International Women’s Day:

UNOPS opens doors of opportunity to businesswomen

International Women’s Day celebration, the United Nations Office of Project Services (UNOPS) hosted a Women in Business Workshop on Friday 6 March at the New Ambassador Hotel in Harare.

The seminar gave participants a unique opportunity to learn how to do business with UNOPS and join the pool of service providers who are lending support to the Zimbabwe Idai Recovery Project (ZIRP), funded by the World Bank, and the Post Cyclone Idai Emergency Recovery and Resilience Project (PCIREP), funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB.)

In attendance were representatives of the Women Engineers Association, the Women Lawyers’ Association, PROWEB, Chartered Professionals and a broad spectrum of female entrepreneurs who filled the 100-seater room to capacity. Participants were treated to a special International Women’s Day video recorded by UNOPS’ Under Secretary-General and Executive Director, Grete Faremo in which she reinforced UNOPS’s commitment to building infrastructure that considers the needs of all, “We know through our focus at UNOPS, that the infrastructure around us is often gender blind. Built without considering the needs of women. The infrastructure around them simply lets them down. It’s built with the needs of able-bodied men in mind.”

Faremo added, “At UNOPS we put gender equality at the centre of our work. We work hard to not just improve the lives of women and girls around the world through our projects, but also to challenge stereotypes and broaden perceptions. As we continue our journey towards gender parity, we aim to reach gender parity among UNOPS personnel by the end of 2020.”

As an extension of the organisation’s policy to promote a gender-equal world, the training was facilitated by UNOPS Zimbabwe female staff, Aminath Nawal- Support Services Manager, Zaina Kadah- Procurement Specialist, Tsitsi Nyoni- Procurement Associate and Oglive Chigwada- Administrative Assistant.

In addition to imparting insights into doing business with UNOPS, the key outcome of this workshop is a greater awareness by UNOPS of the female-led enterprises and female entrepreneurs in the local marketplace. Collaborating with the private sector, for greater efficiency and impact means UNOPS’ mission, to help people build better lives and countries