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Citations
... The economic crisis threatened many SMEs who had to close their establishments, thereby affecting microfinanciers (Chikoko & Kwenda, 2013). During the crisis, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) in 2007 reported an unemployment rate of 80% (Luebker, 2008). Reports by DFID (2009) and Lemelle and Stulman (2009) in Africa Outlook pitched the Zimbabwean unemployment rate to 90%. ...
This paper examines the complex nexus between regulation and inequality in Zimbabwe’s microfinance and tourism sectors. Rural Small to Medium Enterprises in Tourism (SMETs) is typical in the informal sector. However, SMETs in rural areas face financial, regulatory, and exclusionary constraints. This paper follows a qualitative literature review methodology guided by an exploratory design. In addition, one secondary case study was included to highlight the lived realities of SMETs. Findings indicate a complex connection between regulation and inequality in the economy. Overregulation leads to corruption, marginalization, and exclusion of small business activities. SMETs are constrained because they need access to finance for business growth. Thus, the nexus between the two variables profoundly impacts policy. The government must entangle the relationship for policy directions in the microfinance and tourism sectors. The paper concludes that the nexus between regulation and inequality needs urgent attention. The paper’s originality is based on using a systematic literature review to assess how regulations affect microfinance’s ability to fund rural SMETs so that these areas could have economic opportunities that would improve the livelihoods of people residing in these areas, thereby addressing inequalities. Furthermore, it contributes to the debates on the complex relationship between regulation and inequality of two sectors (microfinance and tourism) in Zimbabwe. It also informs future lines of research on the subject. Due to noted limitations on the research design used, more comprehensive empirical studies are required to understand the complexity of the nexus.
... Rapid urbanisation contradicting the low to non-existent industrialisation and economic development has been challenging for local authorities in distributing social services (Adams, 2002). Cities experiencing rapid urbanisation and industrial challenges need to ensure that they harness the potential that comes with an increase in population as their base becomes a plausible breeding environment for innovation and economic development due to a widened market for various economic activities (Luebker, 2008). Poor service delivery is also a result of poor management of resources, poor urban governance and polarisation of resources in the urban areas, leading to the deterioration of service delivery in the country (Mapuva, 2013). ...
Despite considerable financial investments made since independence in 1980 to achieve rural development, there is not much tangible improvement in the lives and livelihoods of individuals, families and communities in Zimbabwe. The crux of the matter is lack of collective community action. Community collective action is a crucial social capital that can stir rural development. We argue that collective action has a huge potential to achieve sustainable people-centred development. The study adopts a case study approach, analysing the role played by community collective action in rural development in Chimanimani Rural District (CRD), Zimbabwe. A sample of 220 respondents were conveniently selected. Likert scale data was randomly collected from five out of 23 wards of the CRD. A descriptive data analysis was done using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19.0. Emerging from the study, failure to invest appropriately in efforts designed to strengthen community collective action appears to be the missing link in rural development in African communities, including the CDR. The study concluded that community collective action is the major factor influencing rural development. It is a resilience builder that promotes trust among inhabitants of a community. The study recommends that development planners, scholars and policy-makers should go back to the drawing board and consider community collective action as a resilience strategy in development.
... Therefore, all unregistered firms are informal firms. overviews of the characteristics of the formal and informal sectors without in-depth analysis of productivity and misallocation ( McPherson 1996 ;Velenchik 1997 ;Luebker 2008 ). Thus, Zimbabwe provides a suitable context to study the link between market frictions, informality and misallocation in emerging economies. ...
... The informal manufacturing firms in Zimbabwe largely produce in designated areas in the urban centers and compete with formal firms in the production and sale of goods, mainly in the textile, metal and wood industries. Furthermore, the two sectors appear integrated with informal firms purchasing intermediates from the formal sector, while some formal-sector firms outsource production to informal producers (e.g., in the clothing industry) ( Luebker 2008 ). ...
Resource misallocation has the potential to reduce aggregate total factor productivity and undermine industrial development. Aggregate productivity losses are found to be particularly pronounced in emerging economies where large market frictions impede efficient resource allocation. Available estimates, however, almost entirely exclude firms in the informal sector that in some countries, such as Zimbabwe, make up a high share of overall production and employment. The exclusion of informal firms can result in either an over- or under-estimate of the aggregate productivity losses from misallocation. This paper, therefore, uses firm-level survey data to analyze how market distortions contribute to the misallocation of resources within and between the formal and informal manufacturing sectors in Zimbabwe. Applying the approach developed by Hsieh and Klenow (2009) to firm-level microdata, the results reveal extensive resource misallocation in both the formal and informal manufacturing sector. Market shares of informal firms are found to be low relative to their productivity—an outcome associated with relatively large capital market distortions. Misallocation is also more pronounced among relatively productive firms, thus exacerbating aggregate losses in total factor productivity (TFP). Estimates indicate that aggregated gains in TFP of 151.4 percent can be realized through efficient resource allocation.
... The formal sector responded by significantly shrinking, thereby reducing its capacity to employ new workers. The only alternative for the youth has been the informal sector (Luebker 2008), and there has been little room to discuss the roots of these inequalities or have public deliberations to coproduce solutions, form solidarities, and mitigate some of the social, economic, and political conflicts they have been going through. ...
... Due to this invisibility, the community, including the youth, cannot participate in the economic, social, and political spheres (Mkwananzi, Cin, and Marovah 2021). However, the issues surrounding unemployment are a nationwide problem, with the economic and political crisis leading to the informal sector becoming the only opportunity for employment (Luebker 2008). Nonetheless, the informal sector cannot absorb all the people, and the majority of those who could not make it in the informal sector became unemployed. ...
This article draws on our continuous artistic engagement with Tonga youth in Zimbabwe over the last four years and offers a critical analysis of their transformation. We use the intersecting concepts of political and cultural capabilities to argue how arts-based participation in civic spaces has enabled them to shift the power balances, fostering them as epistemic agents and change-makers. Their journey across three arts and heritage workshops showcases that the longitudinal collaborations and social networks developed and built on one another, creating a thick interrelational embodied process of initiating political advocacy and recreating different and multiple reinterpretations of their cultural heritage. The paper demonstrates the possibilities of envisaging and realising alternative livelihoods amidst the struggles exacerbated by horizontal and vertical inequalities, precarity, political apathy and poverty and highlights the importance of identifying relevant, context-sensitive, and engaging approaches for transformative development and legacy. ARTICLE HISTORY
... A step forward in the empirical assessment of informal work has been made by Luebker (2008) in his analysis of the data from Zimbabwe's 2004 Labour Force Survey. This author departs from the complementary concepts of informality, the enterprise-based and the job-based concept. ...
... Whereas the grouping of own-account workers, employers and unpaid family workers follows from the characteristics of the production unit, the jobs-based concept of informality includes a proxy to distinguish between formal and informal employees: all paid employees (permanent) are classified as formal, and all paid employees (casual/temporary/ contract/seasonal) as informal. Because of data limitations, Luebker (2008) could not include being subject to labour legislation as a criterion to distinguish formal from informal jobs. Hence, neither contributing to or receiving social security, nor being subject to dismissal regulations, entitlement to paid annual or sick leave, or contributing to income tax could be operationalised. ...
How can an informal job in formal establishments be defined, who has an informal job and what are the labour market outcomes? This chapter uses data of comparable face-to-face surveys in nine countries: Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal and Togo. An index for job-based informality is developed, based on employment status and contribution and entitlement to social security. Young and low-educated workers are more likely to hold informal jobs; even more so are workers in small enterprises, in trade, transport and hospitality, and in unskilled occupations, while workers in skilled occupations and with high education are less likely to hold informal jobs. No evidence is found regarding gendered effects. The more informal, the poorer the labour market outcomes: wages are lower, while the chances are higher of being paid below the minimum wage, working more than 48 hours, and not being covered by a collective agreement.
... Employment research in Zimbabwe has focused on the macro-environment being the unstable political climate (Luebker, 2008), with little research done on a micro-level investigating the supportive structures to industry, such as the tangible and intangible makeup of the population. ...
The dissertation aimed to explore the influence of psychological capital and organisational commitment on job performance among tradesmen in Zimbabwe.
The Psychological capital questionnaire, Organisational commitment scale, University of the Fraser Valley job evaluation questionnaire and a biographical questionnaire were used for data collection from individuals within boilermaking and fitting and turning trades, and their respective supervisors in four organisations in the Midlands province in Zimbabwe.
Statistical analysis techniques performed included reliability tests for internal consistency, Spearman Rho rank-order correlation coefficients, Mann Whitney U-test and multiple regression.
The results indicated that psychological capital and organisational commitment have a statistically non-significant influence on both task performance and contextual performance among tradesmen in Zimbabwe.
The study has added valuable knowledge to the existing literature on positive organisational behaviour. Insights gained will assist organisations in designing job performance strategies that build on the developmental nature of these innate motivators.
... In addition, most women who engage in cross-border trade buy goods that are produced in the world markets, thus benefiting manufactures in the formal sector and mainstream economics (Desai, 2009). Moreover, those women who, in addition to importing foreign items, exported Zimbabwean goods, thus providing a distribution conduit through which local producers reached markets outside their borders (Bamu, 2017;Luebker, 2008;Moyo, 2017). ...
This chapter briefly grasps the reality of women’s entrepreneurship in the sub-Saharan Africa with the most summarised review of separate country on each chapter. All nine countries have been revised individually based on the general overview and status of women’s entrepreneurship, historical frameworks, ecosystem and its future perspectives. These have been together with possible recommendations that are based on authors’ analysis of the country history, current situation and state of any available policies related to support and development of women entrepreneurship towards the future.KeywordsWomen entrepreneurshipHistorical frameworksEcosystemFuture perspectivesAnalysisSub-Saharan Africa
... The youths' aspirations to learn cultural crafts are mostly driven by economic concerns as well as their desire to pass on their cultural practices, values and heritage to future generations. This provides a basis for the argument forwarded by Luebker (2008) that the education system in Zimbabwe has often prepared students for white-collar jobs in the formal sector but fails to equip them with technical or entrepreneurial skills, or a tangible or intangible heritage. However, many youths value indigenous knowledge and are seeking opportunities to learn indigenous heritage and local cultural practices, viewing them as resources on which they can draw to build their lives. ...
While exploring the everyday experiences of Tonga youth, this paper draws on a participatory graffiti-on-board project in Binga, a rural community in Zimbabwe. Focus is placed on what shapes and drives youth aspirations in precarious contexts marked by unemployment and poverty. Using graffiti to create participatory and artistic engagements, the research aims to stretch the limited boundaries of social and political space available to the youth for discussing issues that concern their development pathways and livelihoods. The article presents everyday narratives that impact on Tonga youths' aspirations, endeavouring to create a space where they can visualise their prospective futures. Additionally, exhibition spaces are seen as sites for the construction of a collective voice and political capabilities for the youth. We argue that aspirations among disadvantaged youth evidence the broader geopolitical conflict that exists in marginalised communities in Southern Africa. A lack of spaces to construct political voice among the youth curtails their capabilities and agency to choose from existing development opportunities in an uncertain future. We discuss the potential role of participatory art in relation to this in providing spaces for political voice, unsettling established power dynamics, and developing a collective , unified voice that might influence governance processes in fragile contexts.
... Following land reform, there were no longer expectations of provision of services for workers (Magaramombe 2010), and former workers had to find labour or land wherever they could, including participation in an informalising economy (Sachikonye 2007;Luebker 2008;Raftopoulos 2009). Former farmworkers now combined farm labour and farming with off-farm activities, such as artisanal mining, informal vending, beerbrewing, selling firewood, fishing and hunting, as well as depending on remittances from family members outside the country (Magaramombe 2010;Scoones et al. 2018a). ...
This paper explores the emerging labour regimes and the consequences for agricultural commercialisation across multipleland-use types in post land reform Zimbabwe. The livelihoods offarmworkers, including those still resident in former labour compounds, are explored. The paper examines patterns of employment, land access, crop farming, asset ownership and off-farm activities, highlighting the diversification of livelihoods. The old pattern of wage-employed, permanent farmworkers is increasingly rare, as autonomous, flexible combinations of wagework, farming and a range of entrepreneurial and informal activities emerge. The paper thus engages with the wider debate about the changing nature of ‘work’ and ‘employment’, alongside discussions about the class implications of ‘working people’ and‘fractured classes of labour’ in transforming agrarian economies. Without a captive, resident workforce, commercial agriculture must mobilise labour in new ways, as the farm work and workers have been refashioned in the new agrarian setting.
... Globally, the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak caused tremendous damage to trade, financial markets, growth and employment, the sectors that operate largely in the informal economy (International Labour Organization [ILO], 2020a;McCloskey and Heymann, 2020;Lapeyre et al., 2020;Shen et al., 2020;Shen et al., 2020;Tesarik, 2020;Winarsih and Fuad, 2021). The informal economy comprises mostly of workers, activities and enterprises that are not (weakly) monitored, regulated or registered by government and by extension, have limited or no access to public support in terms in terms of access to capital, technology and skills (Mushipe, 2007;Luebker, 2008;Khuong et al., 2020;Narula, 2020). Countries in the developed world tend to have lower levels of informality, which rarely exceeds a quarter of the total population (Narula, 2020). ...
Abstract
Purpose
The sustainable skills that informal manufacturers use in volatile times remain poorly understood. This study explored the skills that the informal manufacturers used to navigate the uncertain business environment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 27 telephone interviews were conducted with informal entrepreneurs who were manufacturers of agricultural machinery at Mbare Magaba and Gaza home industry in Harare, Zimbabwe. Purposive and snow ball sampling were used to identify information rich sources. The authors used thematic analysis in identifying recurrent themes from this study.
Findings
The study results show that business agility motivated most informal manufacturers to restructure their business to sustain their operations. With the closure of formal companies, the informal manufacturers adopted slowing and narrowing loops through purchasing broken down agricultural machines for repairs or remanufacturing of durable machines for their low-income customer base. Most young and formally trained manufacturers adopted a prospector strategic behaviour as they used digital platforms to network with business associates for supplies, gathering market intelligence, making and receiving electronic payments and establishing virtual distant markets whilst the older manufacturers resorted mostly to a defender strategic behaviour of engaging their usual customers for repair jobs and a few referrals.
Originality/value
This study offers unique insights with respect to skills required for the sustainable and strategic management of small and medium enterprises during times of crisis.
