‘Zimbabwe govt wants to replicate Sewa Bank model’

What do you want to achieve by emulating SEWA?
Khumpe: The growth rate of Zimbabwean economy has been in negative zone for quite some time now. Businesses and industries have broken down. But Zimbabwean women are very accountable,reliable and honest. They are helping to revive the economy big time but as they are unorganised,they don’t get their due.
I want them to own businesses. I want them to own productive assets. Only one per cent of assets in Zimbabwe are owned by women. This is very low compared to the hard work they are putting in.

Why have you decided to emulate SEWA only?
Khumpe: We have studied different models of micro finance in Malayasia. We have also studied the Bangladesh model,which is based on SEWA. We found that SEWA is the best among all. Majority of women associated with SEWA used to live in huts. Now,they own their own houses. They are putting these homes to productive use. SEWA is brilliant.

What type of help are you looking forward from SEWA?
Khumpe: We look forward to SEWA to provide organisational expertise,training for members,and capacity building. We look forward to SEWA to help us identify areas in our country that can be explored for business. We will be inviting experts and SEWA members to study the scope of our activities.

Will the political situation that prevails in Zimbabwe permit your variant of SEWA to be successful?
Khumpe:The situation is normalising very rapidly. As the Deputy Prime Minister and Minster of Women Affairs,I myself shall be overseeing the implementation of the project and see to it that women of Zimbabwe are economically empowered.

Are there any co-operatives active in your country?
Khumpe: At present,there is none. We had our co-operatives functioning in 1980s. But they didn’t prove very successful. They have all been defunct.

Do you have any plans to introduce cooperative and micro finance activities in your educational system?
Khumpe: Yes,we have plans to introduce programmes based on SEWA model in Zimbabwe Women’s University. We want this model to be understood in a holistic manner. So,we will incorporate this model in different ways in curricula at different levels of education.