THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND INFORMAL ECONOMY ASSOCIATIONS IN ZAMBIA Johannesburge, South Africa...
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Transcript of THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND INFORMAL ECONOMY ASSOCIATIONS IN ZAMBIA Johannesburge, South Africa...
THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS AND
INFORMAL ECONOMY ASSOCIATIONS IN
ZAMBIA
Johannesburge, South Africa 10-14 December 2007
BACKGROUND
• CISEP brainchild of ZCTU
• Established in 1998 in collaboration with FES and GTZ/STEP-IN
WHAT IS CISEP
• Concept for employment promotion through micro enterprise development
• It aims at creating opportunities for self-employment and contributing to alleviation of poverty while enhancing economic growth
It facilitates formal links between;• Informal economy workers• Micro entrepreneurs• Relevant service providers• Assists in matching of informal sector
services and goods to customer demandsOperations;• Through networks of satelite offices
located in areas of high demand• Co-ordination offices located in Kitwe and
Lusaka
MISSION STATEMENT
CISEP is a concept for employment promotion in the formal and informal economy in Zambia. It aims at creating opportunities for (Self-) employment and contributing to the alleviation of poverty and enhancing economy growth
CISEP OBJECTIVES
• It aims at providing information, counselling and short term services to the ultimate groups of informal economy workers, micro entrepreneurs, employment seekers and retrenchees/retirees.
CISEP BOARD
• Constitutes primarily on basis of direct linkage to the issues of informal economy employment promotion
• Facilitate the process of integrating CISEP into existing systems
MAJOR ACTIVITIES
• Identification/mobilization of retrenchees, retirees, youths and women
• Provision of Basic Business Management and Technical Skills training
• Provision of linkages to other services providers
• Facilitating for formation of trade associations
• Provision of business counselling
• Management of HIV/AIDs to SMMES
• Facilitation of management of trade association leadership skills
• Organize and conduct seminars/workshops
Basic Business Management/Awareness• Business Awareness training• Generate Your Business Idea (GYBI)• Start Your Business (SYB)• Improve Your Business (IYB)• One-up Business Management training• Formation and management of Informal
economy associations
Technical Skills Training
• Tie and Dye• Batik• Flower Arrangement• Oyster Mushroom growing• Roof construction• Upholstering• Commercial Food processing (Meat Processing)• Professional cake-making and decoration
CISEP NETWORK
• 10 service centres operating in different institutions in Zambia
• Copperbelt has three (3) located at ZCTU,MUZ and Wusakile UCZ
• Operations are conducted in a uniform manner
• Monthly meeting are held to report on activities and share experiences
CISEP CONCEPT
• Developed in view of the increasing informal sector activities
• Provides link between service providers and informal economy workers
Types of CISEP Service Centres
• Co-ordination offices
• Satelite service centre
TYPES OF SERVICES
Business information provisionTraining programmesMarket opportunitiesSources of finance on entrepreneurship
and self-employmentAdvice and counsel on business basic
Types of Services
Facilitate Training in;
Basic management and technical skill training
Formation and management of trade associations
Coaching and follow-up for individual clients
TRUCK RECORDYear Clients visits to the
centreClients trained in various courses
1998 300 -
1999 350 305
2000 1108 153
2001 1018 177
2002 1124 540
2003 1611 894
2004 1027 378
2005 1624 350
2006 410 87
THE APEX BODY OF INFORMAL SECTOR ASSOCIATIONS
• AZIEA is a national representative umbrella organization with 13 affiliates
• Individual membership is over 1 million
• Its constituency includes, market, street vendors, cross board traders, carpenters, peasant farmers.
• AZIEA was formed in 2001
• With a purpose of uniting informal economy workers and strengthening the voice and power of representation
• Its national secretariat is housed at ZCTU
• With three (3) full time employees
• General Secretary, National Coordinator and National Organizing Secretary
LINKAGES WITH THE TRADE UNION FEDERATION
• AZIEA is an associate member-affiliate of Zambia Congress of Trade Unions
• ZCTU has shown solidarity by joining and participating in campaigns organized by AZIEA and issuing press statements on issues affecting informal economy workers
• ZCTU also invites AZIEA to participate in organized activities of the national federation including, labour day celebrations, protests relating to labour rights, organizing education workshop on workers and civil rights
• ZCTU includes AZIEA in its delegation to international meeting e.g. International Labour conference in Geneva
SALIENT CONDITIONS/CONSTRAINTS FACED BY INFORMAL ECONOMY
WORKERS IN ZAMBIAi. No legal frameworkii. Lack of social security for informal economy workersiii. Lack of representation in policy dialogue and decision makingiv. No institutional forums for negotiationsv. Continued harassment from various types and levels of authorities (Local
Authorities, Police, Zambia revenue authority, including party cadres of the political party in power)
vi. Allocation of trading sitesvii. Evictions from trading placesviii. Unilateral increase of levies or taxesix. Registration system for informal economy tradersx. Lack of recognition and protection of rights in lawxi. Undermining by public authoritiesxii. Negative social attitude towards women and towards informal economyxiii. Corruptionxiv. Political manipulationxv. Lack of continuity in local government after political or structural changesxvi. Health and safety
GOVERNMENT POLICY
• There seems to be no comprehensive policy framework out lining the goals of government objectives principles etc as regard the economy
• Uncoordinated and piece meal interventions such as the establishment of the small enterprises development board (SEDB), the Technical Education and Vocation training Authority (TEVETA) and the initiative in ZCTU under CISEP (Concept for Informal Sector Employment Promotion.
• Reading through the labour market and employment draft policy document, one notes that may be there is no overt informal economy policy per-se
• Government believes that this economy is a transient phenomenon and will therefore pass away when the small medium Enterprises (SMEs) have been assisted to graduate into main stream industrial economy –
• Of course we know better, the informal economy is here to stay.
• Infact the ILO admitted that “ it would be unrealistic to assume that the informal economy will be residly integrated into the modern economy”
CHALLENGES FACING AZIEA
a) Instilling the spirit of struggle in the informal economy workers
b) Uniting all informal economy organizations into one organization with a strong voice
c) To have man women leaders in the informal economy organizations
d) To have independent and democratic workers organization in the informal economy
e) To have strong financial base to carry out programmesf) Coping with HIV/AIDs pandemicg) Identification and articulation of national issuesh) To be recognized as workers and workers
representative organizations
CONCLUSION
• The contents of this report represents important action and activities that have taken place since the inception of the CISEP approach
• It also contains efforts made by various stakeholders who participated in the improvement of the concept
• Several attempts were made to help CISEP achieve its objectives in the promotion of self-employment
• The fact that the concept has not been fully understood by some institutions and individuals , clear means that sensitization programmes must be an on going activities to reach out to many other service providers.