By Tendai Chisiri
The Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, in partnership with the National Economic Consultative Forum will host the inaugural Women Empowerment Summit and Expo from 7 to 8 December 2022 at Harare International Conference Centre.
The inaugural Women Empowerment Summit and Expo was launched at a press conference on Monday by the Minister of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Dr Sithembiso Nyoni.
“It is my pleasure and indeed an honor for me to address you during this press conference to launch the inaugural Women Empowerment Summit”, she said.
“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” she added.
The Women Empowerment Summit will run under the theme, “Revitalizing Economic Growth through Women Empowerment’’. The theme was derived from the major objective of Vision 2030 which aims at achieving a Prosperous and Empowered upper middle-income society by the year 2030 through inclusive participation and sustainable development.
“Women and stakeholders will also take advantage of this platform to, network, create partnerships and exhibit their products”, said Minister Nyoni.
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 will be guided by the following specific objectives:
To provide a platform for a technical discussion on challenges and opportunities for women in business in Zimbabwe.
To facilitate knowledge exchange on how to empower women in Zimbabwe;
To Proffer interventions and formulate recommendations to address challenges faced by Zimbabwean women, and;
To influence future policy formulation on women empowerment in Zimbabwe.
To acknowledge and celebrate successful women in business.
To showcase what women are able to produce. So there will be exhibitions taking place.
The 2-day Summit will have presentations, panel discussions and high-level discussions among critical stakeholders on the following;
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 ICT as a tool for Improved Production and competitiveness.
Provision of appropriate and inclusive workspace and infrastructure to facilitate quality production.
Gender responsiveness to promote women empowerment.
Climate Change and Clean /Renewable Energy Systems for Sustainable Production and competitiveness.
Recommendations from the Summit will inform:
Policy planning on women empowerment and gender equality.
Allocation of resources towards women empowerment and gender equality.
The Summit will be officially opened during the afternoon of 7th December 2022.
Government representatives, UN Agencies, Business Organisations/Associations, Women Business Associations, Development Partners, The Academia, Civil Society, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and the private sector have been invited to attend.
The Women Empowerment Summit to be held at Harare International Conference Centre on Wednesday and Thursday will have His Excellency President Emmerson Mnangagwa as the guest of honour.
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