INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day is celebrated on March 8, which falls on Monday next week.  This year’s theme is Equal Rights, equal opportunities: progress for all. Why does this matter?

Empowering women and promoting gender equality — one of eight United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals — is recognised as one of the world’s main development challenges.

The United Kingdom has signed up to this. So too has Zimbabwe. Educating girls is one of the most effective ways of reducing poverty. Few would argue with that and I have been impressed by Zimbabweans’ commitment to giving their children the best education they can manage.

But education alone is not enough. We need to see more women in leading positions in politics and business.

There are high-profile examples in both Britain and Zimbabwe — Margaret Thatcher served as British Prime Minister for 11 years, while Joice Mujuru has been Vice-President here since 2004. Many other talented women are striving through politics and other routes to make a difference — but there is more to do to make women’s participation the norm rather than the exception. Women also need better access to health and other services, and protection from violence.

How are we rising to the challenge? We are working with our partners in the European Union to promote women’s rights. Harriet Harman, the UK’s Minister for Women and Equality, and her Spanish counterpart, co-hosted the second Women in Power Summit in Cadiz on February 3. The event championed gender equality and called for more balanced representation in public life.

In the United Kingdom, we have focused on tackling hate crime against women because of race, religion, disability or sexual orientation. We have tackled women trafficking, providing support for victims. And we have targeted domestic violence, introducing routine enquires for all pregnant women and providing information about domestic violence support services.

The United Kingdom is also helping Zimbabwean women meet the challenges of development. At a strategic level, our Department for International Development’s (DFID) office in Harare, together with other donors, funded the first ever National Women’s Economic Summit held from October 15-16, 2009 at the Celebration Centre in Harare.

The summit included a training workshop for women and led to the production of a six-year National Women’s Economic Development Plan.  Further work is being carried out through the office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Thokozani Khupe MP.

The United Kingdom is investing $100 million in Zimbabwe this year — our largest ever programme —and a key element in that is an effort to make a real difference to the lives of ordinary women. 

In June 2009, DFID contributed almost $1.5 million to a three-year programme aimed at gender support. The programme is managed by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and includes the European Commission and Danish Aid.

More than 30 organisations have already benefited in areas ranging from access to education, economic empowerment and improved access to health care. DFID is also giving just under $2 million over five years to the Zimbabwe Women’s Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN). ZWRCN aims to empower women, strengthen networking between organisations, and promote the women’s movement in Zimbabwe.

A vital area for our support to women is HIV/Aids prevention and treatment as 60% of people living with HIV in Zimbabwe are women and HIV/Aids is a major cause of maternal mortality.

For example, DFID funding has helped Population Services International (PSI) train hairdressers as peer educators, teaching them about PSI’s Care female condom, common misperceptions about the disease, and how to answer questions about HIV and HIV prevention.

Hairdressing salons across the world are known as places of straight-talking advice. Thanks in part to hairdressers telling their customers about the importance of safe sex, there has been a sharp drop in the number of new HIV infections in Zimbabwe.

International Women’s Day is about celebrating these successes.

But it is also about looking to the future. As father to a young daughter, and as employer of many intelligent and strong women, I am excited about the prospects for women to play ever greater roles both in the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe.

There remains much to do.  But in the meantime I congratulate women for what they have already achieved and particularly for the work they do, much of it unheralded and all too often unnoticed, without which the world would be a much harsher and less rich place.

Mark Canning is the British Ambassador to Zimbabwe.

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