Have findings of Tamwa’s 2013 GBV survey helped?

It was conducted in ten mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar districts under a two-year programme on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment, better known as GEWE II.

This was a ‘heavy-duty’ programme in which Tamwa joined forces with the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme (TGNP), Tanzania Women Lawyers Association (TAWLA), Zanzibar Female Lawyers Association (ZAFELA) and TAMWA’s own Crisis Resolving Centre.

It would be worthwhile hearing from these agencies whether the situation in the areas covered by the survey is any better now than prevailed when the study was conducted.
We are told that a total of 120 news gatherers, 120 paralegals and 120 animators were trained on how to deal with all kinds of GBV from village to ward level.

Just for the record, the survey was carried out in Wete (Pemba), Unguja Urban West, Unguja South, Kisarawe, Newala, Mvomero, Lindi Rural, Ruangwa, Kinondoni and Ilala districts.

Some of the issues investigated were rape, schoolgirl pregnancies, forced marriages, wife battery, female genital mutilation and the abandonment of women and children.

The idea was to expose the causes, magnitude and impact of GBV and recommend effective but realistic solutions to the ages-old problem.

Evidence from all the districts covered showed that gender-based violence was a big problem, with a lot of similarities in its causes and the circumstances in which it manifested itself.

It was confirmed from the study that the factors behind the stubbornness and entrenchment of the problem included deficiencies or weaknesses in the country’s laws, lack of understanding by the public of the country’s laws and the sentences the commitment of crimes in question attract.

But blame was also heaped on factors like tribal traditions and customs primarily as relate to the place and role of men relative to women in local communities.

From the findings, the survey was far too overly academic to be of much use in mitigating the impact of GBV and possibly ultimately making it part of long-forgotten history.

As noted, those who actually conducted the study were so thorough that they went well beyond merely classifying cases of gender-based violence they found most prevalent. For instance, with respect to sexual offences such as rape, defilement and involvement in unnatural sex, they identified the causes as including alcoholism, superstitious beliefs and extreme family level poverty.

The survey further showed cases of criminal suspects getting away with their actions either because they were not even taken to court or were released in the most controversial of circumstances – with corruption said to hinder the law from taking its course.

Unless people have a better understanding of their basic rights, including the right to seek justice in courts of law, the utility of interventions such as the marvelous GBV survey will remain minimal.

Understanding the link between crimes like rape and unwanted pregnancies, forced marriages, rises in the number of school dropouts and “street children”, cases of HIV/Aids, and worsening levels of poverty, should make us move faster in shielding our children and other vulnerable groups.

With that, things like the study by Tamwa & Co will have made much sense. Meanwhile, we hope time has come for the release of an update or a follow-up on the findings of the survey.