Zim women, girls marginalised from social protection

Zimbabwe’s level of social protection is still low with rural women and girls extremely marginalised from the existing social protection rollouts despite accounting for a significant portion of the population.

Statistics from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) show that while the rural population makes up 61 percent of the total population–with the majority being women–their access to social protection remains limited.

In 2022, the country allocated 0,7 percent of total gross domestic product (GDP) towards social protection, which was below the regional average of 1,5 percent.

In comparison, South Africa’s Child Support Grant and the Old Persons Grant are the two major programmes that make up the social protection floor in SA. The neighbouring country has also made notable progress in expanding benefits to children and the elderly as well as extending the Unemployment Insurance Fund to include domestic workers who are mostly women.

First Mutual Holdings chief executive Mr Douglas Hoto highlighted the gap in Zimbabwe especially with regards to women in the informal, small to medium enterprise (SME) sector despite representing a significant portion of the economy.

“They remain marginalised in current or existing social protection rollouts,” said Mr Hoto at the insurance regulators retreat in Harare last week

“The informal economy, domestic workers and migrant workers are excluded from the national security schemes,” he added.

Workers in the informal sector rely on schemes that are self-initiated or operated by private sector players.

According to the 2022 Finscope Survey, the SME sector contributes over 60 percent of the country’s GDP.

Despite such a huge contribution to the economy, the sector is exposed to risks such as illness and maternity as well as old age and death, which are all not covered.

“It doesn’t exist for the ordinary person here, maybe in big cities like Harare, but this side of the country it is a luxury. You cannot even talk of social protection here when some basics like financial literacy and financial inclusion are very low.

“Ignorance and the prevailing economic challenge are our biggest problems. Right now people just want to have food on their tables for now, so they just work with what is available,” Mrs Handina Mwaera, a retired school teacher running a flea market in Murewa, about 100 km east of Harare, told The Herald Finance & Business.

When asked about social protection, 32-year-old Mavis Sibiya from Zhombe in the Midlands Province said she had no idea what social protection is about or her rights to such social safeguards as an employee.

“I have to go to work for money and that is all,” she said.

Social protection, or social security, is a human right and is defined as the set of policies and programmes designed to reduce and prevent poverty and vulnerability throughout the life cycle.

It includes benefits for children and families, maternity, unemployment, employment injury, sickness, old age, disability, and survivors, as well as health protection.

In Zimbabwe, although there are plans to increase social protection under the National Development Strategy (NDS1) to 85 percent of the population by 2025, the current coverage is still low at 37 percent as of 2019.

With women and girls making up most of the domestic workers and informal sector, they remain largely excluded.

In Zimbabwe, the Government remains the largest source of financing for social protection contributing 97 percent.

“Social protection in Zimbabwe suffers from narrow coverage, limited resources, the erosion of benefits by inflation and exchange rate issues, high administrative costs, the dispersion of target populations over large geographical areas,” said Mr Hoto highlighting the need to expand coverage to the informal sector especially women and girls in rural areas.

“Targeting and beneficiary selection challenges remain a huge hindrance to effective rollouts,” he added.

But Zimbabwe is not alone. It is a global challenge that is more prevalent in Africa, which remains the region with the lowest social protection coverage, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Data from the ILO Social Security Inquiry (SSI) database shows most of Africa’s inhabitants have no access to social protection systems.

Its report – Africa Regional Social Protection Strategy 2021-2025 shows that 17,4 percent of Africa is covered by at least one social protection benefit (effective coverage).

The coverage in Latin America and the Caribbean is 56,3 percent while Northern America, Asia and the Pacific, and Eastern Europe are at 78,5 percent, 44,1 percent and 84,6 percent respectively.

Northern, Southern and Western Europe have the highest coverage at 90,4 percent while South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific is at 61,5 percent.