The impoverishment of formal sector workers and the social protection implications in urban Zimbabwe

Although some commentators make claims of potential trade-offs, there are complementarities between economic and social development, hence the imperative of synchronization of development thinking. Succinctly, the enhancement of socioeconomic security of the majority requires pursuing a development strategy that keeps inflation in check especially that of basic commodities. This paper analyses the massive impoverishment of the urban formal workers that has defined 21st century Zimbabwe and the social protection implications thereof. The government‟s Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) of the year 2000 among other factors, is evidently at the roots of the socio-economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe both technically and politically. For various reasons and interests the FTLRP was a highly contested policy both home and away despite its necessity. The resultant disruptions in the agriculture sector spawned food shortages and hyperinflation degenerating into general economic failure causing untold suffering to ordinary Zimbabweans including formal sector workers. The failure of social protection to help out the incumbent formal sector workers is not only a result of the magnitude of the problem but also questionable are its organising principles. Social assistance programmes in Zimbabwe tend to be shaped more by international influences than domestic constituencies often to the exclusion of formal sector workers. Thus, the overriding factor in Zimbabwe as in many developing countries is neo-liberal globalization which threatens both „independent‟ economic and social policy. -- Relevance to Development Studies -- Poverty is an international cause of concern and one of the chief development challenges. Expansion of formal sector employment and social protection is being pursued the world over as a possible route out of poverty for majority. However, for a decade now, in Zimbabwe these efforts witnessed severe reversal, presenting a development challenge. Thus this study is relevant to development studies as it tried to understand the underlying causes of the Zimbabwean crisis and see how these are related to and affect economic and social development.