Africa-Press – Botswana. The newly established Jwaneng District Gender Committee has been implored to deploy a paradigm shift on some cultural believes that promote gender inequality and create power disparities between men and women.
Speaking at the committee members’ two-day training workshop on Thursday, Mr Seabotseng Bafeletse from Botswana Gender Based Violence Prevention and Support Centre noted that in order to fight Gender Based Violence (GBV), there was need to review and eliminate patriarchal stereotypes which portrayed women as subordinates of males.
“As gender committee members you should be agents of change and ensure that various forms of GBV are eliminated from our society.
This fight requires a multi-sectoral approach and everybody should play their role because we are all either directly or indirectly affected,” he said.
Mr Bafeletse regretted that despite all the efforts, women and girls were still at the receiving end of various forms of GBV.
He noted that the 2018 National Relationship Study indicated that 37 per cent of women reported experiencing some form of GBV against 21 per cent of men.
He further noted that the most common form of GBV was experienced in intimate relationships, with 31 per cent of women affected while seven per cent of men were affected.
Additionally, he challenged the committee members to have inclusive responsive measures to ensure that perpetrators also received psycho-social support.
He said this approach could go a long in establishing underlying issues and potentially curb GBV habits.
The Women Sector Coordinator, Mr Kabelo Tsiang implored attendants to build a robust gender committee that would effectively address gender issues in their district.
He also urged them to have an open mindset to accept emerging gender issues for the benefit of the whole community.
He noted that a strong team would not only devise strategies to prevent and fight GBV in the district, but would also engage other stakeholders and advance gender issues emanating from their area.
He further acknowledged the importance of gender policies and international agreements that Botswana was aligned to as crucial aspects of the gender committee operations.
When giving an overview, principal gender officer for Jwaneng, Mr Lentswe Motsamai said the aim was to create a multi-sectoral forum to deliberate on gender issues and share experiences from various angles.
He said it was important for stakeholders such as government, civil society, legal experts and other fields to unite and fight GBV.
Mr Motsamai noted that in addition to mainstreaming gender into their operations, participants were also expected to be change agents within the society.
“The aim is to empower participants with the necessary knowledge, skills and attributes that will enable them to be change agents and gender champions in the district,” he said.
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