Why it is key to invest in more Advocacy work

The country programme of terre des hommes schweiz in Zimbabwe has now more than a decade of experience, supporting many local partners active in youth’s SRHR. Young people in Zimbabwe face immense challenges in accessing adolescent and youth friendly SRHR and gender-based violence (GBV) services. A National Baseline Survey on the Life Experiences of Adolescents (NBSLEA) conducted by the Zimbabwe National Statistic Agency (ZimStat) shows that close to half of girls reported that their first sexual experience was unwanted (Frey, D. 2016). The Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey report for 2015 shows a national teenage pregnancy rate of 21.6% (Zimbabwe, 2015), while the Ministry of Health and Child Care’s 2016 Zimbabwe National Adolescent Fertility Study states that “almost a quarter of women aged 15-19 years (24%) have started childbearing, i.e. have had a live birth or were pregnant with first child, increasing from 21% in 1999 (Ministry of Health and Child Care, 2016).

In this context working with local grassroots organizations like Katswe Sistahood is critical. Katswe Sistahood has been working to enable young women from key and vulnerable groups to mobilize, organize and articulate their needs and aspirations in respect of the SRHR education, SRHR services, and legal protection and to communicate these to policy makers and implementers. Currently terre des hommes schweiz is supporting implementation of adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights programmes in Zimbabwe with five local organizations.

Katswe Sistahood has been working to enable young women from key and vulnerable groups to mobilize, organize and articulate their needs and aspirations in respect of the SRHR education, SRHR services, and legal protection and to communicate these to policy makers and implementers.

Need for coordinated and joint advocacy

Specifically, these organizations who have been organizing locally to build awareness or SRHR among communities and facilitating increased access to services for adolescents and youth but there was a need to scale up their activism and demand greater accountability from policy makers who have the responsibility to enact youth friendly SRHR policies. tdhs has thus identified and resourced Katswe Sistahood to providing technical assistance towards strengthening and connecting grassroots organizations, develop a joint advocacy strategy and activate collective activism at the local and at the national level. This work is happening in a context where there is continued and structured resistance in a patriarchal context that continues to diminish women's power thereby limiting their ability to access their rights.

This network of local partners in Zimbabwe is tackling the drivers of teen and unintended pregnancies that either result in an unwanted birth or in an unsafe abortion. Anecdotal evidence gathered by the organizations within the network reveals that most of the teen pregnancies are a result of sexual exploitation of minors by majors. Out of desperation, some teens resort to backyard abortion services which may cause gynecological complications, scepsis, or even result in death. According to a Guttmacher Institute Study, approximately 65,259 induced abortions occurred in Zimbabwe in 2016. Although the country has one of the lowest abortion rates (17.3 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age), the situation remains a public health crisis (Sully E. A, et al., 2018). Unintended pregnancy is a notable contributor to induced abortion. A higher proportion of unintended pregnancies ended in abortion among unmarried adolescents (13%) compared with married adolescents (6%), and among adolescents living in urban areas (25%) rather than rural areas (1%) (ibid. 2018).

Gaps in the legal system and needs for accountability

Zimbabwean laws remain weak when it comes to addressing child sexual exploitation. Furthermore, there are limited support systems for teen mothers who are then often forced to drop out of school and be married to whoever made them pregnant, regardless of how exploitative the relationship may be. Zimbabwe has a Termination of Pregnancy Act of 1977 that articulates the grounds upon which pregnancy is legal and safe abortion can be facilitated. These grounds include if a pregnancy is a result of rape or incest or if the fetus life is not viable. However, evidence on the ground reflects clearly that women and girls face multiple barriers in accessing these services as articulated by the law (Guttmacher Institute, 2019).

One key barrier is the misinformation around the legality of abortion in the country and a deliberate move by government and the patriarchal power to withhold information for the past three decades, information about who can access, where they can access. Even in cases where women are eligible for a termination there are procedural and administrative barriers that prevent them from accessing a termination. These include the requirements for a medical doctor’s written authorization, and a magistrate’s certificate. The medical doctor should be stationed at a government institution. Whereas most of Zimbabwe's populace live in remote communities where there are no clinics or hospitals, and if there are, they may not really be manned doctor due to acute staff shortages. In fact, most rural communities are serviced by mission hospitals, which are church based and who will likely object to offering such a service in the first place. Girls who fall pregnant as a result of statutory rape are not eligible to apply for a termination despite being victims of a sexual offence. This leaves them with difficult options, i.e., unsafe termination, marriage to the perpetrator or keeping the pregnancy but dropping out of school.

One key barrier is the misinformation around the legality of abortion in the country and a deliberate move by government and the patriarchal power to withhold information for the past three decades, information about who can access, where they can access.

“Demystify” the parliaments and other law making institutions

For most grassroots organizations, parliaments remain inaccessible when it comes to advocacy. Thus, this works remains often at sensitization level in communities and local institutions. But there is need to demystify parliaments and the access to it. Over the years Katswe Sistahood has developed expertise and networks in this regard helping the tdhs partner network to petition parliament in July 2022, to review and enact laws that offer protection to minors including a review of laws on statutory rape, among other sexual offences laws. The call to outrightly criminalize peadophilia has potential to broaden access to safe abortion services for adolescent girls who fall pregnant as a result of sexual exploitation by adult males. The partners are tackling conversations that otherwise could be neglected or ignored at this level.

The Zimbabwean parliament is organized into portfolio committees. The partners in Zimbabwe engaged the Committee on Health and Child Care; Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs; Women Affairs, Gender, Small and Medium Enterprises, and the Committee on Youth. Bringing legislators from diverse committees and ensuring multi-party representation is critical for ensuring that matters of adolescent health and reproductive justice are not relegated to specific individuals and along political party lines. This process is essential in a politically sensitive context like Zimbabwe and requires a commitment to ensure follow through on the robust processes, dialogue, and consensus building.

For most grassroots organizations, parliaments remain inaccessible when it comes to advocacy. Thus, this works remains often at sensitization level in communities and local institutions. But there is need to demystify parliaments and the access to it. Over the years Katswe Sistahood has developed expertise and networks in this regard.

What are some of the lessons learned?

The “nothing for us without us” mantra remains critical. To fulfil it, partners have ensured that young people remain at the center, while facilitating dialogue and building the appropriate support base for youth SRHR centered work, across critical sectors such as the academia, media, and in parliament. Funding mechanisms must be designed in ways that are flexible, recognizing young people’s diversity and the need to invest in processes that allows them to contribute meaningfully to defining the agenda. An example is how the partners held multiple engagements to define the collective agenda and advocacy strategy. Rigid and restricted funding models that do not allow room for innovation and creativity, may mean that new insights that emerge from dialogue and consensus building processes are not considered, and this may be damaging as various parties my assume that consultations made are just a formality.

Investments have been made to build the capacity of the organizations to facilitate spaces for collective reflection and bringing everyone along, including the of survivors of violence, who are the most affected. Survivor centered approaches are critical as they build the capacity of victims to stand up with confidence, and to speak out against injustices. This is a principle of meaningful youth engagement. The partners were able to document youth voices and collate data on young people’s experiences with sexual violence, and their access to SRHR information and services. Dialogues were held with policy makers where the youth led conversations meant to highlight their vulnerabilities and demands. The organizations are rooted within the communities where these young people emerge from, and hence can create a support system that is empowering, to ensure requisite protection from opposing forces, and backlash.

National level advocacy and legal reforms take time, from community engagement to engaging formally with lawmakers. Identifying SRHR Champions in Parliament is also key, as they have the role to galvanize support in Parliament and bring other parliamentarians along. However, these institutions and individuals often renew themselves and there are bound to be transitions. Partners should therefore be prepared to make requisite investments to ensure that the agenda for improved SRHR indicators for adolescents and young people remains a priority.

References

• Fry, D. (2016). Understanding Determinants of Violence in Childhood: A Secondary Analysis of the National Baseline Survey of the Life Experiences of Adolescents in Zimbabwe. (Understanding Violence Against Children in Zimbabwe Data Series; No. 3). Unicef. https://www.unicef.org/zimbabwe/media/321/file
• Guttmacher Institute, 2019. Induced Abortion and Postabortion Care in Zimbabwe. Fact Sheet. https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/fac...
  
• Ministry of Health and Child Care (2016). Zimbabwe National Adolescent Fertility Study, Harare: MoHCC
  Technical Report authored by Dr. Naomi N. Wekwete, Prof. Simbarashe Rusakaniko and Mr. George
  Zimbizi (Consultants). https://zimbabwe.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub...
• Sully EA, Madziyire MG, Riley T, Moore AM, Crowell M, Nyandoro MT, et al. (2018) Abortion in Zimbabwe: A national study of the incidence of induced abortion, unintended pregnancy and post-abortion care in 2016. PLoS ONE 13(10): e0205239. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205239
• Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency and ICF International. 2016. Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey 2015: Key Indicators. Rockville, Maryland, USA: Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) and ICF International. https://www.zimstat.co.zw/wp-content/uploads/publi...