Achievements Over the Four Decades and Looking Ahead

Zimbabwe has made a number of achievements despite the difficult journey travelled over the past four decades. The chapter examines milestones attained over the past four decades. Developments were made in amending and enacting legislations to advance the gender equality and objectives at ensuring equity. The government ratified most of the international conventions including the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (1991), the Beijing Declaration on the Platform for Action (1995), the Convention on Civil and Political Rights, and the Equal Remuneration Convention. Zimbabwe has also endorsed the protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women, the 2004 Solemn Declaration on Gender and Equality in Africa, the Southern African Development Community’s Gender and Development Protocol. Zimbabwe has also endorsed the COMESA Gender Policy which fosters gender equality and equity at all levels of regional incorporation and cooperation. In sum, the enactment of legal frameworks, policies and strategies in education, women rights, women in decision making, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, gender equality and equity, children and youth are major milestones achieved by Zimbabwe. These policies and legislative framework and the social, economic and political developments provided a firm basis to pursue other key aims such as gender equality and equity.