They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend. For Patricia Inonge Mweene, Zambian gemstones take center stage.
Founder and Execute Director of the sustainable gemstone company, INONGE ZITA, Patricia splits her time between Denmark and Zambia where she employs her innovative framework, “Design Thinking for Extractive Communities,” to add value to Zambia’s natural resources. In doing so, Patricia plays a major hand in creating economically viable value chains that lead to sustainable job creation for the youth and women who are disproportionately affected by unemployment within Zambia.
Born and raised in Ndola, Zambia, Patricia found herself in Copenhagen in her adult years where she was studying for her MSc degree in Project Management. While in school, she began making jewelry as a hobby. What began as a dedicated, artistic hobby morphed into a full scale venture and Design Thinking Africa was born. A non-profit, Design Thinking Africa uses design as a development tool across the African continent to harness the power of design as an innovator in solving pressing social and environmental challenges.
Zambia, like many African countries, contends with a legacy from colonialism. As it relates to its resources of copper, cobalt, gold, silver, and gemstones, Patricia saw that, “the legacy of colonial extraction and exploitation has left a lasting impact, with much of the value from mining and other extractive industries flowing out of the country. Second, there has been a lack of investment in downstream processing activities, so Zambia exports raw materials rather than finished products. Addressing these systemic challenges will be crucial for Zambia to truly benefit from its natural riches.”
Thus, Patricia dedicates Design Thinking Africa to addressing these key issues, serving as an employment and empowerment platform for talented Zambian young women, and advising established jewelry companies on their sustainability efforts. For example, Design Thinking Africa recently launched a training program, in partnership with luxury jewelry brand Mejuri, to train unemployed female gem cutters in creative skills for the lapidary sector of the jewelry business.
Like Swanee, Oana, and Arielle, Patricia is a female powerhouse and it was an absolute honor to have the opportunity to interview someone so inspiring.
I invite you to listen in on this conversation with Patricia, which can be listened to by playing the audio player below as well as on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. If you enjoyed the conversation with Patricia, let me know! I would love to hear from you, Changemakers, so share your comments below on this post.
