Zimbabwe ushered in the year 2021 with a sharp upsurge in cases of COVID19 infections. This forced the Government to put the country under lockdown in a niche to control the spread of the virus. To date, (05-02-2021) 34 331 cases of COVID19 have been recorded in the country.
With the world moving more digital due to the pandemic, WALPE and its implementing partners is in the process of engaging women and enhancing their capacity to embrace and adjust to the new norm of doing things so that they won’t be left behind. The organisation has been training women in both rural and urban areas on how to utilise the virtual space. The aspiring women leaders are being assisted on how to join virtual platforms such as zoom, teams, skype, whatsapp calls and google meet. WALPE is also providing the women with airtime to purchase data so that they will be able to join the meetings and add their voice.
Between the 28th and 29th of January 2021, WALPE in partnership with Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) with support from the Netherlands Embassy held an online training and educational programme on the electoral law and reforms with aspiring women leaders from Epworth.
This came against a backdrop of outstanding electoral reforms which have inhibited women’s effective, active and full participation in electoral cycles and processes, including in leadership, developmental and other democratic practices.
40 women were trained and were all drawn from different wards in Epworth. The core of the training was on electoral laws and the content included understanding the structure of elections in Zimbabwe, unpacking the electoral act, election administration and management, importance of electoral reforms, institutions targeted by reforms, conduct targeted by reforms and the outstanding electoral reforms.
Giving feedback, the participants were grateful for the knowledge impartation and vowed to join the movement of women advocating for the implementation of outstanding electoral reforms in preparation of the 2023 elections and beyond.
Source: Women Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence (WALPE)
