Brussels, 23/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - The EU is to allocate €25 million to a new initiative aimed at combating violence against women in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the European Commission announced on Tuesday 23 July, saying this would be done through education by tackling the roots of the persistent problem. The initiative will be carried out in partnership with UNICEF and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), as well as with the Congolese authorities.
In order to promote a new approach to gender relations and effectively combat gender-based violence, the project aims to increase the percentage of children with proper access to education to at least 70% in the provinces of Kinshasa and Bandundu. The initiative also aims to increase the capacity of the units of the Congolese national police force specialised in combating violence against girls and women in Kinshasa, Bandundu and Maniema. This will help to provide a contact point where victims and witnesses of violence can seek guidance, so that the guilty parties can be prosecuted and their violent crimes will not go unpunished. This approach can in future be extended to the rest of the country. “It is unacceptable that so many young girls and women are still victims of violence that goes unpunished and have no access to education. Moreover, any sustainable development is inconceivable without the participation of all stakeholders in our partner countries and we must not forget that women are at the heart of growth in Africa”, said Andris Piebalgs, European Development Commissioner.
By turning men as well as women into instruments of change, the initiative will have a better chance of success in the long term. (AN/transl.jl)