By Rethabile Nchee
The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition through the Departments of Agricultural Research and Planning and Policy Analysis participated in a 2-day workshop, organized by Partnerships for Prevention of Gender Based Violence in Southern Africa (PfP). This is a GIZ programme currently being implemented in Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and supporting the SADC Gender Unit in Botswana.
Other partners who participated were Christian Council of Lesotho (CCL), the Ministries of Gender and Local Government. The objectives among others were to:
- Develop a shared understanding on gender-transformative approaches and primary GBV
- Develop theory of change and review embedded proposed flagship activities
- Develop results, indicators and means of verification
- Identify risks and mitigation measures and
- Agree on next steps.
An introduction and explanation of PfP II objectives and guiding principles was presented for the benefit of those who were not familiar with this concept. It was explained that it supports cooperation between government, the private sector and civil society to establish multi-stakeholder partnerships to address Gender-Based Violence (GBV) on a broad scale.
The key principles of PfP II focuses on primary prevention to among others alter social norms and practices that instigate GVB and intimate partner violence. Even though in most cases the focus is on women and girls, PfP found it imperative to also include men and boys to address masculinity issues. To promote initiatives for joint implementation of prevention activities and to leverage financial and technical contributions of various actors, PfP uses a multi-sectoral approach which includes the participation of the private sector.
Three intervention areas were proposed which will lead to evidence that will inform gender based violence prevention flagships are jointly implemented by regional, national and sub-national stakeholders across sectors in Southern African Communities. These intervention areas are as follows:
- Stakeholders individual and institutional capacities for the implementation if joint GBV prevention flagships are strengthened.
- The Development of evidence informed collaboration flagships for GBV prevention is promoted.
- Regional Exchange among stakeholders to promote the upscaling of good practices for GBV prevention is strengthened.
Gender equality in the food security sector is very important and relevant. Social norms that are embedded in the formal and in formal institutions usually disadvantage women and girls, as such there is a need to transform such structures as this will represent a response to these deep barriers that women face in food systems and demand gender-transformative approaches.
At the end of the meeting, the Ministry of Agriculture as the new partner which has not been fully involved in issues of GBV proposed the following activities as a way forward:
- Sensitization of MAFSN Management and relevant central government officers on Gender and Gender Mainstreaming in the FSN sector.
- Sensitize district and/or community level MAFSN officers on Gender and Gender Mainstreaming
- Engage a consultant to support the development FSN gender mainstreaming guidelines and share them with the entire MAFSN staff and relevant development partner organizations
- Development of a monitoring tool for implementation of the gender mainstreaming guidelines for the Ministry to track process on engaging the guidelines.
- In collaboration with the Ministry of Gender and PfP, set up a Steering Committee consisting of relevant (FSN) institutions in Lesotho, for strategic oversight. These include FAO, LMDA among other organisations.
The author is the Chief Research Officer at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and also a CCARDESA ICKM Focal Point person for Lesotho.
