High-Level SDG Checkpoint Puts Inclusion at the Centre of Zimbabwe–UN Partnership

In a packed conference room at Monomotapa Hotel, more than 150 delegates from Government, the UN, Development Partners, business, civil society, NGOs, Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs), youth and women’s groups, and the media met for a High-Level Joint SDGs and Zimbabwe UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (ZUNSDCF) Steering Committee session.                                         

It was both a stock take and a reality check as Zimbabwe accelerates progress towards its national Vision 2030 and the SDGs. The day was marked by discussions on numbers, reforms, and financing, but the central message was delivered through the voices of young people and persons with disabilities. Development that does not deliberately include them is, they insisted, simply not development.

“Leaving No One and No Place Behind” in Practice 

Delivering the keynote address, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Dr. Martin Rushwaya, firmly situated the UN partnership within the Second Republic’s vision.

“Our cooperation remains firmly anchored in the visionary leadership of His Excellency, the President, Dr. Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa,” he said. “His philosophy of ‘Leaving No One and No Place Behind’ is the moral and operational compass of the Second Republic.”

He stressed that the ZUNSDCF is “a coherent, adaptive, and systems-based response” aligned to Zimbabwe’s development trajectory as the country moves “toward the culmination of Vision 2030,” not a loose set of projects.

Thanking the UN and development partners, he noted: “Your contribution to the over 54% of delivery achieved through joint programmes is a testament to the power of pooled financing and a shared developmental vision.”

Measurable Gains – and Structural Gaps

Dr. Rushwaya highlighted concrete gains achieved in 2025:

• In health, “Essential service coverage reached an impressive 99%, a significant leap from 93% in 2022,” he said.
• On Social Protection, in response to the El Niño–induced drought, “we successfully scaled coverage to 76% of the extreme poor, ensuring a resilient safety net during climate shocks.”
• In education, Zimbabwe “achieved vital milestones in primary and secondary school enrollment, marking a robust recovery for our human capital.”

To sustain progress, he underscored the Government’s performance culture, “We have fully embraced performance contracting and awards to enhance accountability across all tiers of public administration… We expect our partnership with the United Nations to reflect this same rigor, ensuring that every joint initiative is backed by clear ownership, transparent reporting, and measurable impact on the ground.”

He was equally candid about remaining structural challenges:

1. “Financing remains heavily skewed toward the ‘People’ pillar,” he cautioned. To succeed under NDS2, focus must shift toward “Prosperity and Peace, prioritizing structural transformation, aggressive industrialization, and value addition.”
2. “Despite a 6.6% growth rate in 2025, our economy faces persistent headwinds from unsustainable public debt and high informality. Our next steps must focus on formalization and fiscal sustainability.”
3. “We must bridge the urban–rural divide,” he said. Urban water access stands at 93%, while rural access is 48%. “Closing this gap is a non-negotiable priority for NDS2 to ensure we truly ‘leave no place behind’.”

From Planning to Precision Delivery 

As Zimbabwe moves from NDS1 (2021–2025) to NDS2 (2026–2030), Dr. Rushwaya stressed that “the success of NDS2 hinges on our ability to move beyond planning into precise execution and measurement.” Reforms include:

• A National KPI Handbook as “a single source of truth for all sectors.”
• “Robust data management protocols to ensure the integrity of our progress reports.”
• Streamlined “high-impact, high-level KPIs” to focus on critical levers of performance.

He commended the RRI 100 Day Cycle NDS2 Alignment Workshop as “instrumental in ensuring the immediate acceleration of government programmes and projects.”

Looking to the next ZUNSDCF cycle (2027–2031), he noted that Stakeholder Validation of the Country Analysis “ensures that our next five-year plan is rooted in evidence and inclusive of all voices—from the private sector to civil society.” The new Cooperation Framework, he said, will be the primary vehicle to support NDS2, “focusing on building a shock-responsive economy and strengthening our national institutions.”

“Our task today is not merely a technical exercise; it is a strategic opportunity to shape the future of our nation,” he concluded.

UN Resident Coordinator Bows Out – and Looks Ahead 

UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Mr. Edward Kallon, used the meeting to signal winding down of his distinguished UN career. “This will be my last meeting of this Steering Committee, as I prepare to retire after a 35-year journey in serving humanity across four continents,” he said.

“It has been a real honour and privilege to work with you since 2022,” he added, recalling joint achievements including the COVID-19 and cholera responses – “culminating in Zimbabwe being declared cholera free by WHO” – recovery from Cyclone Idai, the “peaceful national harmonized elections in 2023,” and “effective national response to the El Niño–induced worst drought in 40 years.”

A World of Shrinking ODA – and Rising Expectations 

Mr. Kallon situated 2025 within a difficult global context: “We are now entering the last five years to 2030. Globally, only a small share of SDG targets are on track. Many indicators have stalled or even reversed, driven by cascading crises… and tightening global financial conditions.”

“Traditional ODA is stagnating or declining in real terms,” he warned, as humanitarian demands and domestic pressures in donor countries squeeze long-term development financing. This “compels us to be more strategic, more catalytic, and more innovative in how we mobilize, blend, and deploy resources.”

Yet 2025 was also “a year of renewal for the multilateral system,” he said, with UN80 marking a moment “to renew our commitment to multilateralism, to the UN Charter, and to accelerate SDG delivery.” Under the UN 2.0 agenda, the UN system is reconfiguring around a “quintet of change” - data and analytics, innovation, strategic foresight, digital transformation and behavioral science.

“For the Cooperation Framework, this translates into moving from fragmented, stand-alone projects to integrated, evidence-driven solutions,” he explained. In Zimbabwe this will mean:

1. A new Cooperation Framework (2027–2031) “fully aligned with NDS2 and explicitly mapped to the SDG targets.”
2. Concentrating finite resources on “high-impact, scalable interventions, underpinned by innovation, data, digital solutions, and new forms of finance.”
3. Treating the Cooperation Framework as “a joint commitment” whose success depends on transparent measurement, timely course corrections, and “a sustained focus on the most vulnerable.”

Reviewing ZUNSDCF’s fourth year, he said it has become “one of the country’s principal partnership and financing platform for the SDGs.” Since 2022, “the UN and its partners have mobilized approximately US$ 2 billion of the US$ 2.8 billion planned for the five-year period.” In 2025 alone, over US$ 288.5 million was mobilized, with “more than 54% of these resources… delivered through joint programmes and joint initiatives,” surpassing the global 30% benchmark.

Noting efficiency gains, Mr. Kallon said, “under the Business Operations Strategy, the UN Country Team achieved US$ 1.1 million in cost avoidance in 2025 alone, bringing total cost avoidance over 2020–2025 to US$ 7.8 million – exceeding the originally planned five-year target of US$ 7.2 million.”

But high public debt and arrears, “negative perceptions affecting the civic space and investment environment,” and “a large informal economy that constrains domestic revenue mobilization” continue to shape the financing landscape. These challenges, he argued, increase the urgency of “diversifying development finance beyond ODA,” scaling pooled funding, and “protecting investments in social sectors to ensure that no one is left behind.”

“Our shared task,” he said, “is to… mobilize, align and use resources even more effectively in support of a just, green, inclusive, and prosperous Zimbabwe by 2030.”

Disability rights move from margin to mainstream

For OPDs, the meeting showed that disability is now central to planning. “The Government of Zimbabwe and the United Nations are prioritizing people with disabilities in development discussions,” said Suzgo Mumba of NASCOH. Disability is integrated as a cross-cutting issue in the National Development Strategy and the Blue Bridge economic blueprint, he noted, compelling government to “mainstream disability inclusion across all sectors.”

Mumba welcomed OPDs’ participation in the national disability policy and urged enactment of “a new disability law incorporating the Disability Convention and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act,” backed by resources at national and local levels. He called on the private sector to support economic empowerment and “the launch of the local chapter of the Business and Disability Network.”

Samantha Sibanda of NASCOH highlighted the role of the Global Disability Fund in supporting inclusive laws and “significant grassroots engagement.” She thanked the UN for “leadership and assistance” in establishing provincial and national technical committees and working with district authorities, so people know “their rights and abilities.”

Young people claim their seat at the table

Youth representatives showed how commitments are reshaping lives. “The country has done well on HIV testing coverage,” said Ziphozenkosi Ndlovu, National Facilitator of the Young Peoples Network on Health and Wellbeing. “Zimbabwe has made significant progress in controlling HIV, with 95% of those living with it knowing their status… and 95% of those are on treatment and 95% of those with successful suppressed viral load.”

Ndlovu credited Youth Desks in all ministries for fostering “active and meaningful participation,” and applauded UN and Government support that enabled youth to actively participate in the development and evaluation of NDS1 and the formulation of NDS2.

On SRHR, Ndlovu noted government commitments to provide menstrual hygiene commodities to girls and young women and the expansion of youth-friendly SRHR services. UN-financed programme has strengthened Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE), “In Zimbabwe, comprehensive sexuality education is now being delivered throughout all school subjects… compulsory from all levels, from early years to upper six… We see that as an achievement.”

Junior MP Comfort Shutu highlighted climate-smart agriculture through the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme, which has introduced drought-resilient crops “to many communities… boosting food security.” Droughts and food insecurity “particularly affect children,” Shutu reminded participants, stressing their “right to food.”

Shutu welcomed the annual national tree planting programme and youth-led disaster risk reduction groups in disadvantaged communities. Shutu pointed to Zimbabwe’s Nationally Determined Contribution and declarations on children and youth as ensuring that “young people and children are now central to decision making” on climate.

Skills, Innovation and Child Protection 

Youth human rights advocate, Nyasha Mafuta, focused on education reforms and digital skills aligned to “a more practical curriculum” for a globalized world. “The introduction of innovation hubs and industrial parks… in universities like the University of Zimbabwe and Midlands State University, fosters innovation and entrepreneurship, which is in line with Vision 2030,” Mafuta said.

Mafuta welcomed project-based learning, the “recent launch of the national AI strategy,” and provision of ICT gadgets and solarized schools supported by the UN and the Ministry of ICT. Mafuta emphasized that menstrual health measures – including the removal of taxes on menstrual products and “the take back programme” – are enabling girls to stay in class.

On child protection, Mafuta cited the new Marriage Act, “which set the age at 18 years, with anyone marrying below this age subject to prosecution,” and the Data and Cybersecurity Protection Act to protect children from online abuse. She also noted efforts to address drug and substance abuse through national guidelines and “one stop centers” bringing together key sectors.

Working with the UN, Government has expanded mobile registration, enabling many children to obtain birth certificates - “This helps children with access to write exams, participate in civic exercises and enjoy their rights.” Child-sensitive justice reforms, she added, aim to ensure “children are given a second chance so that they are not branded criminals at an early age.”

A moment of convergence – and shared accountability

As the meeting closed, speakers agreed that the Zimbabwe–UN partnership will be judged by whether rural communities, women, youth and persons with disabilities feel real change.

“Let us… renew our shared resolve to deliver a Cooperation Framework that brings tangible, measurable improvements to the lives of all people in Zimbabwe – leaving no one and no place behind,” urged Mr. Kallon.

For Dr. Rushwaya, the answer lies in governance discipline. He said, “By rewarding excellence and addressing underperformance, we are transforming the public service into a results-driven machine.” The expectation is that the same rigor will guide how every dollar for the SDGs is spent.

From the perspectives of youth and persons with disabilities, inclusion must be hard-wired into laws, budgets, data systems, school timetables, clinic opening hours and climate plans. Only then, they insisted, will the pledge to “leave no one and no place behind” become a lived reality.