Background
Centre for Gender and Community Development in Zimbabwe (CGCDZ) is a non-governmental organization which was legally registered and established on the 1st September 2016 (Trust Number: MIS 0001171). CGCDZ is committed to building socio economic and political capacities of community partners (mostly women) for sustainable development in Masvingo Province in Zimbabwe. CGCDZ is guided by the following core values:
§ Accountability for CGCDZ implies the expectation of account-giving encompassing the obligation to report, explain and be answerable for resulting consequences
§ Transparency is honesty and openness. The implication of transparency is that all of CGCDZ’s actions should be scrupulous enough to bear public scrutiny.
§ Integrity for CGCDZ implies consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes.
§ Respect and dignity relate to treating other people in a way which upholds their honor.
§ Inclusivity for CGCDZ relates to not excluding members or participants on the grounds of gender, political affiliation, race, class, sexuality, disability, etc.
Thematic Areas
Economic Empowerment
1. Economic Empowerment
Under economic empowerment, CGCDZ aims to enhance the economic status of communities mostly women through capacity building, mentoring, provision of tools and services, research and development with the aim of attaining gender equality. The economic empowerment pillar envisions to attain equality and equity for opportunities between women and men through gender and inclusion-sensitive, gender and inclusion-responsive or gender and inclusion-transformative.
The thrust is to uplift the economic, social and political
status of women at societal level. CGCDZ initiated peace gardens where peace
building efforts across the board are promoted while community partners are
engaged in work for livelihood. Peace gardens are a tool to enable community
partners’ work together after realizing political polarization which was
detrimental to development.
CLIMATE ADAPTATION
This pillar endeavor to increase local communities’ (mostly rural smallholder women farmers’) adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change for food security and other productive uses. To sustainably achieve this, an array of actions is required starting at national to local levels and involving institutional reforms and modelling, resource characterization and quantification, knowledge generation and capacity development, and awareness raising through piloting and demonstrations. CGCDZ view climate adaptation as the ability by communities to cope with ever changing climatic trends with a view to improving their livelihoods. The organization view adaptation to climate variability as necessary in enhancing equality and reducing dependence of women on men for material and financial support. Activities under climate adaptation pillar revolve around strengthening smart agricultural practices given the significance rural people (mostly women) attach value to agriculture as an economic pillar for survival, sustenance and empowerment.
Gender inequality is evident in all spheres of life, and it
is supported and sustained by cultural and religious practices, patriarchal
attitudes, power imbalances and lack of knowledge and skills on gender
mainstreaming. Gender equality and empowerment is important to achieve
socio-economic transformation of women in light of climate change which widens
the gaps and amplifies inequities between women and men and other vulnerable
groups. About 85% of women in Zimbabwe depend on agricultural activities for
their livelihoods and rural women make up the majority of smallholder farmers
who are also dependent on rain-fed agriculture. Thus, climate change negatively
affects women smallholder farmers more than males because they have little or
no adaptation capacity as they lack financial support, and the available agriculture
and irrigation technology is not gender sensitive.
Citizen Engagement and Participation
CGCDZ work to promote openness and accountability in governance processes by raising citizens’ awareness to demand their rights constitutionally. Under citizen engagement and participation pillar, CGCDZ seeks to advocate for increased women and youth (including PWDs’) participation in governance processes, promote local peace building initiatives, facilitate engagement meetings between duty bearers/solution holders and citizens, provide civic education for youth and women on human rights.
The pillar promotes increased engagement between citizens, duty bearers and solution holders in target communities for accountability and transparency.
Conclusion
The socio-economic and political environment prevailing in Zimbabwe compelled CGCDZ to tackle the root causes of poverty and conflict in a way that enhanced sustainability by community partners. The baseline survey carried out by the Centre for Gender and Community Development in Zimbabwe (CGCDZ) informed that low household income and lack of information were the drivers increased incidents of GBV, polarization, women abuse and fear/lack of confidence to engage with duty bearers and solution holders. It is against this background that the organization’s interventions aim at holistic development of the community partners mostly women.
