Opportunities for decent work for women and youth and improved productivity for MSMEs in the Zimbabwe construction sector
The project seeks to improve the productivity of micro, small and medium construction enterprises, and to contribute towards addressing decent work deficits among vulnerable workers through decent working conditions and putting onto effect their labour rights. The project’s main target groups are particularly women and youth in Southern Africa.
9 May 2023
(ILO News, Harare) The ILO held a consultative workshop with key stakeholders of the construction sector to review preliminary results of a rapid market systems analysis of the Zimbabwe Construction Sector. The basis of the consultations was a rapid market systems analysis conducted to better understand the state of MSME productivity and working conditions and related challenges in the Zimbabwe construction industry.
The sector analysis found that MSMEs in the sector face challenges relating to formalization, productivity, and accessing markets, due in part to limited access to information, financial services, and limited skills. Consequently, MSMEs, and to an extent larger enterprises, struggle to provide decent working conditions to workers in the sector. Most workers in the sector, particularly those who are informally recruited, experience job insecurity, high occupational hazards, and limited access to social protection. In addition, limited technical skills and recognition informally acquired skills and competencies limit the workers’ ability to secure higher-paying and more decent working opportunities.
The analysis found that women in the sector who comprise 2.5% of the sector’s workforce experience structural challenges to entering the sector and securing decent jobs. Pre-defined gender roles and norms, discourage women from working in the construction sector whose occupations are deemed largely as a male occupation. The analysis further established that women in the sector are more likely to experience violence and harassment in the course of duty.
For employers, providing basic infrastructure such as separate ablution facilities and accounting for maternity leave and antenatal care leave are considered additional costs which discourage them from hiring women, particularly younger women. Better participation was noted for women working in the professional categories of engineering, architecture, quantity surveying and in office-based positions such as administration, financial management and human resource management.
Despite these challenges, there are opportunities to make systemic improvements in the sector that can benefit both workers and enterprises. These include expanding access to social protection, improving business management competencies, as well as strengthening and access skills development and certification for workers.
The rapid market analysis of the construction sector was conducted as part of a project on Decent Work for Southern Africa. The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), are implementing this three-year project (2023 – 2025) that seeks to promote productivity and decent working conditions and labour rights for young and vulnerable women and men in Southern Africa’s construction sector. The project will pilot interventions in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa, and facilitate knowledge sharing and engagement with SADC member states.
This 44-month programme, split between an 8-month inception phase to understand the construction sector and design interventions in collaboration with key stakeholders and a 36 month implementation phase to partner with among others, government, employers’ associations, trade unions, and sector market actors in executing activities that can catalyse positive change.
Using a market systems approach, the Project aims to contribute towards addressing root causes of limited productivity and decent work deficits, by working with both private and public sector players and, applying innovative intervention models that can be replicated and scaled across the country and for a more efficient and inclusive construction sector. With the support of the SADC Secretariat, lessons and experiences from the innovative intervention models will be used be documented and shared across the Southern Africa region to inform and advocate for scaling up and policy reform documented and shared across the Southern African Region.
The sector analysis found that MSMEs in the sector face challenges relating to formalization, productivity, and accessing markets, due in part to limited access to information, financial services, and limited skills. Consequently, MSMEs, and to an extent larger enterprises, struggle to provide decent working conditions to workers in the sector. Most workers in the sector, particularly those who are informally recruited, experience job insecurity, high occupational hazards, and limited access to social protection. In addition, limited technical skills and recognition informally acquired skills and competencies limit the workers’ ability to secure higher-paying and more decent working opportunities.
The analysis found that women in the sector who comprise 2.5% of the sector’s workforce experience structural challenges to entering the sector and securing decent jobs. Pre-defined gender roles and norms, discourage women from working in the construction sector whose occupations are deemed largely as a male occupation. The analysis further established that women in the sector are more likely to experience violence and harassment in the course of duty.
For employers, providing basic infrastructure such as separate ablution facilities and accounting for maternity leave and antenatal care leave are considered additional costs which discourage them from hiring women, particularly younger women. Better participation was noted for women working in the professional categories of engineering, architecture, quantity surveying and in office-based positions such as administration, financial management and human resource management.
Despite these challenges, there are opportunities to make systemic improvements in the sector that can benefit both workers and enterprises. These include expanding access to social protection, improving business management competencies, as well as strengthening and access skills development and certification for workers.
The rapid market analysis of the construction sector was conducted as part of a project on Decent Work for Southern Africa. The International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), with support from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), are implementing this three-year project (2023 – 2025) that seeks to promote productivity and decent working conditions and labour rights for young and vulnerable women and men in Southern Africa’s construction sector. The project will pilot interventions in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa, and facilitate knowledge sharing and engagement with SADC member states.
This 44-month programme, split between an 8-month inception phase to understand the construction sector and design interventions in collaboration with key stakeholders and a 36 month implementation phase to partner with among others, government, employers’ associations, trade unions, and sector market actors in executing activities that can catalyse positive change.
Using a market systems approach, the Project aims to contribute towards addressing root causes of limited productivity and decent work deficits, by working with both private and public sector players and, applying innovative intervention models that can be replicated and scaled across the country and for a more efficient and inclusive construction sector. With the support of the SADC Secretariat, lessons and experiences from the innovative intervention models will be used be documented and shared across the Southern Africa region to inform and advocate for scaling up and policy reform documented and shared across the Southern African Region.