Violence against women and girls continues to prevail in Eswatini despite a conducive legislative and policy environment that protects all citizens against violence. Among adolescents and young women, lifetime sexual violence is the most prevalent form of violence experienced by 8.1% of girls age 13-24 years, followed by lifetime physical violence at 5% of girls of the same age. However, it is worth noting that all types of violence experienced by girls aged 13-24 years declined drastically between 2007 and 2022 potentially as a result of a more focused approach of the GBV interventions implemented in the country.
Physical violence is common among intimate partners, with 1 in 2 women reporting to have been abused by their current or former partner. Ever married women or in union as well as women who are formerly married or were once in a union, experience the highest levels of physical violence at 66.5% and 71.8% respectively, MICS (2021-2022). Unmarried women have lower levels of physical violence at 36.3%.
Urban women experience higher levels (59.1 percent) of IPV than their rural counterparts (50.7 percent). In terms of regional variation, Manzini women have the highest levels of IPV at 57.5 percent compared with 48.7 percent among women who live in Shiselweni. Women with lower educational attainment experience higher levels of IPV than other women i.e. at 57 percent among women with only primary school education compared with 41.5 percent for women with higher educational attainment. Married women (66.5 percent) suffer more violence by their partners than unmarried women (36.3 percent). In the same vein, proportionately more women from the poorest wealth quintile (54.1 percent) experience violence than women in the fourth wealth quintile (48 percent).
In terms of attitudes to wife beating, the proportion of women who justify wife beating declined from 39.1% in 2010 to 12.1% in 2021. Among men, the proportion declined from 33.4% to 8.1% over the same period. More rural women (15.0%) accept wife beating than urban women (8.6%), acceptance levels are higher among rural men (8.1%) than among urban men (7.1%). These findings clearly demonstrate that attitudes towards wife beating are changing for the better.
The country has a National Gender Policy (2023) and a National Strategy on Ending Violence (2023-2027) that enhance a coordinated response to GBV and harmful practices. In addition, the country has pieces of legislation that protect the rights of women and girls including children. These are the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act (2018) and The Child Protection and Welfare Act
(2012). Furthermore there are community, policy and technical high level coordination structures that facilitate implementation of these strategies and legal frameworks.
Child marriage declined significantly from 10.9% in 2010 to 1.9% in 2021-2022.
