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Business Reporter—

Industrialists under the banner of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries want value chains mapping broken down to district level and specifically, to define women entrepreneurs’ role in the concept.Value chains are seen as benefiting both big industry and small-scale enterprises in as much as they realise more from trading value added products than raw materials.

A value chain is the process or a set of activities that lead to the production of a final product.

As such, the CZI has identified 18 value chains as the private sector seeks to drive the country’s industrialisation strategy.

The 18 value chains are contained in a booklet produced by CZI titled: “Value Chains Mapping — Mapping of Value Chains in Zimbabwe for Economic Development”.

CZI members attending a dialogue on “Women in the Economy: The Business Case for Investing in Women to Build a Strong Economy in Zimbabwe” jointly hosted with the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) said value chains mapping should cascade to ward level.

The industrialists also want CZI to consider breaking value chains mapping down to district and ward levels, and clearly define what women in a particular ward or district are to produce and how much in terms of quantity for the development of the value chains.

It was also recommended that there should be clarity on the companies contracting women and what their requirements and products are.

The industry umbrella body was further called upon to have sex-disaggregated data to be included in the state of the manufacturing sector survey, to help evaluate the state, and contribution of women.

Addressing the dialogue, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe deputy governor, Dr Charity Dhliwayo said statistics showed that women contribute

two thirds of the hours worked but are paid 10 percent of the income in the world.

However, she said over eight banks in Zimbabwe now have women desks, a major breakthrough for women economic emancipation.

The value chains identified by the CZI include the asbestos-to-roofing/piping-to-construction materials; diamond-to-jewellery-to-ornament; gold-to-jewellery-ornament; chrome ore-to-chromium-to-fabricated steel product; iron ore-to-billet-to-foundry-to-fabricated steel product; limestone-to-quarry-to-cement-to-construction; coal bed methane-to-gas-to-plastics and allied value chain.

Other value chains include cotton-to-clothing; soya-to-white-meats (incorporating stockfeeds for the beef industry); tobacco-to-cigarette; maize-to-maize meal (incorporating stockfeeds for the beef industry); beef-to-milk-to-leather; horticulture production-to-can/packet/bottle; regional –assembly-finishing value chains (including automotives, plastics, paper and ICT) and pharmaceuticals- pharmacy-hospital- patient value chain, among others.