Zim scores big on women affairs despite sanctions
ECONOMIC sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe have affected women in various ways, largely their ability to generate income and assist in economic development. It is undoubtedly true that the imposition of sanctions has impacted negatively on the discharge of the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community and Small and Medium Enterprises Development’s mandate and the nation at large, in a number of ways across different areas, which fall under its purview.
Chief Director for Gender Policy Planning and Project Management in the ministry, Mrs Lillian Matsika-Takaendisa said the various areas of the ministry that aids women has been affected in numerous ways, especially access to funding.
“The economic sanctions have negative effects on women in business. They have led to a decrease in profitability for businesses and limited the support that Government could offer.
“Funding remains key to the revival of women’s businesses in the country. Zidera makes it almost impossible for women to access funding for revival of their businesses from multilateral finance institutions such as the African Development Bank (AFDB).
“Due to these measures, women’s business operations have been negatively affected in terms of limited access to finance including internal lines of credit and external markets, which affected export performance,” she said.
Women’s small businesses are failing to sustain themselves because the country continues to function under harsh conditions stemming from its exclusion from the international community.
“The European Union and the United States of America imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe nearly two decades ago. The sanctions, which know neither colour, nor creed, age or gender affect the rich and vulnerable as well as the young and the old alike. These sanctions have caused the country as a whole to be excluded from financial earnings associated with international trade. Zimbabwe lost some of its overseas international markets for its manufactured goods. Women’s businesses, especially those in jewellery making, bead making and basket weaving were negatively affected due to cancellation of contracts to the EU and US markets,” she lamented.
Mrs Matsika-Takaendisa said formal businesses were greatly affected by sanctions and the average number of people employed in the informal sector increased significantly with women taking a bigger chunk than men.
The ministry highlighted that the informal sector employed an average of 0,49 million people per year before sanctions and this average rose to 1,65 million during the period after imposition of sanctions representing at least 70 percent of employed people.
“The sanctions have resulted in lack of development, rehabilitation, modernisation and deterioration of production and marketing infrastructure, ultimately reducing productivity and access to markets for women,” added the official.
However, it is worth noting that despite the aforementioned bearings of sanctions on the country, the Government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises managed to make interventions which translated to positive achievements despite the wrath of illegal sanctions.
In order to subvert the far reaching implications of sanctions, the ministry has over the years made a number of interventions which enabled it to successfully achieve its mandate.
“Despite the existence of these illegal sanctions, the ministry recorded a lot of progress through its various interventions in women empowerment and gender equality initiatives. These interventions include financial assistance through funding of women projects, market access for women businesses, training of women in business management and technical skills, establishing decent workspaces for women, gender mainstreaming initiatives, association building among others,” she said.
The ministry said such interventions enhanced resilience at the back of the unilateral sanctions, which ensured that these sectors managed to stay afloat and contribute significantly towards the achievement of National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) targets and ultimately towards the achievement of Vision 2030.
A number of these positive achievements across different sectors are noteworthy such as women empowerment in the form of funding for the various projects.
“The ministry managed to disburse loans to 31 women projects worth ZW$ 24 800 000,00, which were funded through the Women Development Fund and these are from Mashonaland Central and Harare Provinces. Funded projects were in poultry, baking, horticulture and goat keeping. This benefited 140 women in total,” added Mrs Matsika-Takaendisa.
Women and SMEs have also benefited from workspace construction funded by the ministry.
“In Gweru, four factory shells to accommodate 54 women groups and SMEs are being constructed. Gwanda also has two vendor marts that will accommodate 56 Women and SMEs and 50 factory shells in Chivhu for 150 women and SMEs. The ministry in partnership with the International Labour Organisation have managed to start the construction of safe markets for women in Manicaland and in Masvingo. However, engagement with the local authorities to mainstream women led small business and SMEs workspace needs in their plans and other stakeholders is underway to ensure the availability of appropriate workspaces for the sector,” she added.
Skills capacity building has also been extended to over 30 000 women who have been trained in piggery and poultry production, detergent making, petroleum jelly production, beverages making, floor polish making, food processing and sanitiser production, among others.
“The objective of the trainings was to equip women with the relevant managerial and technical skills to manage their businesses in this highly competitive environment. Women have also been supported to access markets through raising awareness of available market opportunities including e-markets and facilitating participation of women at local expos and exhibitions. In line with that, women managed to exhibit at ZITF, International Women’s Day, International Rural Women’s Day and Agricultural Shows across Zimbabwe,” she added.
Women businesses from Zimbabwe participated at the Dubai International Expo. A total of approximately 1 094 females were facilitated to assess markets.
Over 800 women empowerment clubs were established with over 3 400 members capacitated and linked to funding. They were capacitated in various areas which include leadership, constitution making, business skills, financial literacy, sanitary pad manufacture, health issues, among others.
The construction of Guruve Women Milling plant which is being funded by AfDB commenced in June 2022 and is now at slab level. This follows construction of the access road, connection of electricity and water, and other preliminary works. This directly benefited 125 women and the community indirectly.
The ministry also did gender mainstreaming interventions.
“A strategy on women in decision making was developed with support from United Nations Development Programme and focused on the involvement of women in five thematic areas to catalyse the attainment of gender equality in five areas including the political sector, public sector, private sector, civil society sector and Community/Rural Development. The draft strategy is awaiting validation and launch,” added the director.
In response to genderbased violence where it is estimated that one in three women is affected, the ministry is constructing a One-Stop Centre in Bulawayo which is expected to be completed within the third quarter of 2022 and is now at 90% percent completion with work underway in roofing the structure.
The ministry also hailed the High Level Political Compact launched by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in October 2021. Two regional stakeholder sensitisation meetings of the HLPC were held in Bulawayo and Harare. The meetings aimed at sensitising stakeholders on the High Level Commitment to end GBV and bring stakeholders to action.
Zimbabwe also attended the Sadc Ministers of Gender Meeting in Malawi in June 2022. The meeting reviewed progress on the implementation of the Gender and development programmes in the region with discussion focusing on among other issues, implementation of gender mainstreaming guidelines.
Mrs Matsika-Takaendisa said the ministry continues to upscale these interventions to ensure that women play a significant role in socio-economic development and overcome the impact of illegal sanctions on our country.–@ NyembeziMu