The Department Of Gender
MINISTRY OF GENDER AND YOUTH, SPORTS AND RECREATION
The Ministry is made up of four departments namely; the Department of Gender, the Department of Youth, the Department of Sport and the Department of Recreation.
Vision
The Ministry of Gender, Youth and Sports, in its contribution towards socio-economic and political development of the country, aspires for gender equity and equality; sporting excellence; and a healthy and self-reliant youth.
Mission
The Ministry works towards the advancement of Gender equity and equality; the enhancement of sporting excellence and the integration of youth in the socio-economic and political development of the country.
DEPARTMENT OF GENDER
The Department of Gender ensures equality of all opportunities between women, men, girls and boys, so that development efforts have an equal impact on all gender issues. Our aim is to facilitate proper integration of gender issues in development to ensure full involvement, participation and partnership of women and men, girls and boys in both their productive lives.
Through it’s policy, the Department of Gender takes gender concerns into account in all national and sectoral policies, programmes, budgets and plans in order to achieve gender equality in the development process.
Services offered by the Department
In order to carry out its mandate the Department is organized into three areas of operation which are very closely inter-related; economic empowerment which is concerned with poverty eradication, social empowerment deals with the fight against gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS, and political empowerment advocates for equal representation and participation of women and men in politics and decision-making positions of society.
How the public accesses the services
The work of the Department is essentially one of advocacy for gender equality in all aspects of development in the country. Since, by its nature advocacy, especially at national level, calls for public awareness and education, the Department makes its services available to the public through the following:
- Public gatherings
- Print and electronic media channels
- Workshops
- Meetings
- Participation in public activities, e. g. Morija Arts and Cultural Festival
- Commemoration of special dates such as:
- The International Women’s Day, 8th March
- World Population Day, 11 July
- The African Women’s Month, August
- 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence, 25 November – 10 December
- International Men’s Day - 19 November
LAPENG CARE CENTRE
Lapeng Care Centre, under the Ministry of Gender is a temporary place of safety and support for survivors of Gender-Based Violence (GBV). It can accommodate 30 survivors who can stay from a day to 6 months depending on the merits of the case. While at the Centre survivors are provided with psychosocial support and care which include provision of all basic necessities such as shelter, food, cosmetics, clothes, counselling, medical and legal services, resiliency building programmes as well as referral services.
REFERRAL TO THE CENTRE
The Centre receives survivors who are referred by different stakeholders and the requirement is that such survivors be brought to the Centre by Child and Gender Protection Unit (CGPU) or where possible by staff in order to ensure confidentiality and safety of both survivors and staff.
