Women Empowerment: Interrogating the Effectiveness of The GWAPA Small Business Development Projects Poverty Alleviation Programme in Zimbabwe

This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of the GWAPA single mothers poverty alleviation programme. Three hundred and seventy five of the 1756 GWAPA single women members were used as questionnaire respondents, and 3 management employees were sampled for the interviews. Descriptive survey and qualitative participatory approaches were used as the main research methodologies. The study established that families headed by women are on average poorer than those headed by men; GWAPA single mothers have work overload especially considering that as women they shoulder the biggest chunk of the family responsibilities; and most of the GWAPA projects which started well were now suffocating under the current economic hardships. Main challenges faced by GWAPA include the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the limited educational levels among its members, members‟ limited access to resources, community cultural biases and negative attitudes towards single mothers and commercial sex workers, among other challenges. The study recommends involvement of GWAPA members‟ opposite sex partners as affiliates, intensive public campaigns, lobbying and advocacy to remove the stigma and negative attitudes towards single mothers and commercial sex workers, improving infrastructure and the GWAPA Farm operations, engaging long term facilitators, certification after attending training programmes, excelling awards, present manuals in mother languages, and alternative fundraising strategies. The government and municipalities are encouraged to invest more in the small enterprise sector as it has proven to have the capability to create employment and develop communities by mobilizing the grassroots.