Bulawayo, (New Ziana) – Cultural practices, gender discrimination and limited access to resources are major barriers hindering women from fully participating in economic spheres, a senior government official has said.
Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development permanent secretary Mavis Sibanda said this on Tuesday while officially opening a validation workshop for the Broad-based Women Economic Empowerment Framework in the country’s second largest city.
The event, which ran under the theme “Empowering Women Towards the Achievement of Vision 2030”, seeks to align women’s economic empowerment with key national strategies as well as regional and international frameworks.
The National Broad Based Women Economic Empowerment Frameworks seeks to provide an implementation guide to the economic empowerment of women and ensure they equally participate in all spheres, thereby reducing inequalities among them.
“Challenges such as cultural norms, the burden of care, gender discrimination, limited entrepreneurship skills, lack of leadership skills, and limited access to resources, including finance and land, have hindered women from effectively participating in economic spheres,” said Sibanda.
“This burden of care means women, instead of focusing on business, find themselves looking after their parents, in-laws, husbands, and children. Women are working so hard, but they are not paid. If you calculate what a woman does, it’s often far more than her working partner.
If we put a dollar sign on it, you would find she contributes two-thirds of the household effort, while her partner contributes only a third.” Sibanda emphasized that empowering women economically yields benefits across all sectors, improving access to health, education, and leadership roles.
“When a woman is empowered, there is access to health and education. In leadership, empowered women will rise to decision-making roles and not remain at the grassroots level,” she said.
She also linked women’s empowerment to poverty reduction and national prosperity. “When livelihoods improve, poverty decreases, GDP (Gross Domestic Product) increases, and wealth creation follows. Women are agents of change, and they must be equal partners in the development process,” she said.
Sibanda acknowledged significant progress under the existing framework, including the establishment of the Women’s Microfinance Bank, which provides affordable loans to female entrepreneurs. “Additionally, gender mainstreaming efforts have been extended across all economic sectors, reaching over 16,000 individuals,” she noted.
She said with 60 per cent of enterprises in Zimbabwe now owned by women, there was need for continued efforts to solidify these gains. Sibanda commended the African Development Bank (AfDB), the International Labour Organisation, and UN Women for their technical and financial support in revising the framework.
She underscored the importance of breaking systemic barriers to women’s economic participation. “With strengthened support, Zimbabwean women are poised to drive the nation towards achieving Vision 2030,” she said.
New Ziana
