Changing the Game: Green Jobs for a Better Future
26 October 2021
Creating sustainable, productive green jobs is a key priority in Zimbabwe where the informal economy is predominant. ILO defines green jobs as decent jobs that contribute to preserve or restore the environment, be they in traditional sectors such as manufacturing and construction, or in new, emerging green sectors such as renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Launched in 2017, ILO-Zimbabwe’s Green Enterprize project is focused on equipping small and medium scale enterprises with skills development, entrepreneurship and responsible business practices to foster a transition to a future of work that is smarter, fairer and supports resilient and adaptable communities.
According to ILO’s Green Jobs Progress Report: 2014-2015,
“ … green job creation and the greening of existing jobs, enterprises and economies are an essential means of achieving sustainable development and providing decent work for all.”
Green jobs help increase the climate resilience of countries and communities. If properly designed and managed, green jobs can foster social inclusion and gender equality and contribute to the eradication of poverty.
The project, implemented by ILO-Zimbabwe, with support from the Government of Sweden in collaboration with the Government of Zimbabwe, EMCOZ and ZCTU, aimed to contribute to solving a series of inter-related development problems, such as high levels of youth employment, low levels of formal and growth-oriented entrepreneurship and unsustainable production processes of SMEs in Zimbabwe.
Expanding access to skills for green jobs and markets for green products and services
Supporting green, growth-oriented SMEs through an Innovation Challenge and Business Development Programme
Enhancing productivity and competitiveness through workplace cooperation
Despite that “sustainable and inclusive growth, productivity and jobs” equation is what all governments are trying to solve in an era of climate change, the concept of the green economy and green growth remains relatively new to Zimbabwean entrepreneurs, as well as to the general public.
Self-employed workers, micro-enterprises, and small- and medium-sized enterprises have the potential to create jobs and improve livelihoods in Zimbabwe. However, the informal economy is often characterized by small or undefined work places, unsafe and unhealthy working conditions, low levels of skills and productivity, low or irregular incomes, long working hours and lack of access to information, markets, finance, training and technology. Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face a weakened business environment, and often lack access to financial and business development service.
Informality is addressed directly in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8.3 which calls for “... promoting development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises including through access to financial services.” Through its work to promote decent jobs and social justice for all, the ILO's mandate cuts across all of the Sustainable Development Goals.
It is crucial to address the decent work deficits affecting the informal economy so that informal economy workers have a chance to escape situations of working poverty. To secure job-rich sustainable growth and a transition to a future of work that is smarter, fairer and supports resilient and adaptable communities, Zimbabwe must shift toward long-term productivity and earnings across all economic sectors.
"Green jobs are decent jobs that contribute to preserve or restore the environment, be they in traditional sectors such as manufacturing & construction, or in emerging green sectors such as renewable energy & energy efficiency. Zimbabwe can unlock new opportunities for sustainable growth, by ensuring that people’s jobs and well-being are at the centre of the transition to a carbon-neutral and climate-resilient economy”
Promoting Decent Work
To promote decent work, there needs to be a comprehensive and integrated strategy cutting across a range of policy areas and involving a range of institutional and civil society actors that eliminates the negative aspects of informality, while preserving the significant job creation and income generation potential of the informal economy. It should promote the protection and incorporation of workers and economic units in the informal economy into the mainstream economy.According to ILO, the causes of problems associated with informal employment systems stem from, among other things, historical gender inequality where women, and especially young women, do not have access to equal technical skills and entrepreneurship development opportunities. In addition, the current education system does not produce work ready graduates and neither graduates with entrepreneurial skills and competencies, which results in both young men and women struggling to find employment as well as struggling to start their own businesses.
"The project managed to support green and growth oriented male and female owned small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) stimulate the market for green products and services through expansion of access to skills for green jobs and through the greening of existing enterprises. The ultimate goal is the creation of green and decent jobs for women and men, and especially young women and men, through sustainable enterprises,”Tafadzwa Chirinda, National Project Coordinator of the Green Enterprize project.
The project also fostered the participation of technical vocational education and training (TVET) institutions, business development services (BDS), training providers, business associations, media and communication agencies, private sector development programmes, and public, private, and community-based learning initiatives.
The project developed competency-based curricula for TVET institutions, especially for the renewable energy and agriculture sectors. So far, 30 institutions are using the newly-developed training packages and the teachers have built their capacities to adopt competency-based training approaches.
Young women and men are likely to increase their employability if equipped with skills that meet a rapidly changing demand from the modern labour market. Against this background, the project strengthened professional training institutions and community-based skills development initiatives in Zimbabwe in two ways, i.e., through the development of new qualifications standards and training pathways that provide access to skills for a green economy and enhancing the capacity of teachers and TVET institutions to develop and deliver competency-based training and to partner with private sector to establish work-based learning programmes
As a result of the project, innovative green, growth-oriented SMEs enterprises, owned by young women and men, gained access to financial and non-financial business development services. The project managed to achieve the following:
- 75 growth-oriented SMEs expanded with the support of green business development services
- 1,000 green jobs were created, and half of them were filled by women
- 500 SMEs and entrepreneurs gained access to green business development services
As part of the Green enterPRIZE project, an Innovation Challenge was held since 2017 to identify green, growth-oriented enterprises through annual competitions and provide the winners with technical support to develop and create more and greener jobs, while improving existing ones.
The innovation challenge aimed to support and stimulate the market for green products and services through expansion of access to skills for green jobs and through the greening of existing enterprises.
“Sweden gives high priority to the creation of green and decent jobs, particularly for youth and women. We believe that productive, sustainable and decent work is key to green economic development and the reduction of poverty, particularly in light of the dual challenge of climate change and youth unemployment,” said Ms. Sofia Calltorp, Sweden’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe at the launch of the Green enterPRIZE Innovation Challenge.
Overall, the Green enterPrize project has fostered a culture of green entrepreneurship and sustainable enterprise development by increasing the viability of businesses and demonstrating the potential for green jobs creation across all economic sectors.