International Parliamentary Conference on the Millennium Development Goals
Reaching for 2015: Governance, Accountability and the Role of the Parliamentarian
Presentation on the Situation of Women and Girls in Zimbabwe
By Dr Rudo Gaidzanwa (Lead Author) and Dr Fay King Chung, presented by Chipo Chung on
behalf of Envision Zimbabwe Women’s Trust
Envision Zimbabwe
Envision Zimbabwe was formed by a group of women leaders, including Fay Chung, Rudo
Gaidzanwa, Trudy Stevenson and Diana Patel, in the wake of the 2008 election violence. All
had been involved in the opposition election campaign, many of them running to become
Senators. During the violence, they attempted to advocate for peace, and in the aftermath
resolved to found a Women’s Trust which would attempt to build consensus on issues that
all women, and indeed, all people in Zimbabwe could agree upon: for example, the need for
basic health, education, clean water and peace. They began running a series of workshops
with women parliamentarians and grassroots women in the high density areas, developed
relationships with the Women’s Coalition, and started a dialogue with traditional leaders.
They delivered a draft curriculum for Peace and Life Skills working with over 100 young
people. Their work is supported by the British charity Peace Direct, which supports local
peace-builders.
The following paper was delivered by Envision members Dr Rudo Gaidzanwa (lead author)
with support from Dr Fay Chung. It is not an Envision paper but was part of the formal 2010
Progress Report on the Millenium Development Goals in Zimbabwe, and shares many of the
recommendations and analysis of Envision Zimbabwe.
Goal 3 – Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women
Target 3 (A): Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by
2005 and to all levels of education no later than 2015.
Indicators:
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Net enrolment ratios by gender, primary education level
Net enrolment ratio by gender, secondary education level
Literacy rates of 15 – 24 year olds by gender
Net completion rates by gender, for primary and secondary education
Percentage of enrolment and completion rate in universities
Target 3 (C):
Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament
Indicators:
15.
16.
17.
18.
Percentage of women in parliament
Percentage of women in the civil service who are at Under Secretary level and above
Percentage of women in the private sector who are at managerial level
Percentage of women in local government decision-making bodies.
1
Status and Trends
Since the Beijing Conference in 1995, governments in southern Africa, including Zimbabwe,
have been setting benchmarks and targets to mitigate gender disparities and enhance
human development goals in line with the Beijing Platform of Action (BPFA). The MDGs have
provided the most critical landmarks since Beijing. Donor support, particularly DFID, has
sustained the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals during a period of large
scale food shortage, collapsed services, significantly increasing poverty and unemployment,
affecting society as a whole, with particularly devastating impacts on rural communities.
The National Gender Policy, instated in 2004, aims to amend all relevant education and legal
instruments to promote gender equality and equity. In this regard, the government has
moved positively towards gender equity in the education sector.
Trends in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Education in Zimbabwe
The education sector is important because it is the sector in which the state has claimed
sustained success, for example, in 1970 the adult literacy rate was 55%, whereas by 2003 it
had risen to 97%. However, there has been deterioration in the capacity to develop policy in
new directions in the face of
1. the liberalization of the economy,
2. the declining capacity of the state to fund education and the inability to maintain
the quality of public sector education.
3. the devaluation of teaching as a profession globally and in Zimbabwe in particular.
4. the dominance of political interests has muted the voices of technocrats, many of
whom have already abandoned the education sector for the private, NGO and other
sectors where remuneration is higher.
Primary Schooling and Education Policy
In 2004, Zimbabwe achieved parity in the net enrolment ratio of boys and girls in primary
schooling, closing the gender gap. At this time the average national enrolment ratio was
93%1. However, drop out rates were high with only 69% of females and 68% of males
completing primary level in 2006. This showed a decline since 2003 when the average
completion rate was 73%. The pass rate at the Grade 7 exam is much lower than the
completion rate. In 2003, the overall pass-rate was 47.56%: children in resettlement areas
had the lowest pass rate at 27.86% while low-density schools had the highest pass rates at
65.39%. There is a very clear correlation between endowment in school resources and pass
rates.
Secondary School Education
The net enrolment ratio for secondary school had close parity in terms of gender, but
showed a low transition rate from primary school enrolment, in line with the pass rate at
Grade 7. For example, in 2003 the ratio for boys was 50% and for girls was 48%. By 2006,
this had reduced to 47% for boys and 45% for girls. The completion rate at O’ level shows
1
There are no statistics beyond 2006 but it extremely likely that the ratio has dropped significantly,
both at primary and secondary level, especially given the complete breakdown of infrastructure and
the economy in 2008.
2
the gap widen between boys and girls, with 93% of boys completing in 2006, compared to
83% of girls. The pass rate at O’ level is extremely low – in 2000 it stood at 22.71%. The
majority of students can no longer pass 5 O’ levels, with those from low-density suburbs
achieving the highest grades. Girls clearly become more disadvantaged as secondary school
progresses.
Table 3.1. “O” Level National Pass Rate by Gender 2006 – 2009
Year
2006
2007
2008
2009
Gender
Female
Male
Total
Female
Male
Total
Female
Male
Total
Female
Male
Total
Total Number of
Candidates
74 363
79 866
154 229
85 291
93 983
179 274
71 450
71 390
142 840
44 209
42 992
87 201
Number of
Candidates who
Passed 5 or More
Subjects
12 902
18 345
31 247
10 354
15 319
25 673
8 910
11 722
20 632
7 472
9 381
16 853
National Pass
Rate
17.35
22.97
20.16
12.14
16.30
14.32
12.47
16.42
14.44
16.90
21.82
19.33
The pass rate of between 14.32% and 20.16% demonstrates the low level of functionality of
the present secondary education system, based closely on the British system. The
curriculum and processes are irrelevant to the livelihood and lives of the majority of
students, according to focus group discussions (FGDs) Envision Zimbabwe held with youth
groups in 2009 – 2010. The failure of about 80% of students is an indictment of the system.
The number of students who passed in 2009 is about half that in 2006. In the FGDs, youths
reported that they are keen to have more technical /vocational education and training, as
well as relevant curricula that will enable them to deal with the real life challenges they face.
The transition rate for girls into Form 6 was 6.99% and for boys was 8.18%. By Form 5, girls
comprised only 35% of the total, disadvantaging girls in the labour market and in society in
general. Most secondary school graduates cannot secure jobs or training and become
unemployed between the ages of 16 and 18. For girls, the process is faster as some drop out
due to early pregnancies, lack of fees and unsatisfactory school experiences. As far back as
1999 the Nziramasanga Commission of Inquiry into Education recommended the variation of
secondary school education beyond the existing academically focused model. The Millenium
Development Goals have set up necessary quantitative objectives, however analysis reveals
that without qualitative monitoring, planning and strategy, the education system will not
achieve its objective of creating a generation of self-sufficient and employed graduates.
3
Table 3.2. “A” Level National Pass Rate by Gender, 2007 – 2009
Year
2007
2008
2009
Gender
Female
Male
Total
Female
Male
Total
Female
Male
Total
Total Number of
Candidates
13 014
21 112
34 126
13 079
19 526
32 605
9 694
13 902
23 596
Number of
Candidates who
Passed 2 or
More Subjects
10 151
15 686
25 837
9 012
12 973
21 985
7 567
10 574
18 141
National Pass
Rate
78.00
74.30
75.71
68.90
66.44
67.43
78.06
76.06
76.88
There is a general shortage of teachers in science, mathematics and other scientific areas in
Zimbabwe. These teachers tend to gravitate towards the better-endowed schools, the
private sector and to emigrate in search for higher incomes. Teacher mortality is also an
issue: in 2001, 4% of the teachers died, the majority of them from AIDS-related illnesses.
Absenteeism, erratic attendance, underperformance due to chronic and opportunistic
infections, and funeral attendance all contribute to lowering the quality of teaching in
Zimbabwe’s schools as teachers are infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. Turnover is also
due to unsatisfactory working conditions and wages.
There has been little attention paid to restructuring secondary school policy and planning to
make it more cost-efficient and effective, and more equitable in its outcomes for boys and
girls. Closing the gender gap in secondary school education is particularly important
because, as demonstrated by UNAIDS study amongst 15-19 year olds in 17 African and 4
Latin American countries, better educated girls tend to postpone sexual debut in
comparison to their less educated counterparts. The proportion of sexually experienced 18
year olds was 24% lower amongst girls with secondary education than amongst girls with
primary.
Tertiary education and policy
In the tertiary sector, the majority of the students are males except for the teacher training
colleges focusing on primary school teacher training. Only the Women’s University in Africa,
and the Catholic and Solusi Universities, are not dominated by male enrolments. Men
students comprise about 60% of students, and women about 40%. This is a marked
improvement on figures for 1990, when women students comprised only 24.8% of the total
at the University of Zimbabwe. The percentage of women had risen to 30.7% in 1999. The
number of universities has risen from only one in 1990 to thirteen by 2009. The universities
specializing in engineering and technical subjects have a much lower percentage of women
students, averaging about 30%. Table 3.4 shows that enrolments at teachers’ colleges are
dominated by women, indicating the increased feminization of the teaching profession as
the economic crisis deepened. Although women comprise at least 70% of small-scale
farmers, the majority of trainees in agricultural colleges were men, with between a third and
40% being women.
4
Figure 3.3. Percentage of Male and Female Students at University, 1990 - 2009
80
70
60
50
Male
40
Female
30
20
10
0
1990
1994
1999
2009
Figure 3.4. Percentage of Male and Female Teacher Trainees, 1990 - 2009
80
70
60
50
Male
40
Female
30
20
10
0
1990
1995
2000
2007
2008
2009
The funding policies at the tertiary level were heavily subsidized until 2006 when the
government was forced to allow colleges and universities to raise fees and levies from their
politically pegged, low levels. For example, at the University of Zimbabwe, post-graduate
fees remained at less than Z$500 000 (US$100) per semester until 2006. The fees were so
low that universities could not pay staff and keep infrastructure functional resulting in a
mass exodus by lecturers and professors. Populist educational policies effectively subsidized
5
the tertiary students, predominantly male, when the poorest students, predominantly
female, were no longer able to go beyond secondary school. There is also gender
segmentation in specialization with women concentrated in the arts and social sciences and
men in the scientific and technical areas. This curtails women’s participation in the highly
technologised global arena after their graduation.
Women tend to bunch in the civil service in professions such as nursing, teaching, social
work and other caring fields. These are devalued professions where pay is low and
conditions of service are deteriorating. Paradoxically, the deteriorating conditions have
resulted in massive emigration by women professionals to the north where they take up
care and service work in the devalued and lower paid professions of the north. These
developments have weakened service delivery in education and related areas in Zimbabwe.
For example, there is a shortage of social workers, psychologists and teachers in the civil
service as the numbers of vulnerable children increase due to HIV and AIDS, poverty and
social stress. In the universities, disciplines such as psychology, social work, pediatrics, and
occupational therapy, normally staffed by women, are experiencing high vacancy rates
because of the emigration overseas by women in these occupations and professions.
Tertiary and university education tend to be the most inequitable, elitist and male
dominated sectors of the education system yet they receive the highest subsidies per
student. In Zimbabwe, tertiary education is virtually free and there is little cost recovery
effort in contrast to primary and secondary schooling where parents build schools and
facilities, pay for books, uniforms and other related necessities. Thus, given that the
students who reach university and other tertiary education are relatively privileged, having
attended Group ‘A’ and ‘B’ schools, this policy is subsidizing the privileged, predominantly
male students in the tertiary sector (60%) and penalizing the poorest whose education
usually terminates at the upper primary level. This disadvantages more girls than boys in the
population since the majority of poor girls are only able to access primary schooling and a
year or two of secondary school.
Overseas Education
It is estimated that at least 3 million Zimbabweans are in the diaspora, mainly in South
Africa, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and the United States of America. A
substantial proportion of them are students, graduates and professionals who have had to
leave Zimbabwe because of blocked career progression, deteriorating education standards,
poor remuneration and conditions of service and lack of job satisfaction because of erratic
policies and politics in the economy, the civil service and society in general. Ironically, the
mobility of Zimbabwean professionals was possible because of state investment in
education in the eighties.
Funding of education
State budgets for funding education are high but about 90% of the expenditure goes to
salaries and overheads rather than implementing, monitoring and improving policies, and
delivering resources to schools. In 2003, the two ministries of education accounted for
18.82% of the national budget. The policies and economics of funding education are poorly
thought out since in a liberalizing economy, there has developed a conflict between assuring
equitable access to education and the sustainability of education quality in a contracting and
increasingly inequitable economy. Most government schools cater for poor or working class
children whose parents cannot afford to maintain them while affluent people send their
6
children to private colleges and to those government schools in the low density areas where
they can inject funding and maintain the quality of their children’s schools and education.
By 2008, the quality assurance body in education, the Zimbabwe Schools Examination
Council was unable to finance public examinations in Grade 7, Ordinary and Advanced level.
Thus, schools that did not facilitate foreign examinations had to enroll students through
school-based entrance examinations of variable quality. This has grave implications for the
quality of education in Zimbabwe in the foreseeable future.
Thus, the struggle between the education ministry and school development and parents’
associations has been pronounced especially in urban private schools where the state went
to the extent of threatening to imprison school heads who allowed parents to raise fees,
levies and other resources for their children’s schools. Private schools however, remained
insulated from the vagaries of public education since they offered both local and foreign
examinations, resulting in broadening disparities between public and private schools.
By 2008, most state and local authority schools especially in rural areas had stopped offering
tuition because of poor staffing, equipment and other necessities. The Progressive Teachers’
Union of Zimbabwe noted that pupils received only 27 days’ tuition in 2008 and the situation
in 2009 is worse because of the deterioration in the economic, social and political situation.
Gender equality and equity issues
After independence in Zimbabwe in 1980, many women’s organisations championing the
cause of women were formed. These include the Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Center and
Network, Indigenous Business Women’s Organisations (IBWO), Women in Governance in
Southern Africa , Women Lawyers in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe Women Lawyers
Association , Women’s Action Group (WAG), Zimbabwe Women’s Bureau, Musasa Project
and Women’s Trust. These organisations work towards the political, economic and social
empowerment of women.
Since the UN Fourth Conference for women held in Beijing in 1995, there have been positive
legislative developments to protect the rights of women in Zimbabwe, including inheritance
and custody rights. For example the law on succession gives widows the rights to protect
them against destitution. Many laws have been passed to grant women maternity leave,
equal pay for equal work of equal value, and non discrimination on the grounds of sex.
At regional level , Zimbabwe adopted the Southern African Development Community
Declaration on Gender and Development in 1997 and the Addendum on the Prevention
and Eradication of Violence against Women and Children in 1998. Zimbabwe developed a
National Gender Policy in 2001 and launched it in 2004. The policy recognizes and
acknowledges that the empowerment, attainment of equality and equity between women
and men in Zimbabwe are prerequisites for achieving sustainable social, political , cultural
and economic development. Five areas derived from the 12 critical areas of concern in
the Beijing Platform of Action are identified in the policy as follows :





Women in Politics and Decision Making
Education and training for women
Institutional Mechanisms
Women and the Economy
Women and Health
7
This document puts emphasis on the importance of macroeconomic policy in shaping
women’s standards of living and prospects of economic empowerment. Gender budgeting
is outlined among the general strategies of implementing the policy to ensure equal
participation of women in decision-making as well as mainstreaming gender in policies.
However, Zimbabwe’s Constitution (Section 23) remains problematic on gender since it
allows customary law to override women’s rights, effectively nullifying any rights-based
approach to gender justice (for example, Magaya vs Magaya where traditional inheritance
by a male heir was favoured over inheritance by the elder daughter). Domestic and genderbased violence, inequality between men and women in accessing credit facilities, decision
making positions and sexual, physical and psychological abuse of girls are prevalent. The
government, with the cooperation of civil society, has taken a step towards reducing
domestic violence through the enactment of the Domestic Violence Act 2007.
Women have also been engaged with state and state machinery, especially those relating
to women and their entry into the sphere of decision making and policy making at
national level. These exercises in mainstreaming gender have played a role in gaining more
visibility for and more acceptance of women’s advancement at the official level. However,
the involvement of women in these state focused processes has sometimes been criticised
within the movement itself as cooption and as partisan.
Women and Land
At Independence, the state inherited a skewed land distribution pattern that favoured men
and the white minority. The government embarked on land reform and resettlement
exercises to redress these imbalances. Despite the fact that government settlement policy
stated that both men but also women with dependants qualified for permits in their own
right, the majority of land permit holders are men. Furthermore most permit holders were
married while almost all women permit holders are widowed or unmarried. Female heads of
households comprised 2 to 15% at best in the Fast Track Land Reform.
Under the Fast Track Land Reform programme, the government stated that it would ensure
a 20 percent quota for women to benefit from the resettlement scheme. It was reported
that women headed households who benefitted under model A1, constituted only 18%
while women beneficiaries under Model A2 constituted only 12% ( Utete Report). A host
of historical, structural and market forces (for example, lack of access to finance or credit
for the purchase or leasing of land), explain the low uptake of land by women, especially
for Model A2 (large-scale farms).
A positive move in relation to land relates to joint registration/ownership of land by both
spouses which is enunciated in policy documents, though there is still a gap between
policy provisions and practice. In most cases, land continues to be registered in the
husbands’ names , excluding women from ownership of land.
Gender and HIV and AIDS
HIV and AIDS, pose a challenge to the lives of Zimbabwean women and girls in comparison
to those of boys and men. The burden of care for people living with HIV/AIDS falls
overwhelmingly on women who are traditionally responsible for the physical well being of
the household (Johnson et al 2005). As a result many women have a triple duty of
8
responsibility for home and family, providing the bulk of agricultural labour, and caring for
family members living with HIV and AIDS.
Poverty has also exacerbated the pandemic, making women more vulnerable but policies
are not responding to this reality. Vulnerable women are frequently forced to trade sex for
food and other goods and services. Apart from cultural norms that prevent women from
negotiating safe sex, their biological and physiological make up further compounds their
vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. There is no deliberate attempt to target resources for women
who carry the care burden in the National AIDS Trust Fund. The majority of home based
caregivers are female (Johnson 2005).
Despite progress made by Zimbabwe towards gender equality and gender mainstreaming,
disparities between women and men still exist in the areas of legal rights, power-sharing and
decision making, access to and control over productive resources, education and health.
Women still constitute the majority of the poor.
Gender and Government Representation in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe has not met the goal of 30% representation set by SADC for 2005 and 50% for
2015 as per the MDGs. Political parties have to make concerted efforts to reach these goals
because the rules and regulations for nomination and election within political parties
determine women’s electoral participation and success. In Zimbabwe, the major parties, the
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU),
determine how women fare in parliament through their policies.
Although the MDC has a quota for women at the top echelons of the party’s structure, the
constitution does not provide for the same quota for the lower echelons at provincial,
district, ward and village levels. This makes it difficult for women to rise through the lower
ranks and reach the upper levels or attain the political experience needed at the national
levels. MDC T needs to advocate a quota that applies to all political structures in the party.
ZANU-PF has adopted a quota system for women; however they failed to secure the election
of women to 30% of the seats won by that party, because women were fielded in unsafe
seats especially in urban areas while men dominated the safer rural seats. All the major
parties have clauses that deal with gender equality and the empowerment of women but
the choices made in fielding women in the constituency system disadvantaged women.
The constitution of Zimbabwe provides for the rights and participation of women in political
processes but the electoral laws of the country make no provisions for quotas to advance
the representation of women in publicly elected bodies. The article that prohibits
discrimination in law permits discrimination against women in customary law in order to
"take due account of physiological differences between persons of different sex or gender"
(Constitution 1980, Article 23). It does, however, permit "the implementation of affirmative
action programmes for the protection or advancement of persons or classes of persons who
have been previously disadvantaged by unfair discrimination" (Constitution 1980, Article 23,
3(g)). However, political parties have failed to use this clause to benefit women.
The constituency-based electoral system creates intense competition within and between
political parties and enables a candidate to win a seat even if they do not garner a significant
majority of votes cast. This system excludes minority values. It is more appropriate to adopt
the more inclusive system to facilitate the election of women, for instance, by alternating
men and women, in ‘zebra-stripes’ on a party list. The proportional representation system
9
matches votes to representation, giving smaller parties a voice. Thus, in Zimbabwe, it may
be necessary to advocate proportional representation and constituency approaches to
elections, to advocate a quota for women in ‘zebra stripes’, and to lobby or legislate that all
political parties should implement a quota system in order to promote the inclusion of
women, minorities and other excluded groups in the electoral system.
Figure 3.5. Percentage of Women in Parliament, 1980 - 2008
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
1980-1984
1985-1990
1990-1995
1995-2000
2000-2005
2005-2007
2008
% Women in Parliament
Gender and local government representation in Zimbabwe
In 2005, women comprised 28% of councilors in rural district councils and 10.5% of urban
councils. In 2008, after the elections, in the 1967 wards of Zimbabwe, 367 women councilors
were elected in rural councils and 63 were elected in urban councils, a total of 430. Thus,
men comprised the rest of the 1547 councilors in Zimbabwe. Women made only 21.9% of
the total.
Of the 10 provincial governors, only two are women.
3.6. Women in Decision-making Political Positions in 2008
Position
Minister
Deputy Minister
Members of Parliament
Senate
% women
20
9
14
33
Table 3.6 indicates that it is only in the Senate that women have reached a third of the total.
10
Table 3.7. Women in Decision-Making Positions in the Public Service in 2008
Position
Commissioners in the Public Service
Permanent Secretaries
Principal Directors
Directors
Deputy Directors
% women
67
26
26
33
28
Table 3.7 shows that women comprise less than 30% of decision-making positions except in
the Public Service Commission and as Directors.
Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Target 5A: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal
mortality ratio
o Maternal mortality ratio
o Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel
Status and Trends:
Maternal mortality stood at 578 per 100 000 live births in 1999, increasing to 725 per 100
000 live births in 2009. Home deliveries without skilled birth attendants have risen from
23% in 1999 to 39% in 2009. It is unlikely that Goal 5 can be achieved, given that pregnancyrelated deaths have trebled, user fees have increased and are now paid in US$s (between
US$35 – 50 for a delivery), the primary health care system has weakened considerably, and
HIV infection is still significant. There is a need to revamp the health system to place more
focus on preventative and primary health care and the de-centralisation of the health
system, given the shortage of skilled health personnel to run a system that is skewed
towards curative health. In particular, focus on decreasing the percentage of home
deliveries can help toward achieving this goal.
Conclusion
The situation for women in Zimbabwe is mixed, with some progressive developments,
particularly in the area of legislation passed by Parliament; however, the application of these
laws is very weak. Although it appears that women’s rights are well protected, the existence
of Section 23 of the Constitution nullifies the effectiveness of progressive modernizing laws.
Moreover, many women are ignorant about their rights, and are too poor to test them in
court. In practical terms the doubling of the maternal mortality rate is symptomatic of the
precarious position of women in Zimbabwean society.
11