Story by Josephine Mugiyo, Diplomatic Correspondent
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is in Qatar for the Second World Summit on Social Development, says sustainable development cannot thrive in an unequal global order.
Conversations at the Summit remain primarily centred on ensuring poverty eradication and ensuring equality in the provision of opportunities for all.
On the global stage, President Mnangagwa called for reforms in funding models and fulfilment of development assistance commitments.
“Sustainable development cannot thrive in an unequal global order. Zimbabwe therefore calls for, reform of global financial and trade systems to promote fairness and inclusion, fulfilment of official development assistance commitments, recognition of Africa’s special circumstances and Total removal of unilateral coercive measures, which undermine development and violate international law. These align with Zimbabwe’s foreign policy principles and our commitment to Agenda 2063 and the 2030 agenda for sustainable development,” he said.
President Mnangagwa also spoke on the Zimbabwean government’s efforts in ensuring gender parity.
“Through our Heritage-based Education 5.0 model, we are promoting innovation and entrepreneurship, while the women’s bank and youth empowerment bank provide concessional finance. Women now hold leadership roles in every sector of society, reflecting progress toward gender parity.”
A number of government and private sector officials are representing Zimbabwe at the summit, as they attend to various seminars being held.
Under social development, ensuring equal opportunities for people with disabilities is key and Zimbabwe’s Special Advisor to the President on Disability Issues, Honourable Rose Mpofu, who is attending the summit, spoke on the various initiatives being done back home to ensure equality.
“When I was listening during the session being held here, I realised that as Zimbabwe, we are doing well in terms of taking care of people living with disabilities. People like me are here today in Qatar to attend this summit. The President is also making key appointments, picking from among people living with disabilities and we are grateful for that.”
Cooperatives have been identified as key in poverty eradication and the United Nations has declared 2025 as the year of cooperatives.
Zimbabwe’s Minister of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises, Honourable Monica Mutsvangwa, noted how Zimbabwe has managed to improve livelihoods through harnessing cooperatives.
“Cooperatives are playing a critical role in eradicating poverty because when we look at women in the rural areas, they are thriving through those cooperatives. The cooperatives in our country are viable, that is why we were invited here to speak on cooperatives,” she said.
Education remains a right for every Zimbabwean and government back home is well aware of that.
The Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Honourable Edgar Moyo, outlined how programmes like the Basic Education Assistance Model have kept thousands of children in school, socially protecting the vulnerable group.
“We have about 1.5 million people who are under BEAM, the impact is huge; otherwise, quite a high percentage of children will be out of school. At one time, a lot of children were out of school and the government took them up.”
Meanwhile, President Mnangagwa has met with Mr Mahalanobis Shubhojit, the founder of Delta Green Global, an organisation whose main business is centred on providing green energy solutions.
The prospective investor has interests in investing in solar fields and the tourism sector.
“I met the President, and he was kind enough to give me his time. We are exploring good opportunities to bring in technology related to green energy to Zimbabwe, plus lots of other infrastructure development projects. It was a productive meeting, hopefully, we will meet again. We are interested in the Zimbabwe tourism industry. Recently, we read that Zimbabwe is the world’s best destination for tourists. We are planning to invest in solar farms. We are still in the initial stages,” he said.
The Second World Summit for Social Development ends this Thursday.
