Upon inception in 1990, ZWRCN’s first project was a documentation centre funded by the Global Fund for Women. It was designed to gather information on women and gender-related issues and improve women's access to information on gender and development issues.

The Documentation Centre concentrated on building collection in three areas: materials written on women in Zimbabwe; relevant material on women in Southern Africa and elsewhere on the continent; and material on feminist theories. Thirteen years later collection building in the documentation centre is centred on gender budgeting and HIV and AIDS as are the organization’s programme areas, and related gender and development topics.

The reading culture in Zimbabwe has in general been gradually thinning out over the years due to prohibitive cost of literature and literal aids. The advent of the World Wide Web from the early nineties has also contributed to lessened use of resource centres and libraries worldwide. In Zimbabwe for instance, the Book Development Council which used to promote reading activities among youths closed down due to viability challenges. Use of resource centres and libraries are generally now characterised by academics who research for their studies and on completion of their course will have little drive to continue their visits to the library.

This generalised analysis forms the basis of future plans and strategies for ZWRCN’s Documentation Centre continued relevance in providing gender and development literal resources to its publics, especially women.

The Documentation Centre aims to build the knowledge base and increase the visibility of ZWRCN by generating, documenting and disseminating information to build women’s knowledge and influence policy making. Dissemination of appropriately packaged information through various internal and external media is the centre’s main thrust.

Dissemination of information to the external women and, policy makers, researchers and the general public is well strategised through consistent library services as outlined below:

Documentation Centre
Opening hours:
Monday - Thursday 08.30 –16.00 hrs
Fridays from 08.30 - 12.00 hrs

Objectives of the Documentation Centre activities are encompassed in those of the total Gender and Information Programme i.e. To provide relevant, credible and accessible information to women in appropriate means and formats and more specifically, to acquire women’s, gender and development information for use by women, policymakers, the organisation’s staff and other stakeholders.