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By Joyce Mukucha
Community engagement plays an important role in fostering solutions on gender-responsive public service delivery, a virtual summit organised by Action Aid Zimbabwe (AAZ) has revealed.
This emerged during a three-day virtual Tax Justice and Gender Responsive Public Service Delivery (GRPS) Summit that ended yesterday where it became apparent that paving a way forward towards the attainment of equitable taxation and improved public service requires community engagement.
The Summit brainstormed and recommended ways to improve public service provision and make them gender-responsive, especially in critical sectors of health, education, and water, using domestically mobilized resources.
Tax Justice and Gender-Responsive Public Services conversations should be driven by an overarching commitment to equity and democratic engagement, ensuring challenges encountered at the community level are embraced and addressed.
The Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Health, Dr. Ruth Labode highlighted that there is power in the voice of the community. She urged CSOs to make sure that there is community inclusion when it comes to key discussions like these.
“Civil Society Organisations have a big role to play. They ought to mobilise and sensitise communities so that they become aware of the pressing issues like these of gender-responsive public service delivery.”
Happymore Chibvura of Global Platform Zimbabwe echoed the same sentiments.
“There is a need to raise community awareness when it comes to Tax Justice and Gender-Responsive Public Service conversations. It is important that as CSOs we strengthen our relationship with communities and build community agencies and amplify their voices so that they can be heard in Parliament when it comes to critical issues that affect them.”
He added that engaging them in crucial discussions helps to improve existing relationships with or within communities.
AAZ Programs Coordinator, Darlington Chidarara said community participation can be crucial to the success of improved taxation, promotion, and amelioration of social conditions and economic development.
Meanwhile, Ebenezer Tombo with AAZ said the Summit was fruitful as it managed to bring various people from different fields of operation and granted them an opportunity to unpack critical issues concerning GRPS and foster tangible solutions.
He was speaking on behalf of AAZ Head of Programs and Resource Mobilisation.
“For the past three days, as AAZ we are glad that we opened a space for different stakeholders and the spirit of engagement from diverse backgrounds has allowed us to come up with effective solutions towards nation-building as we strive to achieve generous taxation and equitable revenue collection by the government.
“The challenges in our economic sector require us as a nation to re-look on how we can achieve transparency and accountability so that we attain Sustainable Development Goals. As we thrive for change and economic justice, we thrive to make this summit an annual event to ensure that all issues are unpacked in a way that improves gender-responsive public service delivery,” said Tombo.
He added that while every citizen is negatively affected by poor service delivery with women and girls being the worst affected, there was a need to make taxes work for females.
He said AAZ is committed to achieving gender equality and social justice and urged everyone to play a critical role in creating an equal society where women and girls can also access key public services particularly water, health, and education.
“Let us make taxes work for women and girls and collectively. Let’s soldier on to make a better Zimbabwe. There is a need for us from our different diverse groups to foster tangible solutions to ensure that there is improved gender-responsive public service delivery.”
