Dr Dorothy Gwajima, Minister for Community Development, Gender, Women and Special Groups, made the remarks over the weekend when speaking during the launch of the 16-day campaign against gender-based violence in Dar es Salaam at the weekend as she represented President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
She said that despite decline in GBV cases, the country is still spending a lot in supporting victims.
Dr Gwajima noted that the country has been spending lots of resources in serving victims of violence which include medical treatment and others, stressing that UN Women statistics states that violence against women costs the world’s economy two percent. She added that some countries spend up to 3.5 percent of their gross domestic product dealing with such issues.
The campaign, under the slogan ‘Invest: To Prevent Gender Violence,’ calls for increased investment in the prevention and eradication of violence against women and children.
The minister however said that Tanzania has made strides through education and violence prevention strategies, and data shows a decline in physical and sexual violence incidents from 40 percent in 2015 to 27 percent in 2022.
She also emphasized that there is still much work to be done, considering that the goal of reducing violence by 50 percent has not yet been achieved.
Dr. Monica Mhoja, board chair of the Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF) Tanzania requested the government to expedite the process of amending the Marriage Act of 1971, as it contradicts the Education and Child Act, particularly when it comes to the age of marriage and the involvement of children in romantic relationships.
She also called on the inheritance laws to be repealed, arguing that it has become a thorn in the side of women and girls in the country, making women suffer on assets they have sought with their spouses.
“These laws have undermined women’s efforts to strengthen themselves economically. There has been a long-standing WiLDAF request regarding these laws and we have submitted an alternative bill without success,” she noted.
She further said there was a need to enact a law dealing with the issues of violence against women and children as the problem was still significant.
“We recognise the government’s efforts in dealing with this issue in strengthening policies and systems to deal with this problem as well as the National Plan of Action to End Violence Against Women and Children in Tanzania (MTAKUWA) 2017/8-2021/2,” she said
Dr Monica also said the inheritance law should be improved and enacted in order to provide both genders to own properties smoothly.
According to her, widow are in tough situation than any other group when comes to inheriting properties, so robust law is needed to help protect the group from abuse.
Anna Kulaya, coordinator of the Coalition against Gender-Based Violence (MKUKI) implored the government to channel more resources towards the fight against gender-based violence by allocating adequate funds to institutions and departments dealing with the scourge.
“As we are heading to the General Elections, having robust efforts to fight GBV are needed in order to ensure that girls grow and stay safe in the society,” she said.
Advocate Kulaya said the Coalition is coordinated by WiLDAF and was established in 2019 by 14 organisations with the aim of having a strong and united voice in the fight against GBV but currently the network has more than 200 organisations working to eliminate all forms of violence in the country.
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