[{"bbox": [81, 152, 1121, 313], "category": "Text", "text": "from a better organised market. Demonstration plots and farms, agro-processing facilities and technical support/extension services are required. The expansion of traditional crops must convince seed producers to invest in improved seed selection based on traditional seeds to allow their business to be profitable. The action will also consider farmer-based seed selection processes. Support may also be provided to local production of bio-based agro-inputs, as shown by successful experience in the region. Synergies with agricultural research and learning from experience from other countries such as India (the world's main producer of millet) will be essential."}, {"bbox": [81, 323, 1121, 458], "category": "Text", "text": "In this context, environmental and biodiversity protection is an induced area of attention under this action by promoting agroforestry management, diversification of products/crops and by addressing aspects such as soil cover, soil fertility and pests/diseases, adoption of less soil depleting crops, organic fertilizer use and reducing land degradation, as well as integrated water resources management. Agro-ecological approaches have a lot to offer in this regard."}, {"bbox": [81, 473, 1115, 502], "category": "Section-header", "text": "*Supporting private sector investment in renewable energy mainly for, but not limited to value-chain development*"}, {"bbox": [81, 512, 1121, 753], "category": "Text", "text": "Sustainable energy is a key enabler of sustainable development for all countries and all people and access to electricity is a major constraint in Zimbabwe due to lack of reliable and stable power supply. The power shortages have had a significant impact on the agriculture sector. Farmers, including those in the horticulture and traditional grains value chains, have been facing difficulties in keeping their water irrigation systems operational, running agro-processing machinery and cold store facilities, leading to increasing production costs as they explore alternative power sources (generators). As the agriculture sector is a major source of employment and a large contributor to GDP, renewable energy is crucial to unlock the sector's potential and is a fundamental enabler to achieving food security. Distributed energy has the potential to ensuring reliable access to energy, offering an opportunity to decarbonise the electricity grid and improve resilience."}, {"bbox": [81, 763, 1121, 872], "category": "Text", "text": "While the Government has recently improved conditions for independent power producers, perceived risks remain high and very few financing institutions (local banks or international development banks) are willing to support private investments in renewable energy. Although renewable energy is the main focus of the EFSD+ guarantees provision under the MIP, no guarantee has materialised yet largely due to challenges in the operating environment."}, {"bbox": [81, 882, 1121, 1069], "category": "Text", "text": "In order to facilitate an enabling framework for electricity access and links between investors and financing institutions in renewable energy, the present Action foresees a provision of technical assistance in this regard through the GET.pro country window (under the overall EU-funded Global Energy Transformation Programme (Get-Pro) facility). GET.pro focuses on opportunities that have strong alignment with EU Action Documents and as such will aim to facilitate investment in renewable energy for greener and climate smart agriculture (an EU priority area under green economic growth), in this case with a focus on (but not limited to) the horticulture and traditional grains value chains."}, {"bbox": [81, 1080, 1121, 1241], "category": "Text", "text": "Get.pro has two instruments: Get.invest (facilitate access to support and financing instruments for green energy) and Get transform (technical assistance for regulatory and policy transformation in the energy sector). Get-Pro is jointly funded by the EU, Germany, Netherlands, Austria and Sweden and a country window therefore sets feet on the ground of this EU joint initiative. As tangible results on this intervention will not be realised in the short-term, limited grants for renewable energy need to be provided for facilities along the selected farming areas/hubs where they are catalytic and essential for aggregation and processing in the selected value-chains."}, {"bbox": [81, 1256, 419, 1284], "category": "Section-header", "text": "*Gender equality and women's rights*"}, {"bbox": [81, 1294, 1121, 1562], "category": "Text", "text": "Several challenges still underpin progress towards women economic empowerment namely: dominance of the informal economy and its associated decent work deficits that include lack of social security, limited formalisation from informal to formal economy and the associated, overrepresentation in vulnerable employment and the existing gender-pay gaps, limited financial inclusion, limited ICTs usage, dominance in subsistence agriculture with limited support mechanisms, limited access to and ownership of critical economic resources especially in agriculture, limited participation in technological innovations, structural and material inequalities, among others. Regarding ownership of agricultural land women still lack equal ownership or title to the land¹. Women constitute 61 percent of farmers and 70 percent of the overall agricultural workforce mainly as unpaid family workers. In addition, climate stressors affect agriculture and food and nutrition security, disproportionately affecting women and girls."}, {"bbox": [100, 1608, 662, 1632], "category": "Footnote", "text": "¹ Gender Country Profile – African Development Bank Group/UN Women"}, {"bbox": [601, 1639, 614, 1661], "category": "Page-footer", "text": "8"}]