Accelerating Sustainable and Climate Resilient Livelihoods through development of Small and Medium Agribusiness Enterprises for Women and Youth in Zimbabwe (Platform)
This programme is funded by Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) and implemented by UNITAR. The beneficiaries of this programme are women and youth from ZIMBABWE who are based in the country.
In many African communities, agriculture is one of the key activities for income and livelihood, however it has been enormously impacted not only by the pandemic but also the energy and food crisis, climate change, and increasing frequency of extreme weather events. Over time, these issues can be detrimental to economic growth.
This potential economic instability has devastating impacts for women and youth, who make up the vast majority of those worst affected. The large numbers of female-headed households in vulnerable settings are especially exposed to economic shocks as they are mostly disadvantaged in terms of access to land, labour, credit, livelihood opportunities, and infrastructure.
Accelerating sustainable and climate resilient livelihoods through development of small and medium agribusiness enterprises for women and youth will provide direct impact on the ground and support urgently needed livelihood opportunities that will also address extreme poverty and recurring food insecurity.
UNITAR and the programme donor the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) recognize the need for capacity development and the importance of SME and entrepreneurship development including the role of frontier technologies in the region to support inclusive and sustainable development.
This programme also aims to strengthen the on-going efforts by BADEA in the region by supporting the specific priority needs of governments across different sectors with special focus on agriculture and boosting livelihood opportunities through SME development.
The programme aims to inspire, empower and build capacities of women and youth in Zimbabwe to boost their individual and collective resilience to launch viable livelihood activity that would allow them to be self-sufficient and constructively contribute to their communities.
Phase 1 Training on Agribusiness Opportunities and SME Development Learning Objectives:
- Evaluate national and local livelihood and small business outlook in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Climate Change, and National Development Plans.
- Outline existing opportunities and challenges and the role of digital technologies in key economic sectors including agriculture.
- Identify business opportunities responding to COVID-19 crisis and extreme weather events based on local context and conditions.
- Formulate a business model integrating identified opportunities and digital technologies.
Phase 2 Training on SME start-up/expansion Learning Objectives:
- Design strategies for pursuing, exploiting and further developing livelihood and business opportunities.
- Apply effective small business practices to dynamic entrepreneurial contexts.
- Apply impactful communication techniques with stakeholders, support group, and potential partners.
- Consider social, economic, and environmental issues and responsibilities in livelihood and SME decisions.
The Training content will be developed based on specific needs of the learners from Zimbabwe.
The programme offers incremental learning journey from theoretical to applied phases of livelihood and SME development. Phase two of the programme provides practical and rigorous exercises in SME risk mitigation and start-up activities through guidance from experienced Coaches and successful entrepreneurs. The programme will use a mix of asynchronous online and face-to-face training methodologies to optimize learning and outreach.
The main beneficiaries of this programme are women and youth who are currently engaged or plan to engage in farming, agribusiness, small business, or entrepreneurship activity in Zimbabwe.
Participants will be selected based on the following criteria:
- Ability to communicate in English (ideally with college degree or equivalent and computer literate).
- Passionate to succeed and provide positive impact to their community.
- Geographical representation within the country.
- Recommendation letter from individual with verifiable credentials.
- Commitment to complete the programme.
- 50 beneficiaries will be selected through interview.