By Own Correspondent

THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) has called for the enactment of a pro-jobs creation National Budget statement for a meaningful trickle down of economic dividends.

In a pre-2026 National Budget Presentation Paper submitted to Parliament recently, the ZCTU said a point of departure to achieve such an objective would be the adoption of pro-employment macroeconomic policies which provide the necessary foundation for pro-employment budgeting.

“A pro-employment macroeconomic policy entails “[t]he use of monetary, fiscal and exchange rate instruments to create a policy environment that is conducive for economic growth and decent employment creation, while maintaining ‘macroeconomic stability,” reads the statement.

The most influential labour federation said this would imply the adoption of a dual mandate such that macroeconomic policy serve as both guardians of stability- price and financial stability; and agents of development – full employment.

“However, having good policies is not enough. Quite often, the lack of coordination and implementation poses a serious constraint. Critically, there is a need for effective ways to guarantee implementation. This implies that first and foremost, leadership and mandate is required from the highest level,” the federation said.

Secondly, the ZCTU said there is need for a deliberate and explicit employment-focus in the budget – which happens through Pro-employment budgeting (PEB) and crucially, including employment objectives and targets in budgets is often the missing link.

“Pro-employment budgeting is such that “…all the policies and budgets of all state-run structures include an employment aspect throughout the budgetary cycle (design, performance, follow up)” (ILO). Proactive pro-employment budgeting is about integrating, or mainstreaming, an employment perspective in the planning and budgeting process of a country’s government.

“This entails mobilizing and allocating resources to implement policies to meet the objective of creating decent jobs,” the ZCTU said.

PEB will use tools and methodologies with a common requirement to ensure that employment issues are mainstreamed in all budget documents and procedures, at the various stages of budget preparation, implementation, monitoring, and reporting.