25 Feb 2015

Gender Based Violence (GBV) has been identified as the biggest killer of women aged 19-44 globally. 

Managing practitioner of Ndaba and Associates, Mr Nkiwane Ndaba said during a recent workshop that GBV was considered more a threat than cancer, war and road accidents. 

Mr Ndaba said GBV impacted negatively on employee performance and productivity. Thirty-seven per cent of women who had experienced domestic violence, he said had reported that it had a negative impact on their job performance including lateness, absenteeism, and decreased job retention as well as career advancement.

Also, he noted that research had indicated that women, who had experienced domestic violence, lost 26 per cent more work time to absenteeism and lateness than non-victims. Therefore, he said it was essential that domestic violence should be seen as a critical and preventable problem, and be given the attention given to many other workplace health and safety issues. 

To curb the problem, Mr Ndaba called on stakeholders to come up with ways to spread the message and educate the nation.  “The aim of the workshop is to strengthen and protect women’s rights by engaging men as leaders of change in the fight to end violence against women and girls, through targeted community mobilisation, community dialogues, broader awareness raising campaigns, capacity building, formation of community support groups and provision of psychosocial support to victims and perpetrators of violence as well as legal literacy trainings,” he said.

He explained that the overall outcome of the workshop was also to strengthen women’s rights by addressing patriarchal, social and cultural gaps that prevents men to stand up and protect women’s rights through ending violence against women and girls in communities of Botswana.  Mr Ndaba said it was wish to link community and traditional leaders with the justice system, the police, social services, and health systems in order for them to deal effectively with perpetrators and compassionately with survivors of violence against women. ENDS