DISPROPORTIONATELY high HIV prevalence continues to threaten the female labour force participation and it may also complicate the COVID-19 response, says the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its latest report.

The IMF said the HIV prevalence rate among women remained notably higher than that among men, adding that it has been increasing in recent years partly due to GBV, particularly child marriage.

It said civil law and customary law coexisted under the dual legal system, and provided a legal loophole for child marriage.

“The negative impacts of child marriage cascade to lower education and poor health outcomes for girls, with significant setbacks to economic growth,” said the IMF boss, Kristalina Georgieva in a statement.

“Eliminating child marriage would increase long-term annual per capita real GDP growth in emerging and developing countries by 1.05 percentage.”

Since 2000, a key legislation to protecting females from GBV, the Domestic Violence Bill, has been under consideration by parliament and it is yet to be enacted into law, further hampering women’s ability to take precautions against HIV infection.

The bill is currently under consideration by the National Assembly.

The IMF said the estimated economic cost of violence against women and girls in Lesotho was as high as 5.5 percent of GDP in 2017 (Commonwealth Secretariat 2020).

It said the pandemic had likely only made matters worse, as civil society organisations and the Child and Gender Protection Unit suggested that the incidence of domestic violence had escalated since the COVID-19 outbreak.