Source: Office of the Prime Minister of Zimbabwe
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai has said Government should play a major role in addressing gender based violence which limits women's participation in nation development.

Addressing delegates attending the GlobalPOWER Women Network Africa inaugural conference in Harare, Thursday, Prime Minister Tsvangirai said women and girls were more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS, with 59 percent of people living with the virus in Africa being women.

"These are frightening figures and we need to rally our collective efforts and mitigate these statistics," he said.

"This means that while intervention in the form of basic social services such as health, education and social protection are important for governments to take seriously, addressing gender inequalities is the long lasting solution," Prime Minister Tsvangirai said.

Education remained the cornerstone in the improvement of the welfare of not only women, but the generality of the people.

He said the education of the girl child remained a challenge in Africa as fewer and fewer girls were found in tertiary institutions.

Prime Minister Tsvangirai said he was aware of the several initiatives by the Ministry of Health in Zimbabwe to mitigate the HIV/AIDS scourge in the country.

"It remains a challenge in Africa that this is mainly linked to poverty and gender inequality, therefore, Global Power Women Network Africa comes at a right time to ensure implementation of protocols of women and broader international conventions," he said.

He said the theme of the conference, Getting to Zero, demonstrated the network's commitment towards arresting the HIV pandemic, poverty, hunger and domestic violence.

• Zimbabwe