The Institute for Research and Poverty Alleviation Tanzania (REPOA), has advised the Police Force to take strict measures against gender violence so that women have more freedom to do their activities without fear.

The Executive Director of Repoa, Dr. Donald Mmari, gave this advice when presenting the research results obtained in the issues of gender equality and gender violence.

He said that this matter should be given priority even though such incidents seem to be decreasing but when they appear they have a big impact.

"We as researchers are engaging various public institutions to see the results and how Tanzanians say.

But we are also looking at other statistics from other institutions including the National Institute of Statistics to see the areas that we think should be given priority as well as listening to the opinions of the people," he said.

Senior Researcher from Repoa, Dr. Jane Papalika explained that Tanzania has made progress in gender equality issues unlike the 1980s and 1990s where there were many challenges related to women's education and land ownership.

He advised the government to make more efforts to reduce gender violence, especially in rural areas by campaigning in collaboration with other stakeholders.

A lawyer from the Tanzania Human Rights Advocacy Network, Nuru Maro said that studies conducted by stakeholders like Repoa should be used as a tool to bring about change when needed.

He advised the government to speed up the process of finalizing the law on sexual violence that is being worked on to establish legal and policy protection because without effective laws such acts will continue.