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Mkhululi Ncube, Chronicle Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Gender Commission says it is working on increasing the participation of women in the 2023 elections as part of its 2021 goals.

The commission has a constitutional mandate to monitor gender equality in the country so that women are not left behind in key decision-making positions.

ZGC chief executive officer, Mrs Virginia Muwanigwa said while elections are still far, it is crucial for the commission to lay the groundwork now so that there is an increase in the number of women participating in the elections.

“In the spirit of equal representation of women, we will look at the participation of women in politics and decision making. Political process does not start on the year the elections are held. We want to start doing our own advocacy now so that we are ready when 2023 comes,” she said.

Mrs Muwanigwa said last year the commission produced a gender audit of political participation and also came up with a model gender policy for political parties to consider so that there is an increase in participation of women within the political parties.

She also said other issues at the top of the commission`s agenda this year is the gender dimensions of the Covid-19 virus.

“As the virus is ravaging the country, we are looking at what it means for the men, women, girls and boys in the country. We are also looking at the environment with regards to how it affects gender. Issues of the environment are a great concern to us as a commission as they affect women greatly,” she said.

Mrs Muwanigwa said the commission is also targeting to address the gender social, religious and cultural issues.

“We will be looking to review to what extent we are as a country and starting to question some of the stereo types that have made us as a country to choose to discriminate against women. This is not to say everyone but in general.

We want to be able to continue talking about what the constitution says and what we see in our different institutions.

We want to interrogate how we live in terms of cultural and religious norms as far as gender and social justice is concerned,” she said

Mrs Muwanigwa said the commission has a legal framework not only to declare some appointments which do not factor gender balance illegal but even to challenge them in court.

She said in 2017, the commission carried out a survey on Government ministries which showed that women are missing in key decision-making processes which also results in them getting lower wages.

“To address some of these challenges we are compiling a data base of women across the different sectors who can be considered for various positions like the appointments to boards. “We continue to call upon women to submit their details. This will enable the Corporate Governance Unit within the Office of the President and Cabinet which is responsible for overseeing the issue of appointments of boards, to use such information,” she said.-@themkhust