WOMEN have always been held up to encouraging descriptions about how they are major contributors to national development, yet most times they are not given the tools that would translate their potential into real works.

We recognise the efforts women have made in recent years, departing from their over-dependence on men to being co-providers in their families and co-drivers of national programmes.

The unfortunate thing, however, is that they have at times lacked the material and financial support necessary for making their plans work.

Some political leaders and others in different spheres of life have only managed to roll up an impressive record of diversions and delays of planned investments for the womenfolk, and women have rightly voiced their frustrations at the many promises of empowerment that have gone unfulfilled.

There is a clearly marked line between making a promise and following it up in deeds, and that is the encouragement we are drawing from the Government which has bought 150 hammer mills and irrigation systems for women's groups in all the constituencies as a way to promote their economic opportunities.

Such are transition-friendly steps that will help the womenfolk adjust from depending on their husbands or men in their family circles to being generators of wealth.

And that could only be possible if they were empowered in a real sense, such as being provided with equipment that would benefit their income-making ventures.

The purchase of the hammer mills and irrigation equipment is also a demonstration of how the national gender policy is bearing fruit.

As Gender and Women in Development Minister Sarah Sayifwanda said yesterday, women represent a considerable constituency in the socio-economic development of the country and they need to be supported in their development efforts.

We are hopeful that other programmes the Government has embarked on, such as the training of women in entrepreneurship skills, will be given prominence in the national development agenda.