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Business Reporter
Zimbabwe has scored high on a global talent index that measures initiatives for the economic empowerment of women and promotion of gender parity in high-skilled jobs conducted by a European academic institution.
In its 2022 Global Talent Competitiveness Index, INSEAD rated Zimbabwe high in the workforce with secondary education, the relevance of the education system to the economy, and high skills matching.
The Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2022, created by INSEAD in partnership with the Adecco Group and Tata Communications is aimed at providing governments and businesses distilled data to inform their talent policy and strategy decisions.
The report evaluates countries based on six key pillars: enable, attract, grow, retain, vocational and technical skills, and global knowledge skills. African countries perform relatively better in the vocational and technical skills pillars but lower in the others.
The report is a comprehensive annual benchmarking report that measures how countries and cities grow, attract and retain talent. It provides a unique resource for decision-makers to understand the global talent competitiveness picture and develop strategies to boost their economies. The 2022 report covers 133 countries and 175 cities from 79 economies around the world across all income groups.
In terms of women’s empowerment, the country performed relatively better than other countries.
“As noted by the INSEAD global talent report, the Government has been coming up with initiatives to support women in business and to promote equity and inclusive growth, to ensure inclusive participation of women in the mainstream economy,” Sheila Dyara, a Harare business consultant told The Herald Finance & Business.
“We still have challenges to do with access to credit but from a policy perspective, the Government has done a commendable job in terms of economic empowerment even in marginalised areas which have been supported with farming inputs.”
The Government, through ZimTrade launched NextShe Exporter, an initiative meant to elevate women to production of goods for export markets. Since its launch in April last year, about 100 entrepreneurs have acquired export knowledge and skills.
To address funding constraints, the Government established the Zimbabwe Women Micro Finance Bank (ZWMB) to provide cheap loans for women’s led business initiatives.
A recent survey indicated that the loans obtained from ZWMB have had a very positive impact on women’s enterprises, although lack of collateral remains the biggest obstacle prohibiting women from accessing credit.
A joint report by the Portfolio Committees on Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development, and Thematic Committee on Gender and Development noted that several beneficiaries confirmed ZWMB loans boosted their businesses such as cross-border trading, chicken production, sawing, and farming.
Recently, the European Union unveiled a US$220 million empowerment grant to support women.
In a joint statement with the European Union, Women Affairs, Community, Small, and Medium Enterprises Development Minister Sithembiso Nyoni said the initiative will go a long way in promoting equality for Zimbabwean women and girls.
“The Team Europe Initiative on gender equality and women empowerment supports Zimbabwean women towards a society which is free of Gender Based Violence, where women can play an active role in their communities, in politics, and in decision-making processes. “The initiative will also mobilize financial resources to allow them to start their own businesses,” Minister Nyoni added.
The INSEAD report however ranked Zimbabwe low internationally, brain gain, tolerance of minorities, and social mobility. Zimbabwe has low scores in technology adoption, research and development expenditure, and domestic credit to the private sector. Zimbabwe has a low score in retention due to low pension coverage, limited social protection, low brain retention, low personal safety, physician density, and sanitation.
In terms of vocational and technical skills, Zimbabwe has low scores in technicians and associate professionals, a population with secondary education, and labor productivity per employee.
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