Seychelles considers social budgeting as strategy to curb prevalence of gender-based and domestic violence |22 June 2022

Minister Zialor

The Minister for Youth Sports and Family, Marie-Celine Zialor, has highlighted the crucial importance of Seychelles considering social budgeting as a strategy to curb the prevalence of gender-based and domestic violence.

Minister Zialor was speaking at the ‘Engaging Men and Boys: Ending Violence Against Women and Girls’ panel discussion at the Commonwealth Women’s Forum being held in Kigali, Rwanda.

Social budgeting allows for the identification of existing social protection schemes – to what aims, within the social protection system of the country, resources are allocated and where these resources come from, and by which society's goals and priorities, are better reflected in the government budget.

During the session attended by speakers from India, South Africa and Cameroon, Minister Zialor explained that men and boys’ engagement and specifically designed programmes for men and boys must be adopted as a preventive strategy to curb and minimise the impacts of violence against women and girls.

Seychelles was invited to the forum to share the first-ever project on the Economic Cost of violence against women and girls which utilises a new framework that determines the economic cost of violence against women

and girls for various sectors in the economy and the state.

The study looked at how violence against women and girls impacted particular industries including agriculture and the service industry. Important findings show the cost of violence to girls such as loss of learning time lost in school and the cost to adult women; the cost to the private sector and the cost to the whole of society is 4.625 percent of the island nation’s GDP – gross domestic product.

It was also found that healthcare and education need special attention, and while healthcare data collection in Seychelles is not able to capture the use of healthcare services by survivors of violence, by using assumptions, the study was able to estimate the cost of certain healthcare services to be around R115 million or 0.60 percent of GDP, yet other healthcare services costs could not be estimated due to data limitations.

During the session, participants had the chance to look at programmes dedicated to engaging men and boys as agents of positive change and examined the critical role data plays in understanding violence against women and girls and its wider impacts.

“Violence as other gender-related issues are difficult topics that are not talked about. I want to reiterate that Seychelles can, as a neutral country, become the place where these gender-related topics can be discussed and I am inviting the Commonwealth to support Seychelles to become a hub, where these difficult conversations can happen,” said Minister Zialor.

The Minister for Youth, Sports and Family is heading a three-member

delegation at the forum, including the principal secretary for the Family department Clive Roucou and Dr Gerard Adonis, who is the facilitator of the Economic Costs of Violence Against Women and Girls methodology

and project.

The Economic Cost of Violence against Women and Girls, conducted in Seychelles in 2017 estimated R197million as income loss due to violence against women and girls. The report was the culmination of the pilot project conducted in Seychelles by the Commonwealth and the government of Seychelles which sought to

identify the direct and indirect costs of violence against women aged between 15 and 65.

The project's principal outcome is the development of a generalised framework to assess these economic costs in Seychelles.

Minister Zialor said that in a follow-up to the study, the Ministry will be working closely with the Commonwealth, for a partnership with the University of Seychelles to mainstream the violence against women and girls’ framework and methodology in Seychelles.

About the Commonwealth Women’s Forum:

The Commonwealth Women’s Forum is being held ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Nation forum, under the theme ‘Delivering a Common Future: Transforming for Gender Equality’.

The event is being attended by international delegates from the Commonwealth and the rest of the world across sectors including civil society, youth and the private sector to ensure perspectives from all areas of society are incorporated; and to provide a platform for women to discuss challenges, share best practices and agree on actions and recommendations to carry forward to the leaders of the Commonwealth.

The Forum aims to reactivate commitments to accelerate implementation of already agreed global and Commonwealth commitments on gender equality and women and girls’ empowerment.

Press release from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Family