adminAshley Mujoma
WOMEN’S Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Minister, Sithembiso Nyoni, has urged women to strive to rise above expectations and achieve the best in life.
She made the call yesterday while welcoming a delegation from the Malawi Women’s Parliamentary Caucus.
The delegation is in the country on a leadership exchange programme up to February 11.
Minister Nyoni said women suffer the most and take more risks in life.
“Women face many challenges in everyday life since they need to strike a balance between their multiple roles as mothers, wives, leaders and professionals and this presents a great challenge for them.
“Women often have very limited time for accomplishing their roles. For example, some women often pull out of decision-making positions because of politically motivated gender-based violence,” she said.
She said some women in Zimbabwe are involved in so many developmental and income generating activities with the goal of promoting economic independence and food self-sufficiency for the household.
“l am happy because some women are rising above expectations and some of the projects they are doing include value addition, manufacturing, agriculture as well as retail business.
“While women leaders work very hard within their constituencies to support fellow women and communities, they continue to face a myriad of challenges, among which are lack of financial resources to effectively support the projects they would have initiated,” said Minister Nyoni.
She also said Zimbabwe is making strides to promote the 50/50 participation of women in decision making.
“We are also going to launch the Strategy for Women in Leadership and Decision-Making Positions.
“This strategy document provides the strategic interventions for achieving gender equality in decision making positions in the public and private sectors.
“It seeks to ensure that both women and men are equally represented in decision-making.”
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter