UPR Sexual Rights Database

National Report:
Para 101) In 2020, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Corporation (SMEDCO) disbursed ZWL$$83,800,000 to 219 small and medium enterprises (SMEs), of which ZWL$69,261,172 was disbursed to projects affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. A total of 957 jobs were sustained and 360 jobs were created. The gender composition of SME projects supported is shown in Annexure Fig 7.
Para 102) The GoZ funds the Women’s Development Fund, whose purpose is to provide loans to women’s groups without collateral. In 2020, 40 projects in 6 of the 10 provinces of the country were funded62. ZWL$10,050,000 was loaned to 200 women who are in the agriculture, mining, manufacturing, tourism and retailing sectors.
Para 108) When looking at the participation of women in the labour force, the 2019 Labour Force and Child Labour Survey estimated that there were overall employment and unemployment rates of 84% and 16% respectively. Amongst those who were employed, 57% were male and 43% were female. The unemployment rate for females was slightly higher than for males, with females at 17.2% and males at 15.7%. There was also a wide disparity on the Employment to Population Ratio (EPR). The EPR among the male population was 44.4% whilst for females it was 28.5%. Among people who were employed at management level in the country, the proportion of women was 33.7%. This is a notable increase when compared to the 27.9% which was found by a similar survey in 2014. More information on the occupations held by women in Zimbabwe is shown in the table below.

UN Compilation:
Para 64)The United Nations country team stated that there was limited political will to implement policies that protected and empowered women. Women’s empowerment programmes were underresourced and women had limited access to finance, land and freehold property. Women had limited opportunities to influence policy and continued to face legal, cultural and patriarchal barriers.
Para 66) In 2020, the CEDAW expressed its appreciation for the recognition by Zimbabwe of Sustainable Development Goal 5, on achieving gender equality and empowering women, as a priority area within the framework of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socioeconomic Transformation.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 3) Referring to relevant supported recommendations from the previous review, ZHRC noted that: … (e) women continued to face barriers to political and private participation and remained under represented at senior and management levels, and (f) there were high incidents of violence against women and girls, which was exacerbated by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Para 15) JS5 … noted the lack of exclusive gender equality legislation.
Para 18) ADH stated that although laws on personal status matters, such as marriage and divorce, were generally equitable, customary practices placed women at a disadvantage. JS19 stated that achieving gender parity remained a challenge and that women continued to be marginalized in many contexts.
Para 31) JS1 stated that the national gender based violence response hotline and the Victim Friendly Unit in police stations lacked capacity and personnel with sufficient knowledge to support victims. Cases of gender based violence have escalated during the COVID-19 pandemic. AI stated that sexual violence was systematically perpetrated by the security forces to clamp down on the right to protest.
Para 83) JS20 stated that the COVID-19 pandemic and the general economic crisis severely impacted women and girls. Women were over represented in the informal economy and in agriculture, were among those living in poverty and those holding low paying jobs in the formal economy. ECLJ stated that in the rural regions, poor families, especially amidst the worsening poverty aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, would often forcibly marry off their daughter to receive financial compensation in the form of a “bride price” that was paid to the family by the groom.
Para 84) JS21 stated that the legislation and the policy and institutional framework that were adopted to combat gender based violence was commendable, and considered relevant supported recommendations from the previous review to have been partially implemented. JS14 stated that there was a notable lack of implementation and a general lack of awareness of the legislation on sexual and gender-based violence and domestic violence. JS19 stated that women continued to suffer all kinds of violence and that political violence against women has increased. JS21 noted that that gender based violence has worsened with the introduction of COVID-19 related lockdown measures.