Community based pathways to the prevention of gender based violence in mining communities

Abstract

Cases of gender-based violence are on the increase in mining-communities in Zimbabwe. Gender-based violence has been identified as a major impediment to achieving gender equality and overall sustainable development. Strategies for addressing gender-based violence face particular challenges in mining areas where, for most women, there is little or no access to safe shelters, counselling services, or the judicial system. The Government of Zimbabwe and civil society policy and programmatic efforts to reduce GBV have largely been ineffective for the country as a whole, let alone for marginalised, closed communities such as mining communities. The study was limited to Makusha, a mining community in Shurugwi (Zimbabwe), where mine workers from different mining companies are resident. Several scholars have noted that community-driven initiatives tend to be more effective in reducing GBV. In light of the foregoing, the study sought to develop community-based pathways to the prevention of GBV in a mining community in Zimbabwe. The study integrates the Social Learning Theory, propounded by Akers (1998), to understand the individual, and the Ecological Model as away of scrutinising human development by looking at the individual being, the surrounding environment, and the relationship between the two. Allport's Contact Theory (1954), which states that bringing people together from different background or groups has the ablity to reduce prejudice, and the study are anchored on the Conflict Transformation Theory, which hypothesises that methods for transforming social conflicts need to be produced within their context and be considerate of local conditions.