She was speaking at a workshop on gender and media workshop for SADC journalists in Harare last week.
Muchinguri said a firm resolution by the Heads of State to ensure the eradication of all gender inequalities in the region was made in 1997 by signing a SADC Declaration on Gender and Development and its Addendum on the Prevention and Eradication of Violence Against Women and Children in 1998.
She said national governments have further developed national gender policies and action plans to facilitate the process of improving the situation of women and reducing gender inequalities.
The Zimbabwe minister said gender equality is a fundamental human right and a precondition for democracy, good governance and economic progress, hence progress in the region will only be real and sustainable if the status of women, children and other disadvantaged groups is improved.
She said although SADC has made a lot of progress in placing relevant policy frameworks to address gender inequalities, the member states have not progressed much.
One of the challenges is that the countries tend to receive more backlash than support from the media whenever there are new policies to deal with gender issues.
She said some news stories lack in-depth analysis on the gender issues affecting communities and women's voices are absent in the news.
Muchinguri appealed to journalists in the region to give women fair and adequate media coverage, especially in Zimbabwe during the forthcoming general elections to facilitate improvement of women's participation in politics.
The workshop was organised by the Women in Development Southern African Awareness Programme which falls under the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC)in Harare.
One of the objectives of the workshop was to look at the recently adopted Draft SADC Protocol on Gender and Development.
