Informal sector women lobby for economic justice
THE Economic Justice for Women Project (EJWP) has launched a socio-economic rights campaign to push for economic justice for young women in informal work.
Zimbabwe is now highly informalised at 90% and women are the majority in the informal sector.
Women are finding it difficult to assess financial benefits or services to support their informal businesses.
The campaign calls for respect of socio-economic rights, social service delivery, infrastructure development, access to affordable basic health, access to potable water and access to quality waste management, among others.
EJWP director Margaret Mutsamvi told NewsDay that the physical and online campaign will be spearheaded by young women in the informal sector who will train other women on socio-economic rights, fiscal literacy and transformative feminist leadership through the support of the Netherlands embassy.
“We hope that we achieve increased capacity in interpreting and understanding socio-economic rights as provided by the Zimbabwean Constitution, creation of safe spaces for young women to actively lead and demand their socio-economic rights. In the long term we are hoping to create a gender responsive public service delivery system in peri-urban areas and increase active participation of young women in leadership and democratic community development processes,” Mutsamvi said.
She said the young women would soon submit a petition to Parliament and local authorities asking legislators and councillors to move motions pushing for legal reforms to ensure that the informal economy is safe for women and responds to their needs.
The petition will also push for gender responsive social service delivery and measures to ensure the financial liberty of women.
Mutsamvi said their trainings have been effective as communities are now able to demand accountability from their councillors.
“The campaign is running under the Hashtag #ATimeToAct. It’s a challenge to the rights holders, meaning that no one is coming to act on our behalf. It’s our task to act. The young women have also taken it upon themselves to educate others on socio-economic rights and leadership,” she added.