mr.)
First Secretary for Press and Public Relations
Permanent Mission of the Republic of Zambia to the United Nations
www.zambiaun.com Tel: +12128885770, Email: chibaula@zambiaun.com Twitter: @ZambiaUN

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