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

ZCTU

BOARD

CISEP Co-oridination office

AZIEA

ISOs

ISOs

ISOsISOs

ISOs

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

SERVICE PROVIDED BY CISEP CENTRE

Direct services to target group Services offered at a minimal fee

TYPES OF SERVICES

Business information provisionTraining programmesMarket opportunitiesSources of finance on entrepreneurship

and self-employmentAdvice and counsel on business basic

Types of Services

Product/ service quality Investment opportunities Importance of forming business

associations etc.

Facilitate Training in;

Basic management and technical skill training

Formation and management of trade associations

Coaching and follow-up for individual clients

SUSTAINABILITY

Three main aspects of Sustainability

Management

Financing

Ownership

Training Funds (co-financing)

Parent organization Donor funds Participants’ contribution

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.