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Country informationRecent political changes in Zimbabwe raise hope for the many poor and disadvantaged people in this country. However, the government of Zimbabwe faces difficult economic problems.
Since 2000 the number of orphans and vulnerable children in Zimbabwe increased tremendously. Child labour can be found (amongst others) on large scale farms, in the peasant sector, tea and coffee estates, mines, in domestic employment and in 'street' jobs.
School fees have gone beyond the reach of many. Faced with an ever-decreasing income the households have to make a choice between food and school fees. Watch a striking video on YouTube on teachers in Zimbabwe.
Check the Africa Tour reporters' weblog on Zimbabwe!
| Official name: | Republic of Zimbabwe |
| Form of government: | parliamentary democracy |
| Head of state and government: | President Robert Mugabe |
| Capital: | Harare |
| Official language: | English |
| Monetary unit: | Zimbabwe dollar |
| Population estimate: | 12,382,920 (July 2008 est.) |
Age structure:
0-14 years: 37% (male 2,314,527/female 2,270,998)
15-64 years: 59.4% (male 3,704,689/female 3,656,173)
65 years and over: 3.5% (male 197,821/female 238,712) (2008 est.)
Median age:
Total: 20.3 years
male: 20.2 years
female: 20.4 years (2008 EST.)
Population growth rate:
0.568% (2008 est.)
Literacy:
Definition: age 15 and over can read and write English
total population: 90.7%
male: 94.2%
female: 87.2% (2003 est.)
Primary school net enrolment 2000-2004 (source: UNICEF 2006):
Male: 79 %
Female: 80%
Secondary school net enrolment 200-2004 (source: UNICEF 2006):
Male: 35%
Female: 33%
Child labour percentage (5-14 years) 1999-2004 (source: UNICEF 2006):
26%
Ratified Conventions ILO:
138 on Minimum Working Age
182 on Worst Forms of Child Labour (Source: ILO 2008)
Education expenditures - percent of GDP:
4.6% (2000)
Natural resources:
Coal, chromium ore, asbestos, gold, nickel, copper, iron ore, vanadium, lithium, tin, platinum group metals
Land use:
Arable land: 8.24%
permanent crops: 0.33%
other: 91.43% (2005)
GDP - per capita (PPP):
$200 (2007 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
Agriculture: 18.1%
industry: 22.6%
services: 59.3% (2007 est.)
Labour force:
4.032 million (2007 est.)
Labour force - by occupation:
Agriculture: 66%
industry: 10%
services: 24% (1996)
Unemployment rate:
80% (2005 est.)
Population below poverty line:
68% (2004)
Agriculture - products:
Corn, cotton, tobacco, wheat, coffee, sugarcane, peanuts; sheep, goats, pigs
Industries:
Mining (coal, gold, platinum, copper, nickel, tin, clay, numerous metallic and non-metallic ores), steel; wood products, cement, chemicals, fertilizer, clothing and footwear, foodstuffs, beverages
Free elections
UN sanctions and a guerrilla uprising finally led to free elections in 1979 and independence from Great Britain (as Zimbabwe) in 1980. Robert MUGABE, the nation's first prime minister, has been the country's only ruler (as president since 1987) and has dominated the country's political system since independence.
Redistribution campaign
His chaotic land redistribution campaign, which began in 2000, caused an exodus of white farmers, crippled the economy, and ushered in widespread shortages of basic commodities.
Fraud
Ignoring international condemnation, MUGABE rigged the 2002 presidential election to ensure his re-election. The ruling ZANU-PF party used fraud and intimidation to win a two-thirds majority in the March 2005 parliamentary election, allowing it to amend the constitution at will and recreate the Senate, which had been abolished in the late 1980s.
Restore Order
In April 2005, Harare embarked on Operation Restore Order, ostensibly an urban rationalization program, which resulted in the destruction of the homes or businesses of 700,000 mostly poor supporters of the opposition. President MUGABE in June 2007 instituted price controls on all basic commodities causing panic buying and leaving store shelves empty for months.
Elections 2008
General elections held in March 2008 contained irregularities but still amounted to a censure of the ZANU-PF-led government with significant gains in opposition seats in parliament. MDC opposition leader Morgan TSVANGIRAI won the presidential polls, and may have won an out right majority, but official results posted by the Zimbabwe Electoral Committee did not reflect this. In the lead up to a run-off election in late June 2008, considerable violence enacted against opposition party members led to the withdrawal of TSVANGIRAI from the ballot. Extensive evidence of vote tampering and ballot-box stuffing resulted in international condemnation of the process.
Power sharing
On September 15th, Morgan Tsnagirai and Robert Mugabe signed a power sharing agreement. Robert Mugabe will remain president with Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister. Mugabe will head the cabinet which will set policy. Tsvangirai will head a council of ministers to oversee cabinet decisions and day to day administration.
UN sanctions and a guerrilla uprising finally led to free elections in 1979 and independence from Great Britain (as Zimbabwe) in 1980. Robert MUGABE, the nation's first prime minister, has been the country's only ruler (as president since 1987) and has dominated the country's political system since independence.
Redistribution campaign
His chaotic land redistribution campaign, which began in 2000, caused an exodus of white farmers, crippled the economy, and ushered in widespread shortages of basic commodities.
Fraud
Ignoring international condemnation, MUGABE rigged the 2002 presidential election to ensure his re-election. The ruling ZANU-PF party used fraud and intimidation to win a two-thirds majority in the March 2005 parliamentary election, allowing it to amend the constitution at will and recreate the Senate, which had been abolished in the late 1980s.
Restore Order
In April 2005, Harare embarked on Operation Restore Order, ostensibly an urban rationalization program, which resulted in the destruction of the homes or businesses of 700,000 mostly poor supporters of the opposition. President MUGABE in June 2007 instituted price controls on all basic commodities causing panic buying and leaving store shelves empty for months.
Elections 2008
General elections held in March 2008 contained irregularities but still amounted to a censure of the ZANU-PF-led government with significant gains in opposition seats in parliament. MDC opposition leader Morgan TSVANGIRAI won the presidential polls, and may have won an out right majority, but official results posted by the Zimbabwe Electoral Committee did not reflect this. In the lead up to a run-off election in late June 2008, considerable violence enacted against opposition party members led to the withdrawal of TSVANGIRAI from the ballot. Extensive evidence of vote tampering and ballot-box stuffing resulted in international condemnation of the process.
Power sharing
On September 15th, Morgan Tsnagirai and Robert Mugabe signed a power sharing agreement. Robert Mugabe will remain president with Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister. Mugabe will head the cabinet which will set policy. Tsvangirai will head a council of ministers to oversee cabinet decisions and day to day administration.
Problems
The government of Zimbabwe faces a wide variety of difficult economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable fiscal deficit, an overvalued official exchange rate, hyperinflation, and bare store shelves. Its 1998-2002 involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo drained hundreds of millions of dollars from the economy.
Land reform
The government's land reform program, characterized by chaos and violence, has badly damaged the commercial farming sector, the traditional source of exports and foreign exchange and the provider of 400,000 jobs, turning Zimbabwe into a net importer of food products.
Foreign support
The EU and the US provide food aid on humanitarian grounds. Badly needed support from the IMF has been suspended because of the government's arrears on past loans and the government's unwillingness to enact reforms that would stabilize the economy.
Inflation
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe routinely prints money to fund the budget deficit, causing the official annual inflation rate to rise from 32% in 1998, passed 1000% in 2006, and 26000% in November 2007. Private sector estimates of inflation in 2007 are well above 100,000%. Meanwhile, the official exchange rate fell from approximately 1 (re-valued) Zimbabwean dollar per US dollar in 2003 to 30,000 per US dollar in 2007.
The government of Zimbabwe faces a wide variety of difficult economic problems as it struggles with an unsustainable fiscal deficit, an overvalued official exchange rate, hyperinflation, and bare store shelves. Its 1998-2002 involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo drained hundreds of millions of dollars from the economy.
Land reform
The government's land reform program, characterized by chaos and violence, has badly damaged the commercial farming sector, the traditional source of exports and foreign exchange and the provider of 400,000 jobs, turning Zimbabwe into a net importer of food products.
Foreign support
The EU and the US provide food aid on humanitarian grounds. Badly needed support from the IMF has been suspended because of the government's arrears on past loans and the government's unwillingness to enact reforms that would stabilize the economy.
Inflation
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe routinely prints money to fund the budget deficit, causing the official annual inflation rate to rise from 32% in 1998, passed 1000% in 2006, and 26000% in November 2007. Private sector estimates of inflation in 2007 are well above 100,000%. Meanwhile, the official exchange rate fell from approximately 1 (re-valued) Zimbabwean dollar per US dollar in 2003 to 30,000 per US dollar in 2007.
Orphans
There were an estimated 1.3 million HIV/AIDS orphans by the end of 2005, and the number was increasing. The number of AIDS orphans (including children who lost one as well as both parents) was about 10 percent of the country's population.
Work to survive
Many grandparents were left to care for the young, and, in some cases, children or adolescents headed families and were forced to work to survive. AIDS orphans and foster children were at high risk for child abuse. Some children were forced to turn to prostitution as a means of income.
Inheritage
According to local custom, other family members inherit before children, leaving many children destitute. Many such children were unable to obtain birth certificates, which then prevented them from obtaining social services. (American Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights & Labour - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005)
There were an estimated 1.3 million HIV/AIDS orphans by the end of 2005, and the number was increasing. The number of AIDS orphans (including children who lost one as well as both parents) was about 10 percent of the country's population.
Work to survive
Many grandparents were left to care for the young, and, in some cases, children or adolescents headed families and were forced to work to survive. AIDS orphans and foster children were at high risk for child abuse. Some children were forced to turn to prostitution as a means of income.
Inheritage
According to local custom, other family members inherit before children, leaving many children destitute. Many such children were unable to obtain birth certificates, which then prevented them from obtaining social services. (American Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights & Labour - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005)
Current situation: Zimbabwe is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labour and sexual exploitation. Large scale migration of Zimbabweans to surrounding countries - as they flee a progressively more desperate situation at home - has increased.
Rural Zimbabwean men, women, and children are trafficked internally to farms for agricultural labour and domestic servitude and to cities for domestic labour and commercial sexual exploitation; young men and boys are trafficked to South Africa for farm work, often labouring for months in South Africa without pay before "employers" have them arrested and deported as illegal immigrants.
Young women and girls are lured abroad with false employment offers that result in involuntary domestic servitude or commercial sexual exploitation.
Men, women, and children from neighbouring states are trafficked through Zimbabwe en route to South Africa.
Tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Zimbabwe is on the Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of human trafficking, and because the absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is significantly increasing; the trafficking situation in the country is worsening as more of the population is made vulnerable by declining socio-economic conditions (2008)
Rural Zimbabwean men, women, and children are trafficked internally to farms for agricultural labour and domestic servitude and to cities for domestic labour and commercial sexual exploitation; young men and boys are trafficked to South Africa for farm work, often labouring for months in South Africa without pay before "employers" have them arrested and deported as illegal immigrants.
Young women and girls are lured abroad with false employment offers that result in involuntary domestic servitude or commercial sexual exploitation.
Men, women, and children from neighbouring states are trafficked through Zimbabwe en route to South Africa.
Tier rating: Tier 2 Watch List - Zimbabwe is on the Tier 2 Watch List for its failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of human trafficking, and because the absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is significantly increasing; the trafficking situation in the country is worsening as more of the population is made vulnerable by declining socio-economic conditions (2008)
Increase
(Source: research Caclaz, 2008)The post 2000 era has seen a tremendous increase in the number of orphans and vulnerable children. There is an evident reversal of all gains that had been made during the first decade of country's independence. Increased poverty, political violence and the HIV & AIDS pandemic have worsened the plight of Zimbabwean children.
Forced to work
The current crisis has accelerated the rate at which children have been exposed and forced to become workers instead of going to school. Child labour in Zimbabwe can be found on large scale farms, in the peasant sector, tea and coffee estates, mines, in domestic employment, in the small scale industries of the informal sector, in contract work in some industries, and in 'street' jobs.
Girls
Girls are more exposed to child labour. Besides the paid employment in the different sectors, girls are further marginalized due to the unpaid and often unrecognized household and domestic work. The girl child is not prioritized when resources become scarce. She is first to be taken out of school when the family decides they need an extra pair of hands to work.
Worst forms
The current crisis pushes more and more children into the worst forms of child labour. NGOs report an increase in child prostitution since Operation Restore Order. As with adults, reports suggested that those children in desperate economic circumstances, especially those in families headed by children, were most at risk.
Traffickers take girls from rural areas to city brothels in cities under the false pretences of job or marriage promises. They are trafficked to farms as agricultural labour or to urban areas as domestic labour, where they are often sexually abused. (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights & Labour - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005)
Street children
Also the number of street children is growing rapidly. Generally, the boys do odd jobs such as guarding parked cars, while the girls beg. But destitution transforms many children of both sexes into easy prey for people who sexually exploit them in exchange for a little money, warm clothes, a pair of old shoes or simply a hot meal.
HIV
The children's immaturity and powerlessness make them less likely than, for example, commercial sex workers, to insist on condoms. This increases their chances of being infected with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV. (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights & Labour - Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005)
School fees
School fees have gone beyond the reach of many. Faced with an ever-decreasing income profile the households have to make a choice between food and school fees. The little resources are channelled to food and the number of school dropouts has increased with schools noting a marked decrease in attendance in the first term of 2006 in some cases exceeding 50% of the 2005 figures.
Labour reserve
In addition to being deprived of an opportunity to go school the dropouts are seen as a labour reserve. Children who are not able to pay their school fees are sent to Earn and Learn schools. These schools offer free education but they also have to work in the fields and in mines. They don't have enough time to read or rest; therefore they suffer from sleeping sickness.
No priority
The poor prioritization by the government has seen the social services sectors getting fewer resources compared to others (like defence). Government has been trying to cushion the poor and disadvantaged through the Basic Education Assistance Model (BEAM) and the AIDS Levy funds in the case of children orphaned by HIV & AIDS.
Not adequate
The major draw back with these funds has been that they have not been adequate forthe numbers needing assistance. In addition the disbursements of the meagre funds available has been politicized and distributed on the basis of favouritism and political party lines. The genuine targeted beneficiaries never get to access these resources.
School fees have gone beyond the reach of many. Faced with an ever-decreasing income profile the households have to make a choice between food and school fees. The little resources are channelled to food and the number of school dropouts has increased with schools noting a marked decrease in attendance in the first term of 2006 in some cases exceeding 50% of the 2005 figures.
Labour reserve
In addition to being deprived of an opportunity to go school the dropouts are seen as a labour reserve. Children who are not able to pay their school fees are sent to Earn and Learn schools. These schools offer free education but they also have to work in the fields and in mines. They don't have enough time to read or rest; therefore they suffer from sleeping sickness.
No priority
The poor prioritization by the government has seen the social services sectors getting fewer resources compared to others (like defence). Government has been trying to cushion the poor and disadvantaged through the Basic Education Assistance Model (BEAM) and the AIDS Levy funds in the case of children orphaned by HIV & AIDS.
Not adequate
The major draw back with these funds has been that they have not been adequate forthe numbers needing assistance. In addition the disbursements of the meagre funds available has been politicized and distributed on the basis of favouritism and political party lines. The genuine targeted beneficiaries never get to access these resources.
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