Livelihoods Diversity Study in Zimbabwe

I am doing my own thing!
LIVELIHOODS DIVERSITY STUDY IN ZIMBABWE
Prosper B. Matondi October 2011 Study commissioned by Oxfam, Harare, Zimbabwe
I am doing my own thing!

LIVELIHOODS DIVERSITY STUDY IN ZIMBABWE
Prosper B. Matondi October 2011 Study commissioned by Oxfam, Harare, Zimbabwe
Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
By way of Introduction...
Zimbabwe has gone through a difficult socio-economic development process in the last 10 years. Today the issues of livelihoods have taken centre stage, simply because the country desperately needs to forge forward through mastering the courage to find practical and workable solutions to improve the lot of peoples lives. Through focusing on the economic dimension of how people live their life, we argue in this popular version that there are lots of possibilities at multiple levels not yet explored that could help people address the economic challenges they face. This is the import of our sharing the potential solutions towards shaping Zimbabwes future and the prerequisites to achieving a profitable future for Zimbabweans. Unemployment in Zimbabwe remains very high, while job creation has remained depressed in both the private and public sectors. The result is that the majority of people are engaged in transitional economic activities, such as the road side selling of airtime cards and a range of commodities (vegetables and processed foods), retailing imported goods, within the context of what can be characterized as ad hoc economic activities. These activities can enable individuals just to survive and get by, but they remain the potential of sowing seeds of future conflicts, particularly for youths with very little opportunities and disillusioned by the shrinking prospects. At the same time, NGOs and development agencies still remain stuck in promoting short-term humanitarian or emergence assistance, with development interventions being small in scale and reach, within a typical fashion of keeping rural people busy but poor. The point being that outside assistance has been critical for Zimbabweans, but it remains far short to get Zimbabwe moving and growing its economy and the livelihoods of its people. In this context what should we be doing as a nation? We attempt to answer this question in this popular version of a major survey we undertook in 3 provinces of Zimbabwe. The full report is referenced as Prosper B. Matondi, 2011. Livelihoods Diversity Study in Zimbabwe, Oxfam, Ruzivo Trust, Harare. In this popular version, we discuss a summary of the key findings in the different sectors, the driving force for livelihoods, the prerequisites, the role of government, private sector, NGOs in livelihoods support. We end by providing recommendations of what can be potentially done to get peoples economies back on track. At the end, we believe that through knowledge sharing and dialogue we are able to link unconnected actors to become exceptional crossroads of possibilities and exchanges of experiences. Harare, 2011
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UNDERSTANDING LIVELIHOODS DIVERSITY IN ZIMBABWE
A1.Context of Livelihoods in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has been characterized as an agro-based country, with agriculture contributing about 14 percent of the Gross National Product before 2000. In general, Zimbabwe has hidden livelihoods opportunities that have largely been unexplored because of the view that agriculture is central to the livelihoods of the people. While indeed, agriculture should be in this position, it has been observed that there is a lack of reliable data about rural populations, which makes it difficult for government to design policies to expand economic opportunities for the rural poor. At least half to three quarters of rural Zimbabwean people engage in non-agricultural activities to supplement their agricultural earnings. Given that such a large population is into a myriad of economic earning activities, there is a need to understand such activities and what they mean for local people and communities. A2.
Framework, developed by the Institute of Development Studies of the United Kingdom.
Economic dimension of livelihoods

Livelihoods are the way people live, and to meet their needs people pursue different forms of economic activities influenced by a range of factors that are personal (meeting basic needs, talent, personal history in family or simply by accident) due to personal development (education, skills development) and context (access to resources such as finance, enabling government policy on for instance empowerment or indigenization/affirmative action). A3.
Livelihoods Diversity Concepts
Livelihoods Diversity
Livelihoods diversification means engaging in a range of activities based on capabilities and resources one has at their disposal. Livelihoods diversification has various dimensions that encompass: a) diverting from a core generating income activity to provide people with alternative options for survival through production for food and income; b) it also implies that when options are limited or when a household cannot sustain production, they may search for alternative survival means: c) diversification implies being innovative or creative by utilizing a core resource underpinning the socio-economic reproduction of the household at a particular period of time; e) in business etiquette diversifying could be rebranding a key economic activity to exploit new markets or opportunities because the lifespan (in terms of face value) of a product has outlived its usefulness; f) value addition by processing or semi - processing of goods to increase income earning opportunities as well as mitigation of risks is a key element of diversification.
Understanding Livelihoods
All about livelihoods

Livelihoods are becoming a key feature in human life, but understanding what constitutes a livelihood is complex. The different ways of supporting ones life by engaging in formal or informal trade, business or any income generating activity is what comprises a livelihood. It also entails managing and coping with relationships in the family and community, dealing with uncertainties and at the same time responding to new opportunities. However at best, when people talk about livelihoods, they tend to limit it to economic welfare or activities that generate an income for living, usually narrowly restricted to agriculture. While this is important, livelihoods are very broad and encompass many components that must be explored. These components constitute what since the 1990s has been popularized as the Sustainable Livelihoods 2
Why diversify livelihoods after all?

Rural households engage in multiple activities and rely on diversified income portfolios. It is widely believed that a capability to diversify is beneficial for households at or below the poverty line. Having alternatives for income generation can make the difference between minimally viable livelihoods and destitution. The activities people adopt and the way they invest in asset building depend in part on their goals and priorities. However, they are also influenced by the type of vulnerabilities they face including shocks (drought, conflict, economic structural adjustment, health and disease (e.g. AIDS) overall trends (in for instance resource stocks, population density) and seasonal variations (in, for example agricultural output). These factors influence peoples vulnerability to change or constrain their capacity to accommodate it. The institutions and structures (governance, leadership, markets, and tenure) that exist also determine peoples options. In aggregate, these conditions determine their access to endowments and livelihood opportunities and the way in which these can be converted into outcomes. In this way, poverty and the opportunities to escape from it depend on all of the above.
some level, livelihoods diversification is about switches from a coping to an accumulation strategy pursued by the wealth and many middle income households. Typically the poor lack assets for greater accumulation, hence they may exploit a resource simply as a basis for survival. On the other hand, wealthier people possess skills and asset endowment that yield far greater returns than poorer households.
Prerequisites for livelihoods diversity

Livelihoods diversity has several elements and differs from place to place and over time, meaning that a livelihood system is not static. There are micro and macro-factors such as policy and legislative regimes, cultural issues, access to information, technological innovation, income levels and resources available that influence livelihoods diversity. To exploit livelihoods opportunities there are certain conditions that are necessary, that include peace, political and economic stability. People and their organisations should have the ability and confidence to participate in their communities and in the nation-state. Globalization has also an influence on livelihoods diversification, given the development of communication systems (Information Communication Technologies ICT), which now connects people and economies distant from each other.
The downside of livelihoods diversification

Livelihoods diversification has been attacked for its negative influence, especially on agriculture. Yet, contexts differ as examples in Zimbabwe show that communities in semi-arid drought prone areas could be better off pursuing other means of livelihoods than concentrating on agriculture (cropping) that has been a typical failure every season. On one hand, livelihoods diversification has generally been seen as a coping mechanism for the poor, hence some people may shun the concept. However, at
A4. Importance of Livelihoods Diversification

Diversification of incomes sources reduces the risks of dependence on and failure in one enterprise. These can be summarized as follows: Dealing with risk and uncertainty: because of the fear of a single activity failing to achieve the intended output or income, one may venture into other activities to increases opportunities for success in the activities as opposed to relying on one. Addressing seasonal stresses that may come due to climatic shifts, or are part of seasonal weather cycles. As a coping measure: these activities emerge either to cope with insufficiencies or in response to stresses and shocks. These may include a failed harvest, lack of a market for products sourced elsewhere, loss of a job, raising money to meet expenses accrued from sudden or chronic illness, death and related stresses. In the process lead to utilization of a skill or knowledge. It may well imply also being a mechanism for transition to new activities not as a substitute of the existing activities but as an addition. In this case investing in livelihoods can save lives in the short and long term because it means building the resilience of communities to manage risks such as droughts, floods, pests and other natural calamities. This means that communities that are sufficiently capacitated can mobilize internal resources and systems to cushion each other from adversity. Livelihoods can be an empowerment process for current and future generation: building the wealth of the household usually is based on the capacity of that household to take risks in searching for alternative livelihoods. It has been found that risk-taking households survive
Not everyone should be a farmer; life is more than farming.

adversity and have a propensity for wealth creation. There is a saying that wealth begets wealth, meaning that once born into a wealth family, the possibility of maintaining that tradition is high, with new generations being innovative to expand the wealth of the family through diversification processes. Local economic development: not everyone is and should be a farmer and life is more than farming. It has also been found that communities producing the same commodity for the same market tend to be poor, because prices of that commodity are depressed. Diversifying livelihoods means that households in the community do different activities that are complementary through internal and external exchange. This creates stronger communities that when well organized they penetrate external markets, which brings in money into that community. Stronger and confident communities: a community with a diversity of livelihoods tends to be vibrant in terms of its social standing, is confident in terms of handling adversity at any time. The level of civic engagement is high. This means that the community has a key objective of protecting its livelihoods from any form of erosion internal or external.
ECONOMIC BASED LIVELIHOODS ACTIVITIES
Agriculture remains the primary livelihood activity for most Zimbabweans, but what other options are there for diversification outside this sector?
B1. Diversification within the Context of Agriculture
Agricultural based opportunities

Given that agriculture dominates employment and income, a key factor in improving access to employment in rural areas would be to increase agricultural productivity. However, productivity cannot be increased without addressing the challenges of soil infertility, inadequate access to water, lack of inputs, inadequate extension. In order to enhance agricultural based opportunities, development agencies should consider the following: Provisions of resources to better off farmers with scope for creating employment for the poorest in a strategic and carefully managed manner; Value addition should be given top priority especially for agricultural related projects. In this case drying of vegetables for export, branding and packing of agricultural produce such as small grains (millet, sorghum, rapoko) has gained a niche market. A good example is the Maltabella product range of processed small grains has gained a significant market share because of consciousness in health eating in view of the uncertainty over GMO processed foods that have flooded the Zimbabwean market. Horticulture products can be processed into pastries, jams, tomato juices, dried tomato leaves, preserved soups, etc. This means investing in the area of drying equipment, refrigeration, tinning, vacuum packing and other necessary ancillaries. In the area of livestock, promotion of dried meat (chickens, beef, goat) and raising health awareness of these products would help promote livelihoods for the poor.
Agriculture as a livelihoods option

Zimbabwe is an agro-based country and the commodity chain from production, processing and marketing provides the largest scope for employment and income generation. At the same time it provides the staple food and is a source of direct nutritious food for the families In Zimbabwe agriculture is highly valued and tends to get monetary preference, especially in the public sector creating a monolith user of subsidies, compared to other livelihoods activities. The subsidies in agriculture have the unfortunate impact of affecting other livelihoods sectors and throttling the manufacturing sector (if there is an emphasis of import of inputs). Crop (maize) production in particular is viewed as panacea to all livelihoods problems of the people in Zimbabwe. A distinctive characteristic of rural households in Zimbabwe was that families in all natural regions attempted to secure their livelihoods from a mixture of activities that ranged from crop and livestock production. Farmers produce a variety of crops that includes maize, cotton, tobacco, small grains, cotton, sunflower, soybeans. Market gardening is also an important preoccupation, because the people in these districts have access to urban markets. Yet, livestock is seriously undervalued in the drier parts of the country. From a diversification perspective the food supply chain showed specific gender inequalities. In both the crop and livestock chains, there were more male suppliers than female agroproduce suppliers in niche markets such as supermarkets and hotels.
Communities should be trained in value addition and branding to penetrate such markets;
Poultry projects took communities by storm and suddenly there is a market glut, yet there is no organisation training poultry producers in value addition of chickens (promoting agroecology production) and branding chicken cuts for selling.
In the area of livestock, promotion of dried meat (pork, beef, goat) and raising health awareness of these products would help promote livelihoods for the poor. Investing in commercial agriculture opens opportunities for investors to participate in Agro goods supply chain within the tourism industry. Health facilities, boarding schools and towns and hotels and restaurants often require regular supplies of fresh food in large quantities. Men have a broader knowledge base of agricultural techniques for quality production than women. For example techniques for drip irrigation and green house production that guarantees quality are particularly important to participate competitively in the tourism supply chain. In the fishing sector, while some efforts have been made in support of post-harvest handling processes, there has been insufficient attention to the upgrading of the technological capabilities of micro, small and medium entrepreneurs engaged, especially women. The littleness of investment in this sector is manifested in the absence of sustained efforts to develop the capacities of local co-operatives in post-production management processes with a commercial orientation. The rudimentary activities currently in place, at all the levels of the value chain demonstrate the existence of great potential still to be tapped within the fisheries sector overall. 7 Building the capacity for market linkages for specific agricultural produce (vegetables) and poultry through skills and training; Facilitating access to market information through designing platforms for information processing exchange and use. The use of ICT Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
would go a long way given the broader cellular connectivity in most parts of the country. Kubatana has developed a potential systems for commodity information using cell phones that can be pursued by development agencies.
have been harmed by the further opening up of the country to legal and illegal imports of new and second hand clothes. At the same time, the rapid economic development of Asian nations and especially China has had the knock-on effect of killing the textile industry in Africa due to the low prices based on the labour intensive but low wage Chinese production systems. Generally, African countries without strong trade controls have their local industries badly affected to the extent of collapse due to the market flooding of goods.
B2.
Rural Micro-enterprises and Services
Soft traditional informal activities

While in the colonial period the soft rural enterprises such as sewing, crocheting, cooking, baking, were popular with women, they suffered a near death during the ESAP period simply because the country opened to imports which almost throttled the clothing industry as an example. At the same time the development of supermarket chains selling processed food, equally killed the informal baking activities led by women. It was a progression from the ESAP to the Post-ESAP period, when women entrepreneurs dominated 80 percent of SMEs. Many of the women who participated in the soft informal activities in Zimbabwe have never been able to progress from groups to formalised businesses. Traditional beer brewing is also a money spinner especially after harvests, when people have more time for leisure and cash. This is mainly because of the ease of entry into informal sector activities due to a relatively low need for initial capital input, technology and skill. In addition, the informal sectors activities are based on income rewarding hard work, hence their appeal. Yet, the NGOs continued to push for projects in this line simply because of the nostalgia over the past success and also as a means to reach the poor in rural areas. Thus the donation of sewing machines became a popular past time for politicians and NGOs to various groups in rural areas. The sewing activities 8
Rural business as a livelihood option

The rural business sector accommodates many of rural populations and plays multiple roles in rural communities. This sector has the potential effect of providing important practical lessons for many of the rural enterprises in terms of how to run businesses (livelihoods activities) on a profitable basis. However, the talents and skills of the businesspersons have rarely been tapped to inform people running rural income generating activities. Skills have largely been sought elsewhere, yet the rural businesses provide living examples of how to run an enterprise that could benefit people in rural areas, if their skills and talents were to be tapped. The mere fact of familiarity of the environment provides an advantage for rural businesspersons. A key issue is why do they succeed when everyone fails and is mired in poverty? Success in such space has a specific meaning that needs to be explored in terms of how that can be translated into enhancing peoples engagement with livelihoods. Some of the rural businesses grew in the last few years due to chance. In the past, before 2000, it was normal to trace how people entered formal rural business. In many case, inheritance was the entry point for business. However, following the economic chaos from 2000, people could take chances by taking advantage of opportunities. Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
Rural artisanal services

There are a number of people involved in rural services whose key tool is their skills and the handy tools for building, thatching, brick-making, repairs (fencing, fixing home gargets like ox-carts etc). Rural artisanship is a traditional pre-occupation meant to ensure that communities have access to different people who could build, thatch, mould bricks, and repair things. Many of the rural artisans are usually farmers, but use their skills to get complementary income. Some of them work during non-agricultural seasons (building, thatching) and they do not consider this to be their key pro-occupation, but claim that it enhances their status and image in the community. The following were noted to be common:
Skilled Artisans: brick layers, thatchers, well diggers, who are spread in different villages and the villagers as their clients. The skilled artisans were largely full time workers with a few performing their trades only during the dry seasons. The reasons some of them ended up in these trades range from unemployment, need for extra cash etc. Service Providers: usually found at rural shopping centres and located at the backyard of shops (welding, car repairs, electronics). The artisans are involved in a multiple activities. They operate small-scale units to produce and distribute goods and services mostly within their own communities. These backyard industries, specifically provide irregular income from self-employment
Grinding mills are a common source of income generation in the rural and peri-urban areas 9 Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
Services sector & rural livelihoods dimension

The service economy was expanded beyond what it was known for traditionally from independence in 1980 to the 1990s it was generally known that the services sector was formalized, with strict regulations. Therefore, one could identify formal banking institutions (many of an international nature), finalized supermarket chains operating side by side with indigenous businesses all servicing the same market. Yet, over time, opportunities emerged for middle persons who largely have been seen as parasites in certain sectors of the economy like agriculture to play a different role. These have been termed makorokoza for reaping from others without hard work. In general makorokoza plays the role of middle person through buying and reselling goods from places of availability to places without. Prices vary widely depending on time place and who is trading. Exploitation of such price difference is a major source of profit that largely is seen as immoral by those who feel prejudiced. In general, the services sector became the in-thing as the country has literary become a service economy. The service sector grew due to the impact of new technologies, but also due to its response to the informal sector that is now the largest consumer of services largely for deal making. For instance, the growth of business and livelihoods through selling various cell phone paraphernalia including handsets, recharge cards, repairs, and internet accessories and so on has boosted this sector. In rural areas, providing energy charging services through power provided by the Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company (ZEDC), contributes to income diversity for those with electricity has significantly spread livelihoods diversification, especially in the last 2 years. Equally, from the time of ESAP the transport sector was deregulated, and the public bus system has 10
found it difficult to complete with individual taxi operators. This opened opportunities for both rural and urban people. Some people formally employed diversified into this activity. This saw the growth of the private taxi business, which penetrated even the rural areas as the conventional bus system in rural areas collapsed at the height of the economic crisis. The taxi industry has had downstream benefits of youth employment, as touts, loaders, and drivers.
Petty commodity and cross-border trading activities
Zimbabweans are involved in cross-border trading. They travel to sell and purchase goods from several countries that include China, Brazil, India, Dubai, and Malaysia etc. The commodities purchased can be classified into two types the highend market and the low-end market based on the market the goods are targeting. The majority of traders participate in the low-end market.
Low-end market
The low-end market informal cross-border trade is one of the economic activities that have been flourishing in rural areas for a variety of reasons. One of the factors contributing to this phenomenon is the interaction and mutual reinforcement between the so-called labour-supply push and low-income-demand pull. What is referred to as the labour-supply push is characterized by: (i) high Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
unemployment, resulting in an increasingly cheap labour supply; and (ii) the search for alternative or complementary income earning opportunities as a result of eroded income levels, decreases in the labour force in productive enterprises and lack of skills to enter into the shrinking formal sector. The low-income-demand pull on the other hand has the following features: (i) the existence of a large number of poor consumers with low effective demand for basic consumer goods offered in the formal sector; and (ii) the existence of suppressed demand for goods normally offered by the commercial network and inefficiency of formal suppliers who quite often face tremendous liquidity problems. However, some of the cross border activities are based on rural entrepreneurship and ingenuity found in the art and culture industry. There has been an upsurge of trading activity, much of it conducted by women, but over the last 2 years men increasingly entering this activity. With the collapse of formal trading systems, individuals stepped in to provide the goods and services creating an informal economy that has effectively dwarfed the formal one. Flea Market operations have multiple scale as re-sales to distant rural areas is the norm. This means that there are three or more layers of middle persons such that the same commodities are sold several times before they get to the final consumer. Chronic shortages of virtually all commodities on the formal market have made the trading of almost anything profitable. Traders, who now have been formalized through licensing by local authorities, are sourcing for scarce goods within or outside Zimbabwe for re-sale. The flea market operators were located right in front of the premises of shops, capturing the market of the owners who are charged more. The business operators felt that local authorities were punitive to 11
the established business and discourage entry for people, which encourages illegal operations. We found that the majority play all manner of hook and crook (kukiyakiya) to get the commodities. In most cases, bargaining/negotiations is a key means to make a successful sale. There is no standard pricing for any goods. In this industry, people source and sell scarce commodities in the uncertain environment such that people have to constantly change the types of commodities they trade in response to market demands. The import of groceries from outside the country was negatively affected by the change over to the use of multicurrencies in 2008. Slowly, the formal retail sector started to take over through volume and reduced pricing making imports of such goods unviable. However, since 2008, a significant change towards consumer goods price stabilization was brought by the stabilization of the supply of fuel, which used to be a major driving force for high pricing.
High-end market
Cross-border trade has a long history in Zimbabwe but has been taken to new heights over the last couple of years in terms of coverage and the type of goods involved. In addition to the traditional destinations like South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Zambia, international destinations like Dubai and China especially with expensive and cheap quality goods of all kinds. However, some high-end middle and upper classes targeting the high end markets have also emerged bring mostly expensive goods from USA, United Kingdom and some European countries. In the study areas we did not find any high-end traders, and instead the majority is into low-end activities as discussed above. There is an expectation of the growth of the high-end market in areas such as Zvishavane because of mining.
Opportunities to diversify based on the following:

Pull factors: Hope for better income, preference for self-employment, skills in the individual or family background in business and also lack of alternatives and suffering; Opportunities factors: availability of new technology making enterprises more profitable; Growth in markets (and demand for agricultural products) alongside the general development of the economy; Development of transport and communications (improved access to growing markets - local, national and international); Resource factors: own savings; an idea of what they want to do, human Capital; natural resources in the area.
Problems of scale of operation: the majority of women operate at a subsistence income generating level and therefore do not qualify for the majority of financial assistance from financial houses,
Inadequate knowledge on securing credit: for example presentation of viable business plans, even when they have them, they are subjected to expensive short term funding (typically 30-90 days maximum, with interest hovering from 1020 percent). In general cross-border traders find it a challenge to acquire loans from banks, they are in most cases required to register as companies in order to be eligible for loan application. This is a huge challenge since registration is also expensive.
Marketing problems: The women traders might face tough competition from established businesses. They might also decide to sell certain products without carrying out sufficient market research on products and as such risk being exploited.
Constraining factors in the informal sector

The sector faces huge challenges, with finance being a key, yet there are also social challenges that face mostly women as described below. Operational challenges are: General challenges: business education and business experience; Sufficient resources and capital; Little or no access to credit for expansion; most suffer from poor infrastructure, insecurity, extremely competitive markets, and an unfavourable institutional environment; there is little information on new microenterprises such as technology firms, business process outsourcing; lack of innovation and lack of access to key tools for success in business; Information on what activities to do (or toolkits) Inadequate knowledge on securing business knowledge: rural women in particular face challenges on knowledge searches simply because they play the role of mothers with greater responsibility at home, thus limiting their networks; 12
the talents and skills of businesspersons have rarely been tapped into, to inform people running rural income generating activities
Challenges of a social nature includes the following: Lack of economic security: They lack benefits such as pension, medical insurance or social security, which means when not healthy, business is negatively affected and ability to recover and get back may take longer; Health problems: Due to the various transport constraints sometimes they use unsafe Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
transport means and also tend to have heavy baggage making them prone to backaches among other health problems; Stereo-typing of cross-border traders: In most cases cross-border trading is associated with promiscuity, hence some women are denied the opportunity to trade regionally or internationally by their spouses; Lack of adequate trade documentation: Most women travel to countries outside to sell their products without proper documentation and face deportation and imprisonment if caught by authorities and in the process lose their goods;
development agencies and the private sector. It is for this reason that organizations can ride on this sector based on the opportunities it provides (income, employment, as well as high population providing a scope for educational awareness and campaigns in the areas of gender rights and HIV and AIDS). The specific recommendations are that: Many of the traders lack skills in financial management: the development agencies should design training course of business and financial management, project management, by-laws and regulations, negotiations skills, health, leadership; Financing mechanisms: the pooling of cash (marounds) should continue to be encouraged and a way established for linking these to financial institutions. This is because they provide a unique way of raising cash for projects, while they can reduce transaction costs because the groups are based on relationships and therefore trust. Training on collective action: though cooperatives seem unpopular, NGO interventions are based on groups hence it is necessary to train beneficiaries on leadership, group formation, group dynamics that could help the entrepreneurs in procurement process, shared responsibility for infrastructure development and maintenance. Informal sector traders be organized to lobby for policy change through providing training to their members; Capacitating the entrepreneurs to spread the message on HIV and AIDS, gender rights, resources rights etc, given that in this sector, different categories of people (young old, literate and semi literate, men/women) are finding a real income base for their families. 13 Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
Gender bias resulting in attitude problems: insensitivity and prejudice of loan officers as a result of their own backgrounds and socialisation;
Non-existent or insufficient family support: while men tend to be drawn into the world of individual pursuit, women due to the threat of abandonment and divorce operate more commonly in human economies based on family and other mutual support networks. In general, rural women indicated in the interviews that face cultural constraints to start non-traditional types of enterprises. They tend to start enterprises related to the home based industries like soap making, candle making, bread baking, dressmaking, and other domestic related activities.
Informal sector recommendations

The informal trade sector dominated by flea markets is regarded as a transitional economic activity, yet given the political challenges of Zimbabwe it seems that the sector will remain for some time. However, the informal trade though populated by many people trying to eke a living for their families have not received attention by
B3.
Nature Based Rural Enterprises
Natural Resources Sectors

Diversification for the poor has generally been into the use of natural resources for their income earning: Commercialization of indigenous trees: in some areas hardwoods such as Mopani tree offers economic opportunities for individuals and communities, as well as Rural District Councils. However, communities complained that local people are prejudiced from benefitting from the resource by private companies that work with RDCs. It is necessary that dialogue commence so that local communities as well as the companies can benefit from empowerment through equity shares. Timber and Non-timber forestry products: Binga and surrounding environments are populated by master wood carvers and carpenters, with a tradition of making the popular wood products. In general trees provide two sets of products: o Timber products: these include Tonga stools, chairs, aprons, doors, drums etc. We found that the Tonga drums brought the creativity of the Tonga people (which must be paid for in business terms), which bestows a variety of personal benefits including a sense of identity, self-reliance, self-awareness, empowerment, confidence and cultural esteem. The drums are acquired not just by tourists, but are now a feature in modern home decors, are bought by schools for use in cultural performances. o NTFP: Fruits processing and sales (seasonal), grass commoditization, honey processing drum making, provides opportunities for income earning for rural families. The issues of NTFP relates to commercialization, which at times elicits conflicts of various proportions in communities and families. This is because, such resources can generate an income that can divide people who view such resources as being owned by everyone. This is the reason 14 Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
why government introduced the prohibition of the sale of NTFP for commercial purposes. Opportunities for economic development projects based on value addition. In this context, development agencies can work with communities to explore a range of resources, such as processing natural resources into oils, drinks, jams and jellies. Honey for instance can provide numerous benefits to families in the form of honey (consumption and sale), wax for candle making etc. Equally trees such as marula and plans such as moringa, provides scope for the processing of cosmetics and medicines that can widely be accessed and generate income for rural people;
imprisonment for petty thefts of small quantities of mineral products and so on. Fishing: fishing is a key economic livelihood activity in places with water, such as in the Zambezi valley. The Tonga people have been known as riverine communities engaging in fishing, fish processing and selling, while also many were employed in the sector deriving their own livelihoods. The sector has specific gender inequality issues that the people noted should be addressed. Tourism related sectors: riverine communities also employed a large number of people. There are numerous tourist facilities that have been established to carter for fishmongers, or tourists who frequent riverine areas in the Zambezi valley for instance. Wildlife resources: According to the study findings, communities blessed with wildlife still implement Community Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE). Under the programme, communities are encouraged to conserve wildlife. The revenue generating activities such as hunting are used for community development. Meat from killed animals is left for communities to share and hunters take the trophy (normally the head with its horns) and skin. There should be local benefits of many of the products and by-products from wildlife. Other natural resources: selling of soil (river sand and top soil) for building, procuring and selling quarry stones, selling manure in urban areas, selling fire wood to both urban and rural areas, selling poles.
Small-scale mining: One of the key livelihoods activities that have progressively taken the country by storm is illegal mineral exploitation. Many people find the activity as an easy way to earn money, for the tools of the trade (pick, shovel, and a dish) are easy to acquire for alluvial gold panning. In some cases, gold panning is widely done during off agricultural season. This was initially mainly to supplement household income, but for some it is now a key livelihood strategy, because they make more money out of it. In fact, the firming of the international prices on minerals in general has contributed to the growth of this activity. Yet historically government has not been fully interested in re-organizing panners into organized forms for the purposes of mining in a mutual reinforcing relationship. In fact when ordinary people try to do small scale mining, they have to endure more policing and roadblocks, interference in their lives, have their land taken away, be subject to
15
Recommendations on the Natural Resources Sector

This sector provides the greatest scope for the poor because it has low transaction costs at the production level, given that resources are usually free as they are abstracted from the commons. In addition, technical skills are acquired locally meaning that the activities do not lend themselves to complex mechanization. Perhaps the only difference will be with eco-tourism, which requires the setting up of expensive infrastructures by local standards such as a chalets and services for the convenience of the potential tourist. We recommend the following for the exploitation of the resources: Making and marketing natural resources products: development agencies can work with communities to explore a range of resources, such as processing natural resources into oils, drinks, jams and jellies. Organisations such as the Southern African Indigenous Resources (SAFIRE) and PhytoTrade has successful helped women to market fine products (essential oils, soaps, shampoos) made from marula, and other natural resources products to lucrative markets in Europe and Asia. Fisheries industry: Women fish traders noted that training has been inadequate and that they have not been fully organised to be able to raise capital for their activities. It is recommended that development agencies design comprehensive training programmes, towards the empowerment of the fish mongers, processors, traders, rather than the piecemeal and one off training programmes that have been offered to date. In addition, the youths should be engaged into this sector, given that many of them are not participating because of the risks and prohibitive costs. 16
Mining sector: the issue of indigenisation and economic empowerment with respect to this sector is receiving attention. At the same time, the government is giving out Mining license to specific groups such as Youth and Women, yet the generality of the people have no information about what is going on. Development agencies have shied away from this sector, for it is regarded as too political, yet the sector provides the greatest scope for the economic empowerment of the people. Development agencies in mining areas could provide soft skills (training, capacity development, basic information) for the people to appreciate this sector. Given that the sector, is a cash spinner, youths would find it attractive to get organised so that they can approach the authorities with for license if they are organised. Such organisation comes from skills training and linking up the youths to relevant technical bodies that deals with mining related issues.
B4.
Cultural Products and Services
Diversity and benefits from the sector

Culture can be a potential income earner in many ways. In general, the tendency has been to support the hard products part of Performing arts for livelihoods: in the form of music, dances, and poetry can be a basis for income generation. We found that a few African countries such as South Africa (kwaito), Burkina Faso (Djembe), Kenya, and Democratic Republic of Congo (Kwasa Kwasa), have pushed for recognition of indigenous music and dance as a basis for wealth creation as it is seen as a past time activity. It is only when indigenous music, dance, theatre and poetry is identified by Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
foreigners, especially from Europe that it gains significance. Performing arts is an important medium for communicating HIV and AIDS through drama and choir. Youth groups could benefit from penetrating forums such as HIFA, regional festivals, and international ones using their culture as the medium for entertainment. Curio making and marketing: the culture sector provides scope for high income earning by creating market opportunities for curios, particularly baskets. The master wood carvers used to have potential markets to make money at the height of Zimbabwe tourism days. This activity is highly dependent on biomass; Basket weaving and marketing: A major livelihood activity of basket weaving provides important opportunities for women and youth through income earnings. Individuals and groups could get mileage through obtaining regular buyers from South Africa, Harare through the Harare International Festival of Arts (HIFA). Green tourism: there are possibilities for Green Tourism that combines nature, agriculture, with cultural tourism. The environment of major urban areas can provide opportunities, as children and adults and cities could visit through school or weekend tour packages.
the collection generally require minimal use of capital resources (if any), but require larger units of labour per output obtained. Organisation should help market cultural products and handcrafts made from wood and grass.
Recommendations for the sector

We therefore recommend that: Training on production processes are required so that artist entrepreneurs do not over harvest the resources they depend on. The Binga Trees Trust for example has been training communities of woodland preservation as they carry out their arts businesses and programmes of that nature should be scaled up. Market linkages be developed for artists. In often cases, artists have largely depended on tourists coming to them; however, there is a need for development agencies to facilitate communities to explore external markets (HIFA, ZITF, shows, regional and international markets). The strategy should be to build the confidence of the artists to be able penetrate these markets. For instance, the stone sculpture industry survived the crisis because they managed to penetrate such markets. Development agencies could also explore 17 Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
Challenges faced in the sector

There is little support for the crafts industry because the tourism sector that used to be the anchor collapsed in the last ten years. However, the opportunity costs to enter the sector are very low given that artists depend on their talents or knowledge and local resources whose abstraction is from zero to minimal. The availability of the products in local areas mean that the technologies used in
linking up and networking using the platform such as National Associations. For instance the National Handicraft Centre was established to address market access barrier to SMEs involved in Craft. Situated in Harare, the centre provides shop floor space for individuals and craft groups, support towards product development and pricing and market linkages. Performing arts (poetry, songs, music and dance) have not received adequate attention, yet there are numerous forums where communities can generate an income. Examples include the following: o Arts calendars such as HIFA have provided important avenues for communities. Ntengwe through community film-making has o
penetrated international markets and this model should further be promoted. Development agencies can provide communities with information and strategies in which they can penetrate, because more often the communities lack basic information. Many hotels, eating houses with a traditional food niche provide space for arts groups to provide entertainment, and development agencies promoting performing arts could consider penetrating such tourism, besides exporting performing arts to the region and other countries. Training and confidence building of the communities and the groups will be a key strategy.
Tonga baskets weaved in Binga have sold lucratively at local and international craft fairs
18
GENESIS OF LIVELIHOODS DIVERSITY
19
C1.
What Causes People to Diversify?
buying and reselling during the day and engage in commercial sex work during the night. Others would work at a company during the day, and by end of day and during weekends they would engage in all sorts of repair. At times they would poach the company customers, and even steal repair parts for their private work at home and undesignated areas, as a means of survival. Third, others diversified because they are talented in the trade they are engaged in. Fourth, some people in rural areas diversified, because agriculture was not providing the returns for them to meaningfully survive. Agriculture outputs markets had too many controls to the extent that farmers failed to break even or to raise enough for their survival due to the nature of the pricing regimes. Farmers thus diversified their cropping regimes to avoid the controlled crops, but also invested outside agriculture into other business ventures. Fifth, people diversified due to new opportunities emerging, for instance the discovery of diamonds in Manicaland provided people opportunities to provide services to the miners.
In the last 20 years, diversification in Zimbabwe has been a progressive process responding to different forces and imperatives. In the 1990s those who diversified and created self-employment were lauded for their courage to be entrepreneurs. In fact, when asked ones line of business, the response would be I am doing my own thing. Yet, today those who diversified into low market end businesses such as flea markets may be looked down upon by society. Why has society shifted attitudes? First, people diversified probably in large numbers due the difficulties caused by Zimbabwean politics that negatively affected the economy. Therefore, people sought any means available for their own survival. Young professional people who have been made redundant as companies closed rely on providing services in the informal sector (car services, home repair services, building and plumbing, electric repairs). People are no longer confined to specialization and are multi-skilled in activities that raise money for themselves and their families. In most of the urban areas the selling of seasonal fruits (oranges and bananas), roasted dry maize (maputi) and ground nuts, roasted maize cobs, seasonal vegetables (tomatoes, leafy veggies), cigarettes, juice cards (mobile phone recharge cards), newspaper vending, furniture disposal, selling of sand, quarry, bricks, are some of the common informal activities that have moved into the suburbs away from the formal vending sites. Second, people who were rendered jobless by the policy changes, diversified to deploy their talents to make money, and maintained core activities while doing other things. A case in point was double and triple jobbing to make ends meet. For instance, some commercial sex workers would engage in 20
I am doing my own thing

C2. What areas do people diversify to?
Rural livelihoods are based on a wide range of portfolios, and these have rapidly changed in the 10 years. Zimbabwes economy is largely agrarian therefore, most people were involved in this sector before venturing into other livelihood activities. Adults (men and women) tended to be stick to agriculture and they diversify to support agriculture than the other way round. Diversification was also Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
regarded as temporary for some, until such a time that it was viable to continue their agricultural activities. The proportion of men who entered the agriculture sector rose in the last 5 years reflecting the difficulties in formal employment, associated with the economic crisis. Education was noted as a key factor determining what livelihoods activities that people do. In general, we found that rural communities also support each other through providing labour paid in kind in various ways such as labour exchanges, use of implements, in the form of goods and services etc, which lessened the burden in certain physical activities. Vending also carries the largest proportion of people employed in the sector with women being in the majority. Reasons for this include minimal requirements for starting up vending enterprises, for example, low capital injection, proximity of suppliers and produce as well as minimal skills required to conduct the activity. This is followed by the crafts industry. The livelihood activities are distributed along gender lines with more men taking up activities such as brick laying, brick making, thatching, welding and carpentry; activities which are more physically demanding and are thus synonymous with the male sex. On the other hand, women are involved in traditionally female activities such as sewing, interior dcor.
that, unlike men, women have more responsibilities and factors to consider before shifting enterprises. In addition, men seek ventures that yield speedy returns therefore, they shift enterprises more frequently than women.
C4.
Attributes in livelihoods diversification
A vocabulary dominating: courage, talent, searching for kurarama (living/surviving), were the key attributes that dominated economic livelihoods diversification. In general, we found that people participated in different livelihood activities due to a variety of reasons. These include: Doing everything (Buya tinapangana/babazonke! or kukiya kiya): generally entrepreneurs had no lines of specialty. Women predominate in trade (flea markets, vegetable sales), where as men dominated the rural businesses, services, yet they are also the majority in agriculture; Education: they use literal levels as a tool for exploring opportunities, finding out the inability of different enterprises and how to manoeuvre systems as they go look for goods to resale. Physical fitness: for travelling is a key requirement, which the young were able to do to move voluminous goods in difficult transport systems for instance through using magonyeti (haulage trucks); The mean age being 18 to 45 years. Skills: a key example is skills requirement was in the area of fishing because to catch the fish one needed to be skilled in fishing and understanding water and its contents. For performing the performing arts, wood curving etc, one needed specialist skills for the business to make sense; Courage: the will power to be able to do something was commonly referred in the study 21 Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
C3.
At what stage do people diversify?
It seems that after years of doing a certain activity, people try out different other thing either because they are bored, are not making money, or they have found a new opportunity. In Zimbabwe, most of the business people have been operating for the past 510 years. Those with more than 10 years of business experience follow closely behind which means that more people tend to settle within their respective trades for relatively long periods of time. More women stay in business for longer periods of time than men. This can be attributed to the fact
as underpinning the success of livelihoods activities. In Binga the fishers noted the ability to survive the marauding crocodiles and hippos as a key attribute. Hard work: Much of the rural livelihoods activities requires hard work, with high levels of organisation (kurongeka). Labour: we found that a very few of the businesses employ outside labour the owner
is the sole owner and have a few employees who usually are related to the owner; Many are casual workers, trainees, and, especially in rural areas, family members. Risk takers: the young tend to be risk takers by going to unexplored and unfamiliar places. They have specific preference of activities that usually use their education.
The young tend to be risk takers by venturing into unexplored livelihood territories
22
PEOPLE IN ECONOMIC BASED LIVELIHOOD ACTIVITIES
More women are undertaking diverse livelihood activities across the country
23
D1. Who are the people diversifying their livelihoods?

The survey reveals that there is diversity in most peoples sources of income as people do not sorely rely on one enterprise for survival. Much of the livelihoods activities are dominated by own proprietorship, even though at times family members may contribute to the initial capital or to labour. A number of household members usually get to support a potentially viable venture involved in an activity. This could apply to families with their own business venture such as a shop or milling plant or a family that relies on agriculture and whose labour is provided by members of the household. In general, we found that the productive age group of 18 to 45 years dominated the rural microenterprises. On balance, there were more women than men in many of the dominant activities, yet in the lucrative sectors in income terms, there was stiff competition and women shied away. The petty commodity trade business was one of the major absorber of school leavers and those made redundant from work before retirement age. The limited opportunities forced them into the commodity trade business. On the other hand, the elderly, especially women tended to be absorbed in weave baskets business. The women in Binga explained that the younger women would source for the raw materials and elderly women would do the weaving at home. Gender roles were apparent. Men were the fishers as they used all manner of equipment from wooded homemade rowing boats to fishing Riggs. In this sector, women were relegated to the fish processing (cleaning, drying, selection) of which school children also helping during the school holidays. Marketing was also a key pre-occupation of women. The petty commodity trade used to have more women, but recently more men, especially 24
between the 18 and 45 years increased in that sector. On the other hand, men dominated illegal mining activities, with crop production being family oriented, but women and children providing the bulk of the labour. Men dominated in the ownership of large livestock (cattle, donkeys), with women owning small stock.
D2.
Gender dimension of livelihoods
Agriculture in the last 10 years has been unattractive for many people who lost jobs in the last 10 years and from a gender perspective, the mere fact that land is controlled by men provide complexities in the entry of women in nonagricultural sources of income. It must be underlined that many livelihood diversification strategies are frequently gender specific. In the search for income earning opportunities, rural dwellers have embarked on major socio-economic transformation. Social boundaries are being redrawn to maximize on livelihoods opportunities and the scramble for the opportunities has transformed the age-old gender and generational division of labour. In fact, women are undertaking a similarly wide range of diversification activities as men, but in many contexts, men are able to avail themselves to diversification opportunities that are not open to women due to cultural constraints. Women try to renegotiate this to protect themselves against the break-up of the household. The reality is that the same women engaged in petty trade, natural resources commercialization dabbles in food production activities, which creates an antagonistic situation. Mapping when (during any one season) and where women are positioned in household livelihood cycles based on the time for particular activities is significant for establishing the point of entry for government and other development agencies.
D3.
Youths and livelihoods diversity
In Zimbabwe youths took the so-called parallel market activities by storm at the height of the economic crisis. Youths were partaking diversified livelihoods activities by default simply because there was no alternative source of employment. Over time, the capacity of government and the private sector to absorb youth for formal employment came to a standstill, and many also migrated to seek for greener pastures in the neighbouring countries and beyond. At the same, time with the increase in discovery of minerals, such as gold and diamonds, the highly migratory youths criss-crossed the country, especially between 2006 and 2008 looking for opportunities. Yet, the formalisation of the economy from 2009, closed the loopholes that made youths make a lot of money through unproductive changing of money or reselling goods at very high prices. Many of the youths, have largely
been relegated to the reselling of juice cards, while others try out anything that provides them with an income. Rural youth's prospect of finding decent work has not grown in the last 2 years. Yet, in more diversified economies, rural youngsters have better options to find work outside of agriculture, especially if they have the required education and/or vocational skills. Such employment opportunities will often be located at a distance from their home villages. Thus, apart from education and skills, rural youth often migrate in order to access non-agricultural employment opportunities. Young people in Zimbabwe are generally better educated than their parents' generation and are likely to be more open to change. Therefore, focusing on livelihoods diversification, including broader empowerment programmes can provide youths with leeway to be gainfully engaged in livelihoods activities.
25
WHAT IS THE RESULT OF INVESTING IN LIVELIHOODS DIVERSITY?
Realising meaningful income from livelihood activities is the ambition of many
26
E1.
Income dimension of diversification
E2.
Asset dimension of livelihoods
In some contexts, rural non-farm activities can contribute to the smoothing of household income within a season, because income earned can complement farm income. Many livelihood activities such as pensions, off-farm work and remittances are critical to maintain adequate levels of wellbeing. In some cases, farming was the principal livelihood but was supported through sales of livestock, remittance payments or waged work. In other households, these support payments were the only means of cash income, as poorer households had few livestock and limited access to the means of farming. Non-farm income was used for the purchase of agriculture; inputs at a time when donor and government input subsidies had been withdrawn for the able-bodied and productive age groups. Those in the informal sector placed themselves on moral high grounds of being the Diaspora for their own relatives at home who depend on them for inputs on their activities. Therefore, flea market operators fund agriculture. However, they may not by the nature and scale of their earnings send regular remittances. They contribute to major one off or seasonal purchase for their families. The income derived from different enterprises in particular petty commodity trade was exaggerated.
There was a mixed experience on how the income gained from agriculture and non-agricultural sources was used. While, a significant proportion of respondents indicated that they did not acquire assets during the past 10 years, we found that after 2008 asset acquisition seem to have increased. Investment in crop inputs usually follows, and then livestock (small stock at first then cattle). In addition, building or improving a home are also relatively common but secondary to daily needs and human capital expenses. It was thus necessary to explore how remittances are contributing to livelihoods diversification. Money from other sources outside agriculture was mostly used to for daily survival, acquisition of kitchenware, and farm equipment. Households draw their modes of livelihood from quite distinct portfolios of activities. They have different asset bases, with the poorest households most limited in terms of capital assets. Those with capital asset bases and demonstrate flexibility in how they create positive livelihood outcomes and increased well-being. The ability to mobilize and use capital, skills and assets productively provides the biggest scope for wealth creation and off setting any risk for both poor and better off households. On the other hand, the negative livelihood outcomes for the poor, means that they require long term and strategic intervention than just giving them free handouts. The respondents suggested long training in different thematic areas with start up capital as key to changing their circumstances.
27
PREREQUISITIES FOR SUCCESS IN ECONOMIC BASED LIVELIHOODS ACTIVITIES
28
F1. Sourcing of capital for livelihoods diversity

Capital from formal institutions
Entrepreneurs in the various enterprises have never had access to finance from formal institutions and that the money they get has been from their social networks or the previous employment activities. There was no difference in response from rural entrepreneurs, flea market operators in urban or rural areas, as farmers. This is no surprise given that in the field sites there were fewer and no banking institutions physically, which meant that access to bank was a problem in the first place. A variety of reasons why rural entrepreneurs shunned the banks were given as: Fear of the elaborate paper work requirement (typically noted as filling forms); Fear of failing to pay back loans and losing assets (collateral demands by financial institutions); The demand for viable project proposals backed by collateral thus limiting lenders to only those with assets i.e. the rich The hyper-inflation experience until 2008, created distrust and lack of confidence in the banking system, making it difficult to trust financial institutions. The answers above reflect concerns of people who have lost confidence in the banking sector and who are willing to work invest and look after their families outside formal channels. In fact, a new parallel economy has emerged, which is difficult to account and trace in terms of its contribution to communities and the nation.
capacity to manage on their own. However, it was noted that their support was firstly in food provision followed by agricultural inputs. The presence of donor money in business was strikingly absent, with reference to vouchers for agro-dealers emerging as a frame to support agriculture that only started in 2010. In general rural businesses were optimistic that it was a noble form of intervention to resuscitate their businesses, but was regarded as too narrow in scope around agriculture. Amongst donors interviewed, we did not get a firm commitment to support diverse work on livelihoods, with much of the promises tilted towards agriculture or related sectors.
Personal capital generation: marounds

Micro-finance schemes called marounds or mikando organized by individual women have become the most popular means for raising capital for projects that range from agricultural (poultry), petty trading, investing in illegal mineral (gold) purchases, repairs, food processing (honey and spices) and marketing, imports of cheap goods and selling at inflated prices. Marounds, comprised of between three and twenty people who would each contribute portions of their daily profits. The money is given to one member of the club, on a rotational basis. As noted from the focused group discussion, marounds became a more convenient way of saving in stable environment where income-earning opportunities are low, or where financial markets are not fully operational. The participants could adjust the amount of the contributions at the beginning of each cycle. It was also easy for members to opt out of one cycle and rejoin in the next one depending on their financial situation. In discussing the role of marounds indicate that these schemes have been thrust upon the members by worsening economic circumstances. Rural people have weak linkages to banks and other formal29 Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
NGO and donor capital

NGOs and donors were hailed as having made significant contribution to communities at a time when government and families had very little
sector of loans. This means that the marounds are filling a specific gap in rural areas. Even when donors help with capital, there is still a need for banks to play an active role with the support of government through providing confidence in capital markets.
business persons. The barter system was preferred because: (i) there is minimum amount of a bioresource required to participate in barter system, (ii) food crop produce or fish can be used during exchange, (iii) plants and animals both could be the important material during exchange, (iv) sometimes cultural items (such as Tonga mats or stools) and handicrafts play a significant role to make exchange for services or groceries, (v) exchanges are not based on the design and visual quality of products; preference principle factors are the traditional values of the bio-resources, (vi) exchange is based on reciprocity and complementarities and (vii) barter is based on open access system (monopoly to exchange bio-resources are considered to be unethical). During the time of crisis access to barter system depends more on good relationships. The way barter system works suggests that exchanges contain the following elements based on relationship: (i) redistribution based on the degree of relationship, (ii) percentage of demand, traditional norms and access strategies of bioresources by a particular tribe and (iii) self sufficiency based on subsistence economy which helps to minimize over- exploitation of bio-resources.
Remittances as a source of capital for diversification
The downturn in the Zimbabwean economy and growing lack of waged work opportunities in major towns and cities obviously had a significant impact upon peoples daily lives as remittances were almost universally reported as having been important at some stage in peoples lives. The bulk of remittances were used primarily for consumption and then for investment in human capital including education, health, and better nutrition. We established during the qualitative interviews that the proprietors of flea markets had assistance from one or two relatives in the Diaspora. The assistance was either temporary (one off) and the cash made available was directly invested in acquisition of goods. For the food send, it did not directly contribute to the business, but provided breathing space for the cash they had for food was then invested in the acquisition of goods for the business. More in-depth surveys will be required because our analysis is based on a few interviews.
F2.
Role of technology
The ability to mobilize technology (assets) was a key driver of diversification. Therefore informal partnerships provided opportunities for people who did not have trade tools, creating a chain of benefits along the product chain, in this case mining. In view of capital challenges, the miners pointed that those with money need to be encouraged to form partnerships to procure equipment. However, rules are prohibitive, and for instance in the mining sector, the mineral detectors were regarded as an offense by the police, classifying them as encouraging illegal panning that finds its way to illegal markets and not to the state. From an 30 Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
Capitalisation through barter trading

The barter system served multiple purpose, chief which was enabling exchanges, but also serving as part of accumulation of capital, especially for rural
environmental perspective, the current gargets used for instance in tree cutting, of individual fishing (rowing wooded boats), tended to be appropriate and seem not to be the main culprit in over use of nature resources. It is when fishing Riggs (large boats) or fuel power wood cutters are introduced that there is significant damage. Thus introducing technologies has to be approached cautiously.
Zimbabwe. People are no longer connected by physical means as they can easily communicate. In fact, stiff competition among phone service providers has significantly lowered the prices of the gargets, but also of the service charges. When network connectivity was available, a businessperson could check the availability and prices of goods they require before embarking to order. This has largely compensated for the scarcity of transport and costs in most parts of rural areas. In general, transport tends to be operated by less capital-intensive methods such as scotch arts, bicycles, and donkeys. There were a few conventional long buses that were being used for multi-purposes of carrying goods for the business people and passengers. Due to the bad roads, the wear and tear reduced the life span of the buses, yet the operators charged social fees for the
It also must be noted that technology change can be negative on the growth of indigenous rural businesses. Labour-intensive household manufacturing of baskets, pottery, and roof thatching, have since died out, displaced by the import of cheap plastic pails, iron vessels, and corrugated roofing from urban factories. For this reason, household manufacturing may die out in rural areas. The demise of low- productivity household manufacturing explains, in part, why employment in services and commerce frequently grows faster than in manufacturing. Changes in consumer spending likewise contribute to faster growth in services and commerce. Consumption data indicate that as incomes rise, rural households increase spending on such services as education, health, transport, prepared foods, and transport faster than they do on local manufactured goods.
services.
F4.
Skills requirements
In many conversations with petty commodity traders, rural business people, rural artisans, youths and cultural artists, the dominant undercurrent to succeed in any livelihood activity is when one has the skills in whatever enterprise one is engaged in. The issue of skills has been side stepped in livelihoods diversification because there is a dominant view that Zimbabwean rural people require inputs (seeds and fertilizer) or access to credit. While, this is critical in the medium to long term, the communities are better off with greater access to skills across the livelihoods activities that they do. A few organisations that are highly centralised such as SEDCO and Empretec were noted to provide skills training, as well as NGOs through their interventions. However, the challenge was that skills development tended to be shortterm, narrowly focused on a theme/sector, and thinly spread only to beneficiary communities. 31 Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
F3.
Communication and transport
There is no question that the introduction of cell phones has revolutionalized livelihoods in
Skills training by NGOs were not comprehensive enough, as did not reach many entrepreneurs, while some had specific geographical areas they concentrated in. Government has its own training centres, for youths in particular but these were not of reach to nonyouths, while the curriculum tended to be too narrow. In fact years of economic declined had rendered many incapable of delivering skills development in a meaningful sense. In Zimbabwe, the need for human capital development following more than 10 years of under investment by government, private sector and donors is imperative. Most rural income diversifiers have no formal training in what they do and many depend on the job training.
remained depressed creating a situation of peddling small dollars for small projects that usual cannot meet market demand; Mismatch between supply and demand: Zimbabwe is concentrating efforts on the supply side in many sectors of the economy, yet the demand side (in terms of capacity to purchase and utilize services and goods) has rarely received attention. The results is that there is no creativity or innovation in the market place as people do more or similar things all the time, creating business failure in the process.
Natural factors: physical conditions can be a setback to the carrying out of livelihoods activities. These come in different forms such as the lack of roads (to facilitate the movement of inputs and outputs for particular livelihoods activities). The development of cottage industries linked to agriculture have not been realised, simply because agriculture has not thrived in areas such as Zvishavane and Binga dues to poor soil fertility, topography dominated by mountains, heat due to a coal belt beneath, and unreliable rainfall (climate change). These natural challenges can be overcome through broader infrastructural developments that make economic sense when there is a particular resources of higher premium benefits than the costs of the infrastructures as seem to be the case in the development of the road in new coal producing areas of Binga.
F5.
Market Linkages and challenges
The issue of market linkages has become stylish in many forums and workshops, without a clear practical solution of how it has to be done. The discussion has been pitched theoretically, while it has largely ignored the broader context of what the problem is and how to solve it. It was noted that market linkages has also been abuzz with NGOs, yet the realities is that there is need to re-examined broader market challenges that related to mostly poor market infrastructure, without significant investments in probably two decades or more. Entrepreneurs still depend on the same market infrastructure designed a long time ago that is incapable of meet their business expectations. Capital and markets: for markets to be functional and responding to the needs of entrepreneurs, there is a need for functional capital markets that in the case of Zimbabwe remains distant for a variety of reasons discussed earlier. It has become common to hear the language that the country has no liquid, hence capital markets have largely 32
Prohibitive policies and regulations: (e.g. mining laws, by-laws) were noted to be a hindrance that affect negatively on livelihoods activities. Many of the laws (and attitudes) Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
were derived from the colonial period, when and restricted them from getting into own businesses. Government has done much, but not enough to reform the laws. Hence, at times, government at their convenience uses the laws and applies them because they have not been changed. For instance, operation murambatsvina clearly had legal instruments backing the actions of the state, even though the context and manner in which it was done could be interpreted as too harsh. It is therefore urgent that laws be reviewed and reformed to reflect the changed nature of the Zimbabwean society. Poor services: lack of electricity and power cuts, intermittent access to water and other services underpinned by high tariffs for unavailable services negatively affect businesses. For instance, this significantly reduces options for diversity especially into activities that require electricity such as welding. While generators are the closest
laws were discriminatory against black people alternative option, the costs are often a deterrent. Market access challenges: the long distances to markets often leads to losses for those into market gardening as their produce may be spoilt by the time they reach the market. In the end most producers end up limiting their sales within the local areas. Market flooding also reduces bargaining power for profitable prices. Other producers however, also try to seek alternative markets in other areas. For produce such as sweet potatoes, the option of bread often reduces possible buyers. Women may not be allowed to go to the main urban markets due to fear of abuse, robbery or risks involved in night travel. For female-headed households, the women noted that it is more convenient to join groups so that they can go to the market as a group rather than as individuals for inputs they require in their informal businesses.
33
POSSIBLE AND REQUIRED INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT FOR LIVELIHOODS
Zimbabwe must work for the benefit of all...
34
G1.
Central government mechanisms
The broad goal of central government is to ensure that rural development is spread within the resources available throughout the country. To this end government allocates resources directly to Ministries that broadly touch on livelihoods. However, in view of the rise of the informal sector as key in the economy, there have been numerous challenges in terms of how the state (both central and local government) would respond to this sector. Local and central government bureaucracies are schooled in orderliness, rules and regulations that may be anti-livelihoods of the poor. With the progressive informalization of the economy government faced a dilemma. First, they did not want disorder and wanted people to follow rules and laws. Yet, there was a view that government itself was also breaking its own laws in various sectors of the economy as seen through the litigations against it by entrepreneurs seeking claims to resources or demanding services. Second, government wanted people to have an economic foundation for their families, and indigenization and economic empowerment also meant tacit encouragement of the informal sector. However, there was no national framework for the approval of the dissipated livelihoods activities in all sectors of the economy and geographical areas, which presented a governance nightmare for the state. response, the government then tended to be punitive to those in the informal sector as seen through policies on Operation Murambatsvina in 2005 targeting illegal structures mostly in urban areas, including home industries, flea markets, backyard rentals buildings, road side sales. This was followed by operation chikorokoza chapera in 2007 focusing on the small scale and panning sector of mining. Then, the price control machinery was put in place that though targeting the formal business (especially) retail sector, destroyed the product line of the informal sector. Though government was implementing constitutionally allowed rules and regulations, this tended to throttle the informal sector that it also wanted to grow to demonstrate the positive outcomes of the indigenization and economic empowerment policy. The halt to the state heavy handedness came with the formation of the inclusive government, introduction of market forces and a liberal attitude that came into government. This liberal stance, came from the reality that economically people had become destitute as the economy had grinded to a halt. 35 Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
as banks, manufacturing, industrial and retailing)
G2.
Local authorities
The RDCs play a co-ordinating role of local affairs, including the granting of permits and licenses to entrepreneurs in various sectors of the economy. They are charged with the formulation of by-laws in guiding people in their work, and the commons ones derived from the national statutes include health and safety by-laws, environmental etc. In addition, the local authorities collect user fees from entrepreneurs be it as individual proprietors of business of various types and scales of operations. In turn the expectation is that local authorities also provide services in the form of water, waste removal, road maintenance etc. They are complemented by central government and parastatals in the provision of such services. The unfortunate part is that revenue collection as described above has not been matched by service provision, which has irked rate-payers, entrepreneurs and even farmers resisting to pay anything to the councils. Over the years the revenue base of the local authorities had been negatively affected by the economic structural adjustment programme that promoted privatization of most of the authorities functions resulting in a lack of a revenue base for them. They further suffered from 2000 because government interfered with their functions to deliver services at highly controlled rates. The local tax base (commercial farmers, service companies such
was reduced as financial service providers pulled out from rural areas after the land reform programme. It is this context that explains their inability to assist with providing better services to informal sector business. At this stage, many are simply collecting revenue for services not provided. Developing the capacity of local authorities through human resources, capital development and investment in greater ICT capacity is long overdue.
G3. Community leadership supporting systems

Efforts at engaging in rural livelihoods depend on community support at many levels and leadership is critical. Leadership for development requires the mastery of representing people when they demand for better services, access to capital, development of infrastructure and so on as part of getting public services for their enterprises to succeed. In this context, traditional and elected leaders have a role to play. While the traditional leaders are the custodians of the land, and are responsible for cultural rituals, they equally determine how people accessing certain areas that may have resources, allowing for use of certain products such as trees. The traditional leaders are there for key in ensuring the sustainable utilisation of local resources. Elected leaders should play the role of representing local entrepreneurs in local authority forums such as RDC, while also interfacing with both the Public and Private sectors in service provision.
36
WHAT IS THE WAY TO GO WITH ECONOMIC BASED LIVELIHOODS DIVERSITY?
A clear roadmap for livelihoods diversity in Zimbabwe is required to help the poor and vulnerable move out of poverty
37
H1. A people based approach to livelihoods development

In Zimbabwe, there is no single patent recipe for livelihoods diversification. There is need for flexibility and transformations that are commensurate with the capacities of communities concerned. Engaging in livelihoods has a potential to help the poor to move out of poverty while also making a contribution to strong communities. However, for livelihoods diversity to work for poverty reduction there is need to decipher local practices so as to sufficiently know what poor people are doing by themselves to overcome poverty or to cope with it. Quite often NGOs and donors are entangled in some chimerical vision that guides programme strategies the latest trend, the newest model, the theory that happens to be in the ascendant at that time. Nevertheless, such programs tend quite often to replace and displace local effort.
capital development is one way to go, there are also other areas such as micro-finance that can be tried out. This means that development agencies can link different lending groups to existing micro-finance institutions.
H3. Enhancing partnerships and collective action

Creating partnerships and leveraging resources from government, private enterprises, and development agencies would be an effective strategy for rural development. This will streamline the problems of resources wastage as agencies who if they do not collaborate may end up investing in the same enterprises, which may not make an economic sense. In order to leverage resources Private-Public-Partnerships (PPPs) should be encouraged as a basis for scaling up enterprises through capital, skills and technical capacity mobilisation. This cannot be simply done with the current range of activities that largely are in the area of reselling or being appendages of companies providing services such as in the communication industry for instance. One way in which rural people can build capacities and collective strength for enterprise development is through organizing. Disadvantaged groups within communities can derive residual strength if they act in unison. Through collective action, without inhibiting individual talent, they gain confidence, knowledge, voice and abilities to regard themselves as partners. Coalitions and alliances forged through marketing of products that build beyond the local community and enable groups to join with others sharing their interests and concerns. It is such that they should not emerge to alienate some members of the community interested in the same resources for equally good reasons as those who are participating.
H2.
Match demand and supply
Matching peoples livelihood options to the market is essential if people are to develop those livelihood strategies to the point where they feel safe and satisfied within them. Likewise, being aware that too many people following the same employment or income earning activity in one area can quickly change market conditions in the negative. If supported, the enterprises should be able to generate local employment and improve local incomes. Such enterprises should have gender equity as a priority given that many women participate in these enterprises.
F3.
Capital and technical issues
Rural entrepreneurs have established their own ways of raising resources for their businesses and these ways require to be supported based on their own ways, but in a manner that they can also be attractive for financial institutions. While venture 38
H4. Capital and venture capital for rural development

Rural entrepreneurs have established their own ways of raising resources for their businesses and these ways require to be supported based on their own ways, but in a manner that they can also be attractive for financial institutions. While venture capital development is one way to go, there are also other areas such as micro-finance that can be tried out. This means that development agencies can link different lending groups to existing micro-finance institutions. There is a need to try out venture capital that can be facilitated to enter into capital venture relationship with the arts entrepreneurs, initially handling all complicated post-production activities but gradually capacity building and handing over these functions to the community entrepreneurs to manage as they gain experience. We feel this is more effective than trying to make livelihoods diversifiers simultaneously experts in production, marketing and processing of commodities and bearing all the risk. As part of the micro-finance programme there is need to create household insurance products which are generally under provided in all rural areas but which we feel are necessary to reduce risk exposure of rural entrepreneurs.
contribution going to where they come from. It is thus critical that there be organizational capacity at government and civil society level to facilitate community empowerment through livelihoods diversification. Where this is not possible, then there is need to lobby for policy and legislative changes so that the poor are not marginalized from the spaces and resources that they depend on.
H6. Facilitating learning and linking by communities
Rural people can identify rural enterprise and there is a need for capacity building to make their enterprises viable and profitable. Therefore providing people with new livelihood opportunities may overcome an existing problem but does not necessarily give them the capacity to adapt to future challenges. Building skills to help individuals and communities innovate in the face of future changes in their environment is key to long-term survival and growth. Building innovation skills and, more widely, providing support for continuing livelihood development is important. In terms of skills development in livelihoods, there is little point in building skills not in demand. In fact facilitating communities to exchange is the surest way in which communities can learn, as they can copy (borrow) practical ideas that they can implement in their own areas. 39 Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011
H5.
Strengthening development institutions
Whilst these are critical in rural development, they remain inadequate to meet the needs of local people. In fact, state financial resources rarely reach the local people to develop themselves as they are usually used for the odd infrastructural development (schools, roads, and clinics) here and there without any meaningful change in the livelihood status of the household. One key intervention is for communities to get tax concessions/relief from the state or that tax contributors (from the district working elsewhere) have a percentage of their
H7.
Influencing government policies
complement each other in a synergized way. There are a number of multi-stakeholder initiatives involving different donor agencies, governments, NGOs, the private sector and civil society organizations doing more or less the same things all mechanisms that support rural enterprise development. A livelihoods policy that runs across central government ministries should be central in identifying the supporting and co-ordinating mechanisms for a diverse range of livelihoods activities so that there is minimal policy conflicts. Key consideration should be how an enabling environment can be created for people to exploit local resources, how they can benefit from state resources allocations, appreciation of the laws that create the enabling framework for people to exploit opportunities etc. Given that many livelihoods issues are spread in many ministries (agriculture, transport, youth empowerment, local government, economic planning, SMEs, industry and commerce, tourism, education and culture etc), it is a mammoth task for ordinary citizens to know what takes place in each of the line ministries. Development agencies can be a portal for rural people whose access to these ministries is limited due to a variety of factors.
Effective and efficient resources utilization will depend on the collaboration between development agencies and state institutions in ensuring that the various interventions by the different agencies the time and everywhere. The enterprise development based on exploitation of local opportunities and natural resources has largely been focused on people than equally developing the leadership capacity in government and traditional leadership to provide support. In fact, RDCs at times do not have the capacity to support rural enterprises, yet stick to out dated bylaws and crude enforcement mechanisms that have not changed with the times.
H8.
Livelihoods policy
Local people should also be able to influence the policy environment. This means that the governance structures should exist and be of reach for local people to channel their concerns to the highest policy making institutions. Policy engagement by rural people would ensure that they get the best concessions (through policy benefits and resources) from the state. The macro-economic environment is critical in that it affords the community the enabling
40

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I am doing my own thing!

Prosper B. Matondi October 2011 Study commissioned by Oxfam, Harare, Zimbabwe

I am doing my own thing!

Prosper B. Matondi October 2011 Study commissioned by Oxfam, Harare, Zimbabwe

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

UNDERSTANDING LIVELIHOODS DIVERSITY IN ZIMBABWE

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

A1.Context of Livelihoods in Zimbabwe

Framework, developed by the Institute of Development Studies of the United Kingdom.

Economic dimension of livelihoods

Livelihoods Diversity Concepts

All about livelihoods

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

Why diversify livelihoods after all?

Prerequisites for livelihoods diversity

The downside of livelihoods diversification

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

A4. Importance of Livelihoods Diversification

Not everyone should be a farmer; life is more than farming.

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

ECONOMIC BASED LIVELIHOODS ACTIVITIES

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

B1. Diversification within the Context of Agriculture

Agricultural based opportunities

Agriculture as a livelihoods option

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

Rural Micro-enterprises and Services

Soft traditional informal activities

Rural business as a livelihood option

Rural artisanal services

Services sector & rural livelihoods dimension

Petty commodity and cross-border trading activities

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

Opportunities to diversify based on the following:

Constraining factors in the informal sector

Informal sector recommendations

Nature Based Rural Enterprises

Natural Resources Sectors

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

Recommendations on the Natural Resources Sector

Cultural Products and Services

Diversity and benefits from the sector

Recommendations for the sector

Challenges faced in the sector

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

GENESIS OF LIVELIHOODS DIVERSITY

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

What Causes People to Diversify?

I am doing my own thing

Attributes in livelihoods diversification

At what stage do people diversify?

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

PEOPLE IN ECONOMIC BASED LIVELIHOOD ACTIVITIES

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

D1. Who are the people diversifying their livelihoods?

Gender dimension of livelihoods

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

Youths and livelihoods diversity

Livelihoods Diversity Study, 2011

WHAT IS THE RESULT OF INVESTING IN LIVELIHOODS DIVERSITY?