Pro-Poor Sustainable Growth and Economic Development: a ZUNDAF Priority

Speaking at a media breakfast meeting organised as a build-up to the 2014 UN Day, the ILO Country Director a.i., Ms Hopolang Phororo shared the following statement:

Like many developing countries, Zimbabwe is facing challenges in growing its economy and fighting poverty, unemployment and underemployment. Tackling these challenges and ensuring economic growth and development has required a multifaceted approach that combines both macro-and-micro-economic interventions and addresses both the quantity and quality of employment and economic growth.

The UN has thus been supporting Government and other stakeholders to promote pro-poor, sustainable growth and economic development. The United Nations in Zimbabwe has articulated this support around three main outcomes:

1. Enhanced economic management and pro-poor development policies and strategies;
2. Increased access to livelihoods and decent employment opportunities especially for youths and women;
3. Improving generation and utilisation of data for policy and programme development and implementation by government and other partners.

The UN is supporting implementation of the national macro-economic blue-print, ZIM-ASSET. Efforts have been made towards production and dissemination of relevant data for evidence-based policy and decision-making as well as tackling poverty in all its dimensions through supporting creation of economic opportunities for the most vulnerable groups of society, especially women, young women and men.

She highlighted the achievements to date as follows:

• Close to 10,000 youths have been trained for self or wage employment with an employment rate of approximately 90%;
• Over 800 small businesses owners in the informal economy supported in various trades, with these businesses showing significant increases in profitability.
• National Debt Management and Financial Analysis computer system upgraded and government finance and accounting officers trained
• Capacity building of the Public Finance Management System.
• Seven major national surveys (LFS, PICES, and MICS) & studies supported, including the 2012 National Population Census and the 2011/12 Poverty, Income and Consumption Expenditure Survey.
• Several national and sectoral policy initiatives have been supported; trade and industry, labour migration, youth, HIV/AIDS et al

Looking into the future, the ILO will be:

• Supporting employment friendly policies, investments and programmes in line with ZIM-ASSET to alleviate poverty through productivity improvements and value-addition in value chains in the informal and rural economies
• Making employment creation a key macro-economic target for government’s programmes as a key driver for poverty alleviation
• Addressing the challenge of unemployment and underemployment especially amongst young women and men through skills development and entrepreneurship development