An agreement was reached that independent commissions should work with the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) so that they can leverage on the presence of CSOs in local communities including hard to reach and marginalised communities. This was reached at a knowledge exchange seminar for civil society and independent commissions that was held at Monomotapa Hotel.
With regards to rapport between commissions and civil society, the meeting concurred that regular meetings should be held between independent commissions and CSOs in order to give updates on progress made and to identify areas of collaboration. Civil society needs to build a directory for the independent commissions so that they have information on who to work with for different programmes.
Organisations that attended the meeting appreciated that independent commissions need to work together in order to strengthen their voice and lobby for adequate financing from the government. In relation to the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission in particular, there is need for other commissions and civil society to support the commission since it cannot achieve its mandate on its own.
It was also highlighted that independent commissions need to engage the private sector to create partnerships as a way of resources mobilisation.
In their presentations the commissioners indicated that common challenges that are being faced across all the commissions include lack of resources to fully deliver their mandate, inadequate staff to carry out day to day activities and poor accessibility by the public due to lack of presence in local communities.
The seminar delved on areas of engagement for increasing the capacity, visibility and impact of the various actors before, during and after the 2018 elections. There was particular emphasis on the need to lobby for the amendment of the electoral laws before the proclamation of the 2018 elections, the need to identify and act on threats of political violence before it fully erupts and the need to have an agreed position as civil society and independent commissions on what constitutes a free and fair election and be able to act before the results are announced.
The objectives of the seminar were to provide independent commissions and CSOs in Zimbabwe, a platform to share experiences, challenges, applied strategies and lessons learnt in striving to implement their respective mandate, to discuss and come up with strategies for continued collaboration among different actors in dispensing their respective mandates and filling the existing gaps and to produce a framework for CSO engagement with independent commissions in different sectors.
Out of the five commissions in Zimbabwe three managed to attend the seminar. These were Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, Zimbabwe Gender Commission and National Peace and Reconciliation Commission. The meeting was coordinated by Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Zimbabwe Human Rights Association and Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission.
