"Emerging questions from last week’s Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines’ tour of Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company", 17 Jan 2017

...Women particularly not because diamonds are a woman’s best friend but because women bear the brunt of the negative environmental, social and cultural implications of diamond mining and they lose the most when revenue from diamond mining is lost through leakages...At the beginning of the tour, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Mines and Minerals Development gave a background on the formation of ZCDC and indicated that the ZCDC is not a ‘successor’ of the former mining companies (Mbada Diamonds, Marange Resources, Jinan, Diamond Mining Corporation (DMC), Anjin Investments, Gye Nyame, Kusena Diamonds) but represents consolidation of the diamond fields...When ZCDC was formed there was a general expectation that as a state-owned company it would take measures to respect and protect the rights of communities or people...The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee tour revealed that only approximately 10% of the ZCDC mine workers were women. ZCDC acknowledged that this is an area which needed improvement but did not explain what it is that ZCDC is doing or would do to rectify this and identify barriers that are inhibiting women from being employed in the diamond sector...Undoubtedly the local community, especially women need their capacity to be built so that women entrepreneurs can competitively supply the services and goods within the diamond value chain...