Volume 1 of the Economic Justice for Women Newsletter covers pertinent issues among them the participation of young women in elections and the nexus between illicit financial flows in the extractives sector and young women. Read on to get informed.
Young women urged to participate in electoral processes
The Economic Justice for Women Project (EJWP) has urged young women to play their part in the forthcoming by-elections slated for March 26 2022.
EJWP executive director, Margaret Mutsamvi said her organization does not view elections as an event but a process prompting the mainstreaming of elections and other democratic process within the NGO’s. “We continuously mobilise and encourage our beneficiaries to register to vote and vote as a way of exercising their democratic right but also as a way of making choices that affect them in the medium and long term. “We are continuously reminding them that we are where we are because of the choices we made or we refused to make,” she said.
The EJWP leader said apart from mobilization, voter education is being undertaken coupled with provision of transport to young women interacting with the organisation’s work to enable them to register to vote. “On the supply side, we are collectively lobbying for electoral reforms as an enabler for increased participation and security for female candidates and voters. “Reforms are central to the democratic discourse are will ensure ease of acquiring registration documents, eased of registering to vote and voting, security and safety, pre, during and post elections,” she said.
The remarks come at a time when the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) has implored the government to implement policies that will enhance the participation of women and youths in the electoral process amid concerns that youths and women turnout has been poor during the voter registration exercise.
EJWP slams bad economic policies driving the young astray
Economic Justice for Women Project (EJWP) has challenged the government of Zimbabwe towards inclusive and gender-responsive economic and finance policies as a way to address drug abuse. In EJWP statement released on National youth day whose theme was ‘Alleviate substance and drug abuse b the youth’.
The unyielding finance and economic policies have left impoverished desperate youths with no choice except substance and drugabuse. In a statement, EJWP executive director, Margaret Mutsamvi said despite the fact that youth constitute 67,7% of its 13 million total populations with the majority being young women.
The contemporary status of young women in Zimbabwe reflects the interrelated increased socio-economic inequality gap. “The minimal focus on corruption and partisan abuse of power in public resources distribution and use has impacted the provision of adequate social service delivery, which reflects the socio-economic inequality gap.
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Source: Economic Justice for Women Project
