Dialogue on Shelter recently conducted a workshop focused on greening businesses for youth entrepreneurs living in informal settlements in Harare. Youth from Hatclife and Epworth participated The workshop had several key objectives:

- Identifying opportunities to integrate green components into existing business enterprises.
- Informing the process of co-designing, developing, and implementing strategies for green practices.
- Enhancing the understanding of climate change issues within the business context among youth.
- Building the capacity of young entrepreneurs to adopt and implement green practices.

Youth businesses play a crucial role in economic development and innovation. Through the SAIC project funded by Plan International, Dialogue on Shelter is driving Outcome 3, which centers on youth economic empowerment. This project not only emphasizes financial success but also focuses on ensuring that youth-led businesses are sustainable and environmentally friendly, which is vital for long-term growth and ecological balance. The primary goal for Outcome 3 is to ensure that “Young women and men are empowered through decent income opportunities.”

This workshop marks a significant step towards embedding sustainability and environmental considerations into youth businesses. Discussions covered green practices, promoting eco-friendly business models, and ensuring that young entrepreneurs adopt practices that minimize adverse environmental impacts.

The essence of a strategic plan (SP) is to provide some compass that directs organizational  programming through setting goals and communicating how these will be achieved during a defined period. The alliance of Dialogue on Shelter Trust, Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation and the Zimbabwe Young People’s Federation recently finalized the process of developing its strategic plan which will guide its actions in the next 5 years. 

The concluded strategic plan supersedes the previous one which covered the period 2018 to 2022. The process of framing the new SP commenced late last year with an internal review of the expired plan. The alliance partners convened in Harare and achievements under each thematic pillar were outlined. Learnings from the previous SP were also harvested with a view to inform the next phase. 

A follow-up session was then held supported by a consultant which specifically focused on producing the new SP. The exercise culminated in a document consisting with 7 thematic pillars which was presented to the Dialogue on Shelter Trust Board for strategic inputs and subsequent adoption. Moving forward, the plan is periodically review progress on the targets set and also continuously align the SP with the wider macro-socio-economic environment.

Below are the SP’s 7 themes that will guide the alliance’s programming agenda; 

1. Organized and resilient communities
2. Research, documentation and advocacy
3. Infrastructural development
4. Land and tenure security 
5. Climate change actions and disaster responses
6. Youth inclusion and development
7. Institutional development

 The African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC) will be soon transitioning into the implementation phase after one of the city’s proposal made it into the practical phase. Harare is among 4 other cities that succeeded to proceed into the next stage. ACRC is an action research initiative whose foundation phase comprised of 13 African Cities including Harare. The research aims to evidence and insights that will help improve conditions in cities. During the foundation phase, evidence gathering was conducted in the different cities focusing on a range of domains while deploying 2 conceptual frameworks namely political settlement analysis and city of systems. In Harare, four domains were investigated namely; Neighborhood and District Economic Development, Land and Connectivity, Structural Transformation and Informal Settlement. Besides data collection, the foundation phase also entailed engagements with different stakeholders under the “uptake pillar”. The latter sought, among other objectives, to position and connect the research with appropriate individuals and institutional entities for influencing both urban policies and practice. Multiple uptake sessions were conducted bringing together different actors especially the City of Harare authorities.

The pilot phase in Harare will see the implementation of an intervention proposed by the Neighborhood and District Economic Development (NDED) domain. Under the pilot, whose site is the Glen View 8 Furniture Complex (GV8FC), the main objectives are, among others, to identify; priorities for the GV8FC operators and the ideal conditions that would catalyse enhanced growth. In terms of the specific interventions, the pilot will undertake software investments that are set to prepare the ground for wider roll-out phase. Under the latter, the aim would be to scale the pilot.  Examples of the software interventions will include preparation and securing approval for requisite spatial designs and plans detailing the required hardware investments. Lastly, Lastly, engagements for getting political buy-in will also be an integral part of work set for the pilot phase.