It is clear that official harassment is incapable of obliterating Informalsector uctivitles, either by,fE;!llUlEoS or males, This is bscause of the central role these ectivities p'iaY in mitigating the Eof~Eopt)li9fprimary poverty brought by the failure of the formal sector to gE;nHatE;sufftclent growth
C<1\d
s:JEo1(dopmEont. The government should; on the contrary, aim to remove, at the VEol'y minimum, markEot restrlctions, lEof!al and fiscal'barriers. This would, in no small way,hEolp thEo women operatorsto EokE; out a living in these difficult circumstances.V. THE ROLE OF NGO'S, GOVERNMENT AGENICES, AND INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES IN AIDING WCMEN IN THE INFORMAL SECTOH
. During our . visit to Zambia, WEo spent several frours with each of these organizations.
In all of them, w(, spoke with ths chief executives. BEosldE;s our dlsesssions with Mrs. Maporna (the chief 'executtve) and Dr. N'g'andwEo (Director) of VIS and SIDO respectively, WEo also spoke atIsngth with some other officials of these organizations.
From SIDO's annual reports of 1982/B3, 19\33/84 and our own visits to this organization, it was not possible, as the data is not disap;r;rEogatEod, to discern the precise sxtsnt of fEomalEo participation in small-scala Incustrlss. and SIDO's assistance to thsrn, However, the officers WEo spoke with Indicated that mostof the loans that had so far been disbursed had gone to men.
WE; were also rE;liably l,nformEod that the vEory fEoW women who had rEocEoivE;d financial assistance had also rE;c(,ivEod. rEolutivl\ly-smalI loans compar-ed to men, ThEo reason givEon for this was the mtcro nature of the businesses EontEoI'E;d into by wornsn and the fact that they WEorEo less likE;ly than msnfo seek'formal and Impersonal assistance, At tims of OUI' visit, SIDe had a loan cetling ofK;~2~(),OOP-'w~iCh was to bE; ratsed to K 500,000 -. These ficures would tEond to indicate that SlDp perhaps, albeit not as a formal policy, was concentrating on entrepreneurs with a pi'E,dilEoction towards "productive" manufactut-lng actlvities, Which WEo have noteo to bEo a preserve of men, Indeed, SIDO's Director (1985 : 5) seems to lend crEodEoncEo to this hypothEosis whEon hEo assEorts :
,,'
- ThEopriority targEot groups for this programmEo includEo thoSEo with savini;S> availabl~
for. pr,0ductivEo. invEostmEont and tiny informal sEoctor producEors wishing to ,Eoxpand ,thEoir lEoVEol .of opEorations or to. switch to bEottEor invEostmEont arEoas. BEocausEo. of tllEo initiativEo alrMdy takEon by thEosEo two catEoi!oriEos and indEoE;cl bE,CausEo of thEo organizational know how alrMdy acquirEoc in a small businEoss, thEosEo groups dEosEorvEo priority attEontion.
c.'- ' I ·0
Page, 103
The, marginality of women in SIDe's operations is therefore easy to undsratand, For Instancevvtn Zambia, the, defmition of a small business is based on Small Industries De,ve,lopme,nt Organizat\on (S1I<9) Actof 1981 which de,fine,s a small business enterprise on the, basis of asset valued up to K 250,000,000" (Standard Chartered Bank of Zambia, 1987:2). " ., A. Village, Industrie,s Suvice, (VIS)
VIS is an NGe but we, have, discussec it hue, bscause of the, support it re,ce,ive,s from the, Zambian govunme,nt. According to Mrs, Mapoma, its Director, VIS has a grass root orie,ntation and therefore its primary objective is to create village, industries in rural areas.
However, due, to capital constraints, its operations have, be,e,n Iimlted. We, wue, also inf'crrned that preparations JI,e,re, underway to assist women in the, informal sector in urban areas when funds pe,rmit;' ¢urre,I\tiy, the, smphasls is on the, rural sector, even though VIS Has shops in the, urban areas that help with the, marketing of handicrafts produced by some, of its members in the, rural areas.
B. Small Ente,rprise,s Promotion (GEf')
SEP was Incorporated in 19B2 by the, De,ve,lopme,nt Bank of Zambia and the, Frtedrich Ebeet StiftUI\g of. We,st Germany. Given the, existence of
smo,
we, were, not, even though, we, tried, able, toasciortain the, exact division of labour be,twe,e,n these two organizations. According to SEP's Annual Re,port (1986,6) "the, main objective of SEP is to promote, the, dsvalopment of Zambian owned small scale, enterprises. In this re,p;ard, SEP assists small scale, sntrepreneurs to set up, sxpand or improve, their business',Characteristically, SEP's figure,s on loans disbursed so far are, not disagf',I'e,gate,d. The, manager however assured us that they had several fe,male, customers, who, by the, way, he, said were extremely reliable and conscientious in meetlng their de,bt obligations. He, could not, give, the" exact number of the, Iemale e,l)treprene,urs that had obtained loans from his institution nor tliE: average amount of such disbursements, However, this can be, deduced from the, following information contained in the, 1986,re,port (Ibid, 6) which states ,
- It is SEPIS aim to finance, viable, small scale, enterpnses which are, of good de,ve,lopme,nt value,. Eligible, are, enterprises engage,d in manufacturing, assembling, processing, agro-industries, e,ngine,e,ring, construction, repair workshops etc, Priority is give,n to projects which will contribute, to the, use, of local raw materials, creation of jobs at low investment cost, import substitution and the, c]e,ve,lopme,nt of local technology and manpower skills.
It would se,e,m that even fe,wu women e,ntre,preneurs in the informal sectoe than assisted by SIDO, would be, l.ik~ly to benefit from SEP's. scheme givsn their- stated prloritles. It should be, evidently clear birow that women in the, informal sector face, considernble and seerningly insurmountable, barricts, and constraints both, in.tsrms of entry, and in their operations. The, Development Bank of Zambia and other private financial institutions follow similar paths in their lending policies to small scale, enterprises and, micro businesses,
" '
---Page 104
"ThE> oniy government agE>ncy which has a women's project officer is the SIDO~ This is a nE>W (1983) post and SIDe policy to givE> overt support to female participation in industrial dE>vE>lopmE>nt has YE>t to bE, implemented, Aside from
smo,
government attention is Ilmited to isolated activities such as support for women's clubs through the Ministry of Labour .and Social ssrvtces and through community oevelopment uctivities of district councils" (Keller, 1986:12).C. Non-GovHnmE>ntal Organizations (NGO's)
ThE>rE> are several NOO's operating in Zambia. Th~E>'includE>,Zambian Council for Social Development (ZCSD), 'YoungY~omE>n Christian Association (YWCA), :Zambian women for research and Development (ZARD), ThE> Women's League, to 'name a ie«, Their activittes are varied and most uncoordinated, which frE>quently means 11 duplication of efforts, ThE> problems thE>y address and the grounds they COVE>r range from sociopolitical, education and skill ;acquisition, research (both theoretical and action oriented), to economic actlvlties, such as Income-generating assistance and advice to women on credit procurement both in rural and urban areas,
All of them, without exception, operate in an environment of financial austerlty and bE,caUSE> their E>ffortsare uncoordinated And thE>Y are frequently in cornpstitton with each other, thE>ir impact on the women they aim
to
help is correspondingly tiny. Also, most of the NGC's have bE>E,n caught in "inccme-generating" phobia.An intervention which is now ff,lt by many to nave vE>ry Iimited developmental impact on womsn gE>nE>rally. Of this and in relation to Zambia, Bardouills (1986:146) has commented .. , efforts of government and non-government agEonciE>s aimedat WOmE>n have not actually SUCCE>E>dE>d in integrating women indE>vE>lopmE>nt. ThE> main problem lies in ths lack Of clear dsvelcpment pclicies and programmes for women ... So far, the focus on women's projects has been in the areas of income-generating activities, with the confines of a narrow range, and activities which are akin to women's gE>nE>ral domestic tasks. ThE> matisrtal condition of poor women is unlikely to improve through petty Income-genereting activities, Unless women also gain aCCE>SS to complementary factors of production, they will remain unequal. WomE>n E>VE>n through. self-Inltfatec activities are unlikely td move out of the subsistence level of production; their status in general is unlikely to Improve, . ,
Of course not all the NGG's in Zambia are oblivious to the problems which maintain or E>VE>n heighten the marginalisation of women. In fact it is in response to such eventualities and possibihttes that the Zambian WornE>n for RE>sE>arch and Development came into being, Also, the Young WoinE>n Christian Association, in addition to their ortentation towards income-generating assistance, dOE>S try to offE>r women (albeit lirnlteo) skils that can bE> USE>d in wage sector employment - secretarial skillsIs one such example, ;Cxfam (UK) has triedto address the perennial problem of aCCE>SS to credit through
a
revolvlng fund especially for rural women,1 .!L __... _L2.LO ~._,2!.::::±:d __
__.~._Il. • ....o-,,-.,J ••j ..;.;
Page 105
Most NGG's have a decisive orientation towards the rural sector. This is as it should be, since masses of women stillrE.Sid~in the rural arees. 'HOW61ieor, 'for a country such as Zambia, with almost half of its populaltion now in urban areas, there is an urgent need to balance the' empbasis, Vlom~n in urban areas are more seriously threatened by sconornlc crlsis than' 'their rural counterparts. This could Iiterally mean geing with littl~ or no food. In contrast, rural women except in times of natural disasters, such as drought Or crop failure; would have access
to a minimum6f food. • '
D. Int~rnational Organizations
Most intervention by international agencies is through assistance to government and non-governmental organizations. The ILO, through its World Employment Programme Te.g, SATEP) carries research on the various employment problems in Zambia. The informal sector has b~~n surveyed through this scheme and useful data has been g~n~tat~d. Even though these
stqdi~s do not specifically provide information on women in the informal sector, they' help to highlight some of the problems women face, ~.g. the marginal returns of women's efforts
in this sector. '
Other international agencies, such as UNESCO, WHO, UNICEF, ret al, are also involved both in research and other forms of intervention. For sxampls, the UNICEF (1986) Situati6n Analysis of Children and Wom~n in Zambia is a major publication which graphically and in great d~tllil offers ~xtr~rnEolyimportant data on the plight of women and children in all facets
of their lives. '
Also, some bilateral aR"~nci~s offer varied Interventions, g~ar~d mostly towards the rural sector. For example, the Canadian CIDA has recently completed a major work (Husrlich, 1986)' on Women in Zambia. This publication highlights the problems of women in the informal sector in addition to problems faced by women in all sectors of Zambian economy,1SIDA
(Sw~den, NORAD (Norway) and DANIDA (Denmark) alsohave several project ill rural Zalhbia, which, because of the policies of their home governments, always have 11 women's component.
Thus, in addition to income generating types of activities for women, these organizations 'also generate important base line statistics of value to rsseareners and policy makers alike.
However, it must b~ noted that bilateral and multilateral agencies, with, an exception of SIDA, DANIDA, NCI{AD end a few others, do not have a specific policy 'to promote women's activities, Thus, as Keller (HIl36:35) points out, "Becaus~ neither government nor International ' agencies and donors have taken the initiative tostimulate a meaningful dialogue on improving women's status, non-governmental organizations, particularly the local ones, fulfill the role of what might be called re;:>air work... ;Theirdforts touch"f~wIlves'';' 'She continues, "recent
r~sear~h I,ridi1::ates that although 'many poor,wom~n in Lusaka must'E,nR'lil'!~ in petty markettng, they cluster tnacttvittss rj;quirinp; the least capita! and skim and h~rtcEo ,mak~ low profits which are howeVer' vital to their survival. Nonetheless, no agency or projeCt was id~ntifi(,d which' focuseo on improvement of women's informal sector participatl6nll.. ThtiSl,' "the marginalisation of the informal sector of the economy, seems less well understood than is the plight of the rural poor". Sh~ consludes (p.35), "as a result of lack of clear government policy, foreign agencles have found it simpler to address wemen's needs in a piece-meal fashion... Cverall,
th~r~ has b~~n no stimulus to anything other than half-hearted concern for women's
dev~lopm~nt"•
These findings arc entirely in consonance with those (If many other researchers working in Afri<:lIncountries, a theme continually argued in these reports. It is also in keeping with
the'c'onSlst~ntnt,glect and lack of recognition of women's contribution to development efforts.
ThtiS:'undE>rrntiriifof women's work inevitably leads to a denial of and lack of access to production resoiir'ceswith5crious consequences for the economics in question. The recent food crisis' in Afriba 'whichh!iS meant phenomenal food-insecurity for large populations. in some region, is an excellent case in point. Urgent measures arc Imperative to redress this untenable state of affairs.
, .. - 11 ,
_..,•...-•...
-VI. FIELD OB6EHVATION