Background - The Government of Eswatini recognizes the need to eradicate violence, especially Gender Based Violence (GBV) at all levels for full protection and proper welfare of Emaswati. The prevention, response and management of GBV has remained a priority for the Government of Eswatini as the country. This evident by the enactment of the Children’s Protection and Welfare Act of 2012 and the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Act of 2018. These show government’s commitments to the prevention and the protection of all persons from harm and from other sexual assaults.
In 2016, the Department of Gender and Family Issues Unit with its partners, with the financial and technical support from UNFPA; developed the National Strategy & Costed Action Plan to end violence in Swaziland (2017-2022). This was a five-year comprehensive multi-sector framework crafted using international and regional protocols that the country is signatory to, and subsequent laws, policies and guidelines domesticating these protocols. It identified and outlined the strategic areas of intervention for the Kingdom of Eswatini to end violence for different actors, mainly government, civil society, private sector and development partners.
The previous strategy to end violence in the country period pointed to where actors needed to focus their actions in a systematic manner. It provided specific targets, timeframes and outputs over the five-year period and allocated responsibilities to the different stakeholders to achieve the expected targets. The different actors were expected to integrate the relevant strategies identified in the document to address the entire spectrum of context specific issues associated with violence. As we come to end of its timeframe and with the advent of the enactment of the SODV and development of SODV regulations, the review of the National Gender Policy, CCA, the UNSDCF and impact of the COVID -19 pandemic and other emerging issues it is prudent that the government review the strategy to reflect such, evaluate and review progress and input more strategic actions in improve Gender-based Violence programming in Eswatini. It is for this purpose that we seek services of a local consultant to evaluate and review the current strategy, taking into consideration emerging issues, challenges/barriers and lessons learnt from the past 5 years.
