Sustainable Enterprise Development for Women and Youth

Executive Summary Sustainable Enterprise Development for Women and Youth The Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) intends to build on the achievements of the first AfDB funded Youth and Women Empowerment Project (YWEP) – 2017 – 2022. This new project that will run from 2022 to 2025 will scale up interventions on economic empowerment of women and youth in agricultural value chains (horticulture and dairy) and small-scale gemstone mining sectors by stimulating value addition and beneficiation to improve decent job creation. The project will expand operations of the Mutoko fruits and vegetables processing facility to better serve horticulture farmers in the district and surrounding areas. Two new food processing facilities will be established; one fruits and vegetables processing facility in Mutasa district and one milking parlour in Umguza district. The fruits and vegetables processing facility shall be set up in a designated business zone in the district and the milking parlour in an existing vocational training centre. In addition, the project will promote access to safe markets for women traders in Bulawayo and Masvingo through constructing two safe markets with basic health and sanitary facilities. The project will also facilitate the work of the GOZ; a) to promote the beneficiation and marketing of gemstones and strengthen Occupational Safety and Health for artisanal miners in Karoi district; b) support the development of the minerals policy and the Gemstones Beneficiation and Value Addition Strategy; c) support the development of Gender mainstreaming guidelines for 11 ministries; d) review and align the Broad-Based Women Economic Empowerment Framework to the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS-1); e) build the capacity of cross border traders on COMESA and SADC Simplified Trade Regimes (STRs) and f) capacity building of young entrepreneurs. The target population to benefit from the project will mainly be youth and women in 6 targeted districts that are Mutoko, Mutasa, Bulawayo and Masvingo (horticulture), Umguza (dairy), and Karoi (artisanal small scale gemstone mining). Direct beneficiaries include: 3,000 youth and women located in the project areas that are expected to benefit from additional off-farm jobs and incomes to be created in the subsectors of food processing, and beneficiation of gemstones; 3000 new and existing youth entrepreneurs will access competence based training program in entrepreneurship and business management at TVET level; 500 cross border traders will be facilitated to access markets; 500 stallholder farmers will be linked to local value companies; and 720 small scale miners will be capacitated to add value to gemstones and facilitated to access markets. Approximately 100,000 people (50% female) are expected to benefit indirectly from the project. The value addition interventions in horticulture, dairy and gemstone processing are also expected to benefit the thousands of women and youth involved in economic activities upstream and downstream the value chains. The ILO will deploy its Inclusive Markets and Value Chains Development Approach and the Producer Owned Anchor Enterprise Model to identify market deficiencies and address the underlying causes inhibiting the effective participation of women and youth entrepreneurs in the value chains. The project will receive support of the Senior Programme Officer and Finance and Operations Officer in the Country Office for Zimbabwe and Namibia. In addition, it will be technically backstopped by Senior Specialists for Sustainable Enterprises for Infrastructure Development and for Skills Development, who are based in the Decent Work Team for Eastern and Southern Africa in Pretoria South Africa. Finance, Procurement and Administration Units at ILO’s Headquarters in Geneva and the Regional Office in Abidjan will also provide the necessary support to effectively deliver the project. The ILO will also provide a dedicated project vehicle for the implementation of act

Project symbol

ZWE/21/01/BAD

Admin unit

CO-Harare

Start date

27/01/2022

End date

31/01/2026

Total allocation

2851032

Total expenditure

Status

Active

2709286

Development Partners

African Development Bank

Country/Countries

Zimbabwe

Outcomes

Outcome 4: Sustainable enterprises for inclusive growth and decent work