Staff Reporter

Zimbabwe is set to host the Women Empowerment Summit on 7 and 8 December 2022 in Harare.

This was announced by the Minister of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, Dr Sithembiso Nyoni in a media conference in Harare yesterday.

The Summit seeks to deliberate on policy and technical issues affecting women’s participation in economic activities for the promotion of inclusive development as the country works toward the attainment of Vision 2030.

The meeting, which is running under the theme, “Revitalizing Economic Growth through Women Empowerment,” is in line with Government`s inclusive development mantra of leaving no one and no place behind.

Dr Nyoni highlighted that the summit would address technical issues that hamper women`s growth in business.

“The Summit is a highly participatory and inclusive platform that brings stakeholders together to deliberate on policy and technical issues affecting women`s participation in economic activities, in order to promote inclusive development and attain Vision 2030,” said the Minister.

Minister Nyoni stressed that the Second Republic has a vested interest in the development of women and would leverage the meeting to recommend interventions to encourage the growth of women`s businesses.

“The summit`s broad objective is to deliberate on challenges and opportunities affecting Zimbabwean women and to recommend interventions to promote the growth of sustainable female-led or female-owned businesses in order to leave no one and no place behind in the process of development,” said Minister Nyoni.

The Minister highlighted the objectives of the Summit which include the facilitation of knowledge, the celebration, and acknowledgement of successful women in business. She said that the meeting would offer interventions and formulate recommendations to address the challenges faced by Zimbabwean women among other issues.

According to the Minister, the summit would inform policy planning on women empowerment, gender equality, allocation of resources towards women empowerment and gender equality.

The planned summit demonstrates the Second Republic’s commitment to empower women in various programmes in line with its National Development Strategy 1 (NDS 1). The NDS 1 is expected to facilitate increased empowerment of women and enhance gender equality in the country.

In December, 2020 President Emmerson Mnangagwa proclaimed a 30 percent women’s quota in councils in line with the constitutional provisions on gender balance.