Story by Yolanda Moyo
THE Second Republic’s engagement and re-engagement drive is bearing fruit, with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) set to develop a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) investor map for the country.
Sustainable Development Goals Investor Maps, a UNDP market intelligence tool, encourages private sector participation and investment in global goals by helping the private sector identify investment themes in emerging markets.
The map will serve as a critical tool for attracting foreign direct investment towards initiatives aligned with Zimbabwe’s pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals and the National Development Strategy One (NDS1).
UNDP Resident Representative in Zimbabwe, Dr Ayodele Odusola spoke on the scope of the initiative, “One of the roles of the United Nations system where we operate is to become a convener in the sense that you bring the government and the people together and also bring a country where we operate with the International community. what we intend to do is develop an SDG impact investor map for Zimbabwe, it is a kind of investment evidence-based map that provides investment opportunity in Zimbabwe so that it helps us to promote and market investment potential in Zimbabwe. We strongly believe there are so many assets that Zimbabwe has that the rest of the whole needs, the government and the people will have to work with the rest of the world to achieve what is articulated in the NDS1. ”
Permanent Secretary for Presidential Affairs in the Office of the President and Cabinet, Engineer Tafadzwa Muguti highlighted the importance of development partners in bolstering Zimbabwe’s social infrastructure, which is vital for inclusive and sustainable growth.
“The re-engagement efforts that H.E President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been driving is what has made us realise today the development partners that we are working with. At this moment Zimbabwe has many development partners. The focus is to rebuild all the projects that were stalled when the illegal sanctions were imposed on Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has been left behind in the last number of years, just in five years we have already leapfrogged several countries in the region in terms of social infrastructure in terms of economic infrastructure and at the same time to be able to benefit our endowments. The areas that we have decided to work with our development partners is in social infrastructure and currently Zimbabwe has the largest solar to health infrastructure in the whole being implemented by the UNDP,” he said.
The development of the SDG investor map is targeted to create jobs, improve livelihoods, and build a more prosperous and sustainable future for all Zimbabweans.
