Women’s Day 2021 - Choose to Challenge

Today Zambians across the country and political divide have been marking International Women’s Day.

In marking the occasion President Lungu pointed to the high percentage of women who are frontline healthcare workers currently engaged in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I am proud of those that have taken lead and ensured that we all adhere to the safety advise and reduce the spread,” President Lungu stated as he called for citizens to join him in celebrating all women working tirelessly in every industry, raising children, supporting and caring for their families and communities.

Opposition UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema has spoken of his admiration for women “who have broken glass ceilings and fought through gender bias.” However, he has acknowledged that there were many more that must be recognised and supported to ensure an equal future.

In his statement on International Women’s Day, Hichilema addressed the fact that COVID-19 especially burdens women.

“We pay tribute to the women who search and walk for miles to ensure their families have the minimum 22 litres of water needed to survive. We salute the women who sleep on cold floors at bedsides caring for their loved ones because our health system does not provide patient care. We acknowledge the resilience of women who wake up at the crack of dawn with babies on the back to plough the fields or sell their wares on hazardous streets for daily bread. They endure all these and many other hardships without complaint,” the UPND President stated.

Civil society has also marked the occasion with Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) among those to address this year’s Zambia theme of “Choose to Challenge” and highlight the important role women are playing in fighting corruption at all levels despite the obstacles they face.

“We would like to celebrate the gallant women in Zambia who have and continue to challenge the range of vulnerabilities and obstacles they encounter at different levels of Zambian society. For many years now, women in Zambia have taken a frontline position in the fight against corruption and the promotion of good governance through activism, sensitization, and many other interventions at grassroots, national and international levels. This is in spite of the many obstacles that they continue to face in virtually all aspects of life: for instance, women are the ones mostly affected by the growing phenomenon of “sextortion” where sex is used as an informal currency in exchange for political or other favors as well as economic opportunities,” the organisation’s Executive Director Maurice Nyambe writes.

Nyambe describes women as “powerful agents of change both in the fight against corruption and the promotion of good governance.”

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