By Staff Writer
THE Zimbabwe Gender Commission (ZGC) says women constitute a total 60% of the informal sector players, a figure which the organ believes to be substantial enough to justify urgent gender sensitive policy interventions.
Delivering a keynote speech on behalf of the ZGC CEO Virginia Muwanigwa at the Economic Justice for Women’s Project (EJWP) organized Informal Traders and Parliamentarians stakeholder engagement meeting Wednesday, Caroline Matizha underscored that the role played by women is immense.
“The informal sector plays a significant role in Zimbabwe’s economy, providing employment opportunities for many individuals with women constituting the majority of those employed in the sector.
“According to the Fin Scope Survey women are more concentrated in the informal sector and constitute 60% of micro small to medium enterprises in Zimbabwe,” she said.
She said recognising the important role of economic empowerment in advancing gender equality, the ZGC convened the 2022 National Gender Forum under the theme Gender and economic Empowerment for inclusive economic growth which brought to light key systemic gender issues affecting women’s economic empowerment including women working in the informal sector.
Matizha said the forum revealed that women are largely in the informal sector where the following challenges were highlighted as key inhibitors to their full participation in economic activities such as Limited access to capital finance; high interest rates, lack of formalisation; sexual harassment; lack of decent workspace and lack of social security.
“The situation however ensues despite Zimbabwe being party to a number of Regional and International Human Rights Instruments on gender such as CEDAW, AU Women’s protocol and the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development as well as having strong Constitutional guarantees on equality and equal opportunities in economic activities enshrined in Sections 17, 56 and 80 of the Constitution.
“Additionally, Zimbabwe has put in place a number of administrative measures to promote economic empowerment which include the adoption of a Financial Inclusion Strategy, establishment of the Women’s Micro-finance Bank, establishment of the Women’s Development Fund, establishment of the Community Development Fund and establishment of Women’s Desks in some financial institutions,” she said.
Matizha underscored that it is however worrying to note that practical experiences on the ground continue to prove that women especially young women are still far from achieving their full economic potential due to the existing challenges.
She said in the midst uncertainty and opaque challenges, the ZGC remains committed to tackle the problems bedeviling women.
“To this end, the Commission continues to monitor the implementation of these recommendations through the thematic working group on gender and the economy.
“It is therefore my hope that today, through this platform we have an opportunity to shed more light on the challenges faced by young women in the informal sector and explore other potential solutions,” added Matizha.
