By Own Correspondent

Lorraine Ndlovu, National President of the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations (ZCIEA) and President of StreetNet International, has received a Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to gender equality.

The award was presented by the Zimbabwe Gender Commission at its inaugural awards ceremony on 4 September at Rainbow Towers in Harare. 

The Commission recognised Ndlovu for her decades-long commitment to advancing women’s rights and equal opportunities in Zimbabwe and internationally. Her work has focused on empowering informal economy workers, particularly women, and strengthening their role in economic and community development. 

Ndlovu began her advocacy work at the age of 21 as a student leader, where she became the first female president of her college’s Student Representative Council. She campaigned for student rights and protection against sexual harassment, and later worked with women’s rights organisations to help women assert their economic and social freedoms. 

Elected National President of ZCIEA in 2015 and re-elected in 2021, Ndlovu has led the organisation in promoting the rights of informal sector workers. Internationally, she became the first woman to serve as President of StreetNet International in 2016, representing informal traders in more than 50 countries, and was re-elected in 2019. She also sits on the board of Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO) and was named a Schwab Foundation Collective Social Innovator of the Year in 2023. 

Accepting the award, Ndlovu expressed gratitude and reaffirmed her commitment to inclusive social protection. “We still have a long way to go,” she said. “There are significant push backs against gender equality. While progress has been made, we must continue working towards social protection coverage for all vulnerable groups—not only women but also people with disabilities, unemployed youth and the elderly.”