Online Reporter
Theseus Mauruki Shambare in Bulawayo, [email protected]
UNIQUE!
That can only describe it.
Now that the curtain has fallen on the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair and the final crowds have drifted through the gates, there is one corner of Hall 1 many visitors are still talking about.
You saw it before you reached it.
Three bold words — Zero Hunger Pavilion — rose proudly against a yellow-golden backdrop, glowing like a promise in the afternoon light.
Beneath them, people gathered in waves: schoolchildren with curious eyes, farmers with measured questions, executives with business cards ready, innovators with prototypes in hand, ministers in brisk motion, and young dreamers searching for a place to begin.
In a fair known for engines, machinery and commerce, this became a stand built around something older and more urgent than trade — the simple dignity of a full plate.
And by the time the fair closed, the pavilion had already earned its applause, taking first prize in the International Organisation category.
For seven days, the space carried uncommon energy.
It brought together the World Food Programme, private companies, researchers, financial institutions and development partners under one roof, all circling one enduring question: how does a nation feed itself well, sustainably and with dignity?
At many exhibitions, stands become islands of brochures, rehearsed smiles and passing footsteps.
Here, there was movement, conversation and intent.
At one table, climate-smart agriculture technologies drew crowds keen to understand how farming can survive the moods of a changing climate.
At another, digital finance systems showed how farmers might reach markets faster, receive payments easier and borrow smarter.
Nearby, nutrition products and food processors invited visitors to imagine a food economy where what is eaten is as important as how much is grown.
Even toddlers found their own doorway into the conversation.
Small hands reached for toy replicas of WFP long-haul food aid trucks, branded in miniature and rolling across the floor in playful loops.
While adults discussed policy, logistics and markets, children pushed little symbols of relief and resilience through their own imagined landscapes.
It was a reminder that the fight against hunger belongs to every generation.
The lesson echoed through the hall: hunger is not only about crops in the field.
It is about roads, storage, money, jobs, knowledge, markets and resilience.
WFP Zimbabwe country director Barbara Clemens captured that wider truth during the Youth Business Empowerment Forum held on the sidelines of ZITF.
“Hunger is not only about the absence of food; it is also about the absence of income, decent work, and access to markets,” she said.
Those words seemed to linger in the air of the pavilion itself.
Then there was the corner where words became signatures.
Marked boldly as the Pledge Corner, it invited visitors to do more than admire displays.
Here, pens waited beside a simple challenge:
Ink it. Own it. Act on it.
At the Zero Hunger Pavilion, intention was being asked to put its name on paper.
Signatures spread across the board like a public covenant — promises made in ink to the cause of ending hunger.
Among those who added their names were Tino Machakaire and Mthuli Ncube, joining scores of other visitors who stopped to leave their mark.
When an idea meets paper, it stops floating and starts marching.
Among the stories that gave the stand its heartbeat was that of Phathisani Mvundla, a Mzilikazi-born entrepreneur who once benefited from a WFP programme during the Covid-19 period and now runs a hydroponics enterprise.
Standing beside his display, he spoke not like a former beneficiary, but like a builder.
“WFP changed my life,” he said.
“I am running my own business. I never imagined I would one day be on an international stage like ZITF, showcasing how I recycle plastic to make hydroponics systems.”
There, in one sentence, was the arc of modern development: from assistance to agency, from receiving to creating, from surviving to shaping.
Around him, young Zimbabweans moved through the pavilion in clusters — asking questions, taking pictures, studying displays, imagining futures.
In a country whose greatest resource may well be its youth, the stand often felt less like an exhibition and more like a rehearsal for tomorrow.
Its top award recognised presentation, but it also reflected something deeper: a hunger for practical ideas, for spaces where policy shakes hands with possibility.
Receiving the honour, Barbara Clemens said the recognition must inspire more action.
“This recognition serves not as a conclusion, but as a call to action — to translate commitments into impact and ensure that no one is left behind.”
Outside Hall 1, ZITF has now gone quiet.
The engines have cooled. The traders have packed away. The footsteps have faded.
But inside memory, beneath the golden glow of those three large words, another trade continues: the exchange of hope for strategy, ideas for partnerships, ambition for action.
The banners may have come down.
Yet one question has left Hall 1 with every visitor:
When the fairgrounds fall silent, how much of what was imagined beneath the words Zero Hunger Pavilion will reach the field, the market and the family table?
