Wenslus Murape
Business Reporter
THE private sector and civic organisations to increase partnerships with the Government in the implementation of various development projects aimed at economically empowering women, an official has said.
Over the years, the Government has recognised the indispensable role of women in economic growth and societal progress.
As such, the Government and its partners, including civic society organisations and the private sector, are actively implementing comprehensive policies and initiatives to foster Zimbabwe’s economic development agenda.
Such multifaceted strategies include various sectors and dimensions of society — ranging from economic empowerment programmes to educational initiatives and legal reforms.
Speaking during a Gender Empowerment and Business Expo Conference in Harare on Saturday, chief director for gender policy planning and project management in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Mrs Lillian Matsika-Takaendesa said gender mainstreaming and women empowerment remained a priority as the Government and its partners sought to capacitate women and enhance their contribution in the national development agenda.
“As Government, we are committed to economically empower women through rolling out various initiatives and funding schemes, we also work on reducing gender-based violence and teenage pregnancies.
“We, therefore, call upon our partners (the private sector and civic organisations) to continue partnering the Government on projects aimed at economically empowering women and addressing gender-based violence and teenage pregnancies in the country,” she said.
Mrs Matsika-Takaendesa said her ministry supported women-led enterprises through schemes such as the Women Development Fund (WDF). “We have various funding programmes where we give loans to women in business or income-generating projects, and it is encouraging to note that women pay back their loans — the default rate is very minimal.
“We are also glad that the loans that we disburse, 30 percent of the funding goes towards supporting young women coming out of college to help them establish their businesses,” she said.
Next year, the Government’s policy priority areas would be primarily on capacitating women, communities, MSMEs through funding, market development, trade promotion, and business management, among other initiatives by the WDF and Zimbabwe Women Micro-Finance Bank.
The ministry, in collaboration with its partners, including the United Nations (UN) Women and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), earlier this year delivered tractors to sugarcane farmers under the Chiredzi SMEs Centre.
In an interview after the workshop, Mrs Matsika-Takaendisa said given the significant role played by women towards economic development, it was imperative to continuously capitalise the Women Micro-Finance Bank, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Corporation (SMEDCO), and Empowerbank.
“As Government, we will see to it that institutions such as Women Micro-Finance Bank and SMEDCO are adequately capitalised to support women-led enterprises.
“What is also good about our loans is that no collateral security is required; what is only needed is for women to organise themselves into groups of a minimum of five people,” she said.
Earlier in his address at the conference, Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company non-executive director Engineer Thomas Lusiyano challenged women to take up key leadership positions such as sitting on boards of public and private companies.
“As women, you have a role to play in Zimbabwe’s economic development agenda. Don’t look down upon yourselves — take up key roles in all sectors of the economy including sitting on public and private companies’ boards of directors.
“In some instances, men dominate because they are always ready to meet a challenge. For example, men always share their thoughts or contributions during meetings, unlike women.
“The Government has made it a policy that in every public entity where the board chair is a man, the vice chair should be a woman and where the chair is a woman, the vice chair should be a man.
“So, those are some of the opportunities that exist for women.
“However, the country is yet to have a similar policy in the private sector,” he said.
Eng. Lusiyano highlighted several traits required for one to sit on the board of any company and these include strong communication skills, integrity, business instinct and good judgment, perspective (the ability to cut through complex issues) and strong interpersonal relationships, among others.
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