By Own Correspondent

THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU)  has revived the formalization agenda amid urgent calls  on the government to adopt sensible policies to turn around the country’s fortunes and tap into the vast local potential.

The leading federation was the first to organize the informal sector players, a development which culminated in the creation of the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations.

Irked by lack of consistency in turning around the sector, the federation recently held focus group discussions conducted with assistance of the International Labour Organisation – ACTRAV which sought to gather data in relation to responding to the call for the National Formalisation Strategy for Zimbabwe.

 According to official estimates, almost 5, 2 million people trade in the informal economy in Zimbabwe, 65 percent of whom are women who are more exposed to informal employment in most low- and lower-middle income countries and are more often found in the most vulnerable situations.

The Southern Africa nation has failed to attain intended socio-economic development outcomes for reasons which experts have partly attributed to a narrow formal sector targeted policy structure side lining the majority in the informal sector.

Against the background, organised labour has made bold recommendations for government authorities to urgently tilt policy implementation structure towards the informal sector.

“National development programs and strategies like budget allocations must reflect the fact that the informal economy is the largest sector hence almost 80 percent the budget allocation should be thus. There must be support for institutions providing incubation facilities in a transparent manner like Financial Securities Exchange,” the declaration said.

In terms of public procurement, the unions suggested that policies and laws should be put in place to create the requisite environment through transparency in public procurement and correction of issues picked by the auditor general amid calls for government and local authorities to be seen visibly supporting small scale operators.

The labour representatives also called on the National Social Security Authority government to capitalise efforts like the Growth Enterprise Market-Portal so that retrenches, informal economy traders, Micro Small to Medium Enterprises can be incubated in preparation to access long-term finance.

Speaking to The Worker on the declaration, ZCTU’s Head of Parliamentary Affairs, Advocacy and External Relations, Vimbai Zinyama, who was lead facilitator during the engagements said policy transformation will be the only way to unlock the untapped potential.

“That is key because these will create an environment for turning key strategies to become implementable and then transform the environment. The growth of the informal economy is a result of exclusionary policies that have prevailed for a long time and so to reverse and replace with developmental and transformative strategies appropriate policies must be in place and be considered at every turn of the development agenda,” she said.