The week-long championship gets underway at two venues in Harare on Friday. The final will be played on 28 April.

But most of the teams will use the event to gain exposure ahead of the qualifying matches for this year's African women's championships.

The tournament logo has the slogan "It's my decision to play - adjust your attitude."

"Women are becoming competent in all sorts of fields and you've got to appreciate that they can kick the ball with intelligence and play entertaining football," said tournament chairperson Rita Likukuma.

Women are well represented among the match officials, with five referees among the team of 16.

The strongest teams look to be South Africa and Zimbabwe, who have been in camp for two months.

Group A
Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia

Group B
South Africa, Botswana, Swaziland, Mozambique