Reports

Do Elections have to be Battlegrounds over Women’s Bodies?

During violent elections in Zimbabwe, women disproportionately bear the brunt of human rights violations. They are often victims of rape, torture, threats, assaults, and arbitrary arrests consequently women fear elections, and this is part of the reason why women are unwilling to become actively involved as candidates. This report proffers democratic solutions to mitigate and eliminate electoral violence targeting women as we draw closer to the 2023 elections.

CHILD PREGNANCIES: WE ARE THE CHANGEMAKERS

The enactment of the Marriages Act, Chapter 5.15, which criminalises Child Marriages and sets the legal age of consent at 18 is laudable. Now is the time to realize effective enforcement of the law. Girls should not be married too soon, let us say no to child brides!

The Youth of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). How do they see themselves, their country, and the prospects for their agency?

This study uses the Afrobarometer data from Round Seven (2016 to 2018) to examine the views of the youth in 10 SADC countries: Botswana, eSwatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Using a sample of 8280, a range of binary variables were constructed, and used to look at the youth’s views of the following:
• Demography (education, employment, poverty, access to information, etc.)
• Youth and Politics (Perceptions about their countries,
• Social Relationships (

Violence Against Women: The ‘hidden’ mainspring

Most work on bullying and incivility has focused on the workplace, with men twice as likely as women to be the perpetrators, as one group of researchers point out, “it is also possible that the higher incidence of perpetrations by men reflects society’s greater tolerance for men to treat others in a manner that is normally considered unacceptable”.

Setting the Boundaries for Elections: Does the Current Delimitation Process meet Regional and International Best Practice?

This report is an extension of the Policy Brief issued after the Policy Dialogue and is an edited version of the transcribed presentation (and PowerPoint) made by Staffan Darnolf, Senior Global Electoral Operations and Administration Advisor (IFES). It explores Section 161 for some variation, “but no constituency or ward of the local authority concerned may have more than twenty percent more or fewer registered voters than the other such constituencies or wards”. The rationale behind this provision it prevents “gerrymandering”, drawing boundaries to give one party an advantage, either by having a majority of its supporters in a given constituency or ward, or by “eliminating challengers”, as Staffan Darnolf put it at the recently completed Policy Dialogue.

16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence: UNITE! Activism to end violence against women and girls”

It is too easy to see both incivility and bullying as minor forms of abuse of women, but it is clear that incivility creates the sustained disrespect of women from birth to adulthood, it’s embedding in cultural imbalances of gender power, and the disproportionate power given to men.

Elections 2023 Webinar Series Policy Brief No. 5 Organised Violence and Torture and Elections in 2023: Can the Citizens be Insulated from this?

Zimbabwe has an unfortunate history of Organised Violence and Torture (OVT) during elections, especially since 2000, with the elections in 2000, 2002, and 2008 being the most violent. However, no election since 2000 has been free from OVT, intimidation, and threats to the voter. When it comes to elections, Zimbabwe is the most violent country in SADC.

Elections 2023 Webinar Series Policy Brief No. 4 Delimitation and the Voters’ Roll: Regional Best Practice and the Reality in Zimbabwe.

This Policy Dialogue series uses the framework of five Pillars to examine the key areas of the electoral playing field in Zimbabwe, contrasting these with regional and continental best practices. The five Pillars allow an audit of the electoral playing filed ahead of the forthcoming elections and have been outlined in previous policy briefs.

One of the key pillars is Inclusion. which is essentially giving effect to the requirement by the Constitution in Chapter 7. This was discussed at a recent Policy Dialogue, and this Policy Brief summarises the main points.