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Herald Reporter

The two-day inaugural Women Empowerment Summit is expected to open in Harare today to deliberate on policy and technical issues affecting women’s participation in economic activities to promote inclusive development and attain Vision 2030 of an upper middle income society.

The summit is being organised by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development in partnership with the National Economic Consultative Forum.

President Mnangagwa is expected to be the guest of honour at the summit and is set to officially open it.

Women’s Affairs Minister Dr Sithembiso Nyoni, confirmed the details on Monday.

The Women Empowerment Summit will be taking place at the Harare International Conference Centre under the under the theme: “Revitalising economic growth through women empowerment”.

The theme was derived from the major objective of Vision 2030 that aims at achieving a prosperous and empowered upper middle-income society through inclusive participation and sustainable development.

Said Dr Nyoni: “Women and stakeholders will also take advantage of this platform to network, create partnerships and exhibit their products.

“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.”

The Women Empowerment Summit provides a platform for a technical discussion on challenges and opportunities for women in business in Zimbabwe.

It will also facilitate knowledge exchange on how to empower women in Zimbabwe, proffer interventions and formulate recommendations to address challenges faced by Zimbabwean women, and to influence future policy formulation on women empowerment.

Further, the summit will acknowledge and celebrate successful women in business, and showcase what women have been able to produce.

There will be presentations, panel discussions and high-level discussions among critical stakeholders on promoting production and value chain development, financial inclusion and access to capital for production and trade, promoting standards, compliance and access to regional and international markets, use of ICTs as a tool for improved production and competitiveness.

Other presentations will also centre on provision of appropriate and inclusive workspace and infrastructure to facilitate quality production, gender responsiveness to promote women empowerment and climate change and clean and renewable energy systems for sustainable production and competitiveness.

Dr Nyoni said recommendations from the summit will inform policy planning on women empowerment and gender equality, the allocation of resources towards women empowerment and gender equality.

Government representatives, UN agencies, business organisations or associations, women business associations, development partners, the academia, civil society, diplomats and the private sector, have been invited to attend.