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The Gender and Information Programme plays a central role in sustaining ZWRCN’s overall goal as a women’s resource centre through provision of credible and accessible information to women in appropriate means and formats. It is the hub from which research undertaken by programmes is processed, repackaged and published, and disseminated.
The information programme disseminates research findings to provoke reaction among Civil Society Organisations, the government and other agencies. It is expected that these groups will use the information to produce relevant policies and take action to remedy issues raised.
The ZWRCN website runs as a component from the Information Programme. The website is available to other women’s and gender-related organisations to upload their information. The website is also maintained as a platform for e-discussion that ZWRCN coordinates with its network.
ZWRCN is renowned for hosting its traditional Gender and Development Talks (GAD Talks) where discussions are carried out on topical issues that relate to women in a ‘free space’. These discussions draw both women and men from our network, partners, beneficiaries and visitors to Zimbabwe to identify new concerns, seek consensus and validate research findings.
The GAD Talks are also one of the important tools that we use to strengthen networking activities. The hosting of GAD Talks is subsidised by the use of our own ‘Secret Garden’ as the venue.
The Information Programme is the arm of the organisation that assists with continuing with and building upon network activities. ZWRCN has been able to connect women’s organisations and other players in the Gender and Development field. The programme plans to continue increasing the organisation’s outreach through networking at local, national, regional and international levels, with partners such as government ministries, CSOs, human rights organisations, media houses, UN agencies and other NGOs.
ZWRCN partners with other organisations for important events such as the 16 days of activism. For instance, in the previous years ZWRCN hosted GAD Talks in partnership with other women’s organisations to discuss the progress and challenges in the women’s movement in Zimbabwe.
ZWRCN also owns important information projects that are aligned to HIV and AIDS and Gender Budgeting and aim to fulfil the organisation’s mandate to participate in the process of (re) defining feminism in Zimbabwe. Eve Zinanga Memorial Lecture and the implementation of the associated scholarship fund is one such project.
Evelyn Zinanga was a former board member of ZWRCN who died tragically in a car accident in Cape Town in 2000. For ZWRCN she left the legacy of passion towards empowerment of young women through education. She had been a strong advocate for girls’ to be well positioned to assume influential positions in society. This was evidenced by Evelyn’s educational support of several girls in her rural home; support she would provide from her personal resources in an almost obligatory manner until her death.
In 2003 A Memorial Booklet Dedicated to Evelyn Zinanga was published in honour of her contribution to ZWRCN’s work until the time of her death.
The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) has partnered with ZWRCN to ensure that her dream to help young women to take up assertive roles in society are realised through education.
ZWRCN was identified by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development to lead the documentation and information dissemination group of the Domestic Violence Rollout Strategy and Action Plan. As information based organisation, ZWRCN encompasses the fundamental principles of women’s rights and works towards their elevation in relation to the economic empowerment of women, while tackling the very real threat of the HIV and AIDS pandemic.
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