User:Gift Chimanisha Chanda/sandbox

=== Efforts made by the Zambian Government to Improve Status of Women ===

Out of the approximate 17 million Zambians, 49.9 per cent are the females who are unevenly distributed across the country. Almost 65 per cent of most Zambian women are in the agricultural business. Therefore, the Zambian Government, in corroboration with various institutions has undertaken numerous projects improve not only the welfare of women but also their status as shown by the promising statistics. The Gender Empowerment and Development project was one such project that was designed to improve the economic status of over 57,400 women and girls in the Luapula province. Luapula province is Zambia’s province with most women in the farming sectors. There, this project’s aim was to support community-based organizations of women by supplying them with loans to startup businesses, increased their access to comprehensive healthcare services and finally but implementing policies that empower women and girls to go back to school after girls report of getting pregnant in school. Before this policy was implemented, girls who got pregnant while in school were suspended from school. Moreover, after the implementation of this project they have a noticeable improvement in the status of women in Luapula province .It has been recorded that over 78,557 primary school girls in Luapula alone have been empowered since the commencement of this project. This is according to the VSO initiative, a nongovernmental organization that corroborate with the government to bring forth these improvements in the status of women. In addition, one report in world business report reported that Zambian female entrepreneurs got their chance in "SheTrades" initiative. SheTrades Zambia aims to spur economic growth and job creation for local women-owned businesses by expanding their role in the local and regional economy as well as in international trade. Working with national and international partners, women entrepreneurs in Zambia will have the opportunity to improve their competency through tailored in-person and online training workshops, and mentoring sessions. According to estimates, this project is aimed at getting 3 million Zambian women in the market by 2021.This is a mass project that is even backed by Zambia’s vice president , Mrs Enonge Wina, Zambia first female vice president. The Health Worker Retention Scheme is another initiative that has reached 1,125 health workers in a minimal short period of time. According to the Minister of Health of Zambia, this scheme has reached over 1,650 more women from each and every province across the country. 92% per cent of the cost of the scheme is funded by the Government of Zambia, which originally received additional support from the Netherlands. In conclusion, they have been quite a lot of project that has even brought more women in government posts due to all these schemes. Problems like gender based violence against women has rapidly declined due to government policies. The status of women across the country has drastically improved as seen by the various partitions of women in decision making .However, they more needs to be done on the emancipation of women as most Zambian girls, especially teen are now dropping out of school due to pregnancies despite of these policies that allow them to return back to school. This problem need to be addressed immediacy as these young people are the future generation that cover around 60 per cent of the entire population of Zambia.