“SDG-linked business in Zimbabwe is bankable.” Those words from James Nehaus, UNDP’s Communications and Partnerships Specialist, landed with quiet authority at the UN Heads of Agencies and Media Encounter in Harare last Friday — a meeting meant to bridge policy, capital and storytelling. As the country faces growing tension over extractive industry based foreign investment, unpacking developmental business opportunities is more crucial than ever.

Nehaus said Zimbabwe is sitting on a portfolio of bankable opportunities in health, education, energy, food production and rural development, but what’s missing is a shared framework that investors can literally see. That framework is now in the works: a national SDG investment map being developed by the UNDP and the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency.

The consultancy tender for the tool closed on 6 October, marking a step toward a data-driven platform designed to align investor capital with the country’s National Development Strategy 1 and the Sustainable Development Goals.

A consultant who cannot be named as they have submitted a proposal for the call, said the proposed SDG investment map will plot opportunity zones — overlaying renewable-energy corridors, agro-value-chain clusters, rural housing sites, and climate-resilience hubs — and link them to funding instruments and incentives. It’s both an investor prospectus and a development dashboard.

Nehaus said storytelling about Zimbabwe needs to reflect that development and business are not competing goals — they’re partners and that Zimbabwe’s SDG-aligned sectors are ready for serious investment.

SDG’s already attracting big money

For a country once defined by risk headlines, the numbers tell a subtler story.

FDI inflows rebounded to nearly US $600 million in 2023, according to UNCTAD, up 49 percent from the previous year — a sign of cautious but real re-engagement.

ZIDA issued 190 new licences worth US $2.47 billion in just one quarter of 2025, with energy projects accounting for more than 70 percent of that value.

Chinese investors remain dominant, holding over 40 percent of current licensed projects, mainly in green energy, infrastructure and food production.

Australian-listed Invictus Energy continues frontier gas exploration in the Cabora Bassa Basin, while regional firms from Singapore, South Africa and the UAE are building renewable-energy and agro-processing portfolios.

Even mining majors are voting with their balance sheets. Implats CEO Nico Muller recently described Zimbabwe as “one of the group’s most stable operating jurisdictions” — a view underpinning multi-billion-dollar expansions in the platinum sector.

Gaps waiting to be filled

Zimbabwe’s opportunity landscape is vast — and uneven. The coming investment map is expected to spotlight under-leveraged assets such as the Tugwi Mukosi Dam in Masvingo, the country’s largest inland reservoir.
Despite its scale, the dam’s vast energy, irrigation and tourism potential remains largely dormant.

A 2025 master plan proposes turning Tugwi Mukosi into a full water-energy-food nexus hub — irrigation for citrus and sugarcane, a 10 MW mini-hydro project, fisheries, eco-tourism lodges and climate-smart villages downstream. Yet most of that awaits structured finance and investor visibility — precisely what a public SDG investment map could deliver.

Elsewhere, thousands of rural schools and clinics remain off-grid or under-powered, despite being ideal candidates for solar leasing or results-based financing. And local councils sitting on vast tracts of idle land lack the packaged project data to attract green-housing or sanitation funds.

Zimbabwe’s earlier carbon-credit rush — once touted as a quick climate-finance win — has cooled off with the US linked company scandals, with no discernible benefit to the country achieved. The vacuum left behind, can be filled by real-asset, measurable SDG projects: solar energy for clinics, cold-chain systems for vaccines, drip-irrigation for smallholders, digital classrooms powered by renewables.

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Economists say that if done right, the investment map could help cut Zimbabwe’s risk premium by improving transparency and showing where regulatory reforms are beginning to take hold, enabling both the media and the public to hold implementers accountable, tracking progress from tender to completion.

“It could help confront the growing culture of corruption and the cartel-like grip on national resources,” said one economist, who asked not to be named because they may be involved in the project.

He added that the map would provide a credible, data-based picture of Zimbabwe’s opportunities—an image too often obscured by agenda-driven coverage. His view echoed that of UN agencies at the meeting, which collectively urged the media to focus on accuracy and context when reporting on development and investment.