Including Urban Informality for Economic Development in Masvingo City, Zimbabwe

Authors

  • Average Chigwenya National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe
  • Prisca Simbanegavi University of Witwatersrand School of Construction Economics and Management, Johannesburg, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47540/ijsei.v1i3.83

Keywords:

Informality, Inclusively, Right to The City, Urban Planning, Urban Poor

Abstract

The informal sector has been excluded in the development of cities despite playing a big role in providing livelihoods to a lot of urban dwellers. Their contribution to the city economy has been marginalized despite the size of this sector and the contribution to the livelihoods of the urban poor.  City space has therefore continued to be a contested arena as urban poor are fighting for access to city space. The research examined the role the informal sector can play in the city of Masvingo. The research utilized a mixed-methods approach to data collection, where both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed. Questionnaires, semi structures interviews and field observations were employed. Interviews were done with key informants in various sectors dealing with issues of informality. The field observation was done in transacting walks in areas occupied by urban informality. The research found out that the informal sector in the City of Masvingo is playing a critical role in employment creation and therefore is providing sources of livelihood to a lot of people but the city authorities are doing very little to help the development and growth of the informal sector. Hence the economic contribution of the informal sector has been marginalized.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Basera, H.C., 2013, Internal corporate social responsibility: A key tool for competitiveness in retail small-medium enterprises in Masvingo, International Journal of Management Science and Business Research, (2), (10), .72-80.

Brown A, 2001, Cities for urban poor in Zimbabwe, Urban space as a resource for sustainable development, Development Practice, (11), (2-3), 319-331.

Chigwenya A 2019, Contestations for urban spaces; Informality and institutions of disenfranchisement in Zimbabwe: The case of Masvingo city, Geo-Journal DOi DO-10.1007/s10708-019-10022-4.

Chigwenya A and Dube D, 2018, Informality and the right to the city centre: Contestations for space in the city of Harare, Education, Science & Production», issue 1, January-February DOI https://doi.org/10.18551/esp.2018-01

Chigwenya A and Mudzengerere FH (2013) The Small- Medium Enterprises Policy in Zimbabwe: A Narrative of strides taken to mainstream informal sector activities in urban local authorities in Zimbabwe, International Journal of Politics and Good Governance, ( 4), ( 4.4), Quarter IV, pp.1-18.

Deborah Y.A 2007, Promoting the informal sector as source of gainful employment in developing countries: Insights from Ghana, International Journal of Human Resource management, (18), (6), 1063-1084.

Devey R, Skinner C, and Valodia I, 2006, Second best? Trends and linkages in the informal economy in South Africa, Development Policy and Research Unit Working paper no 06/12 ISBN no 1-920055-21-5.

Fainstein, S.S., 2008, Planning theory and the city, Journal Planning Education and Research, (25), 121-130.

Fainstein, S.S. 2006, Planning and the Just City: A paper presented at a conference on Conference on Searching for the Just City, GSAPP, Columbia University, April 29, 2006.

Government of Zimbabwe, 2002, Small and Medium Enterprise Act (Chapter 24: 12), Harare, Government Printers.

Gulsoni, K.N. and Pedroni, T.C. 2011, Neoliberalism, Cities and education in the global south, Discourse Studies in Cultural Politics of Education, (32), (2), 165-169.

Harvey D. 2003, Debates and Development: The right to the city, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, (27), (4), 939- 94.

Harvey D. 2008, The right to the city, New Left Review, (53), 23-46.

Harvey D. 2012, Rebel cities, from the right to the city to urban revolution, London, Verso Books.

Houghton J, 2010, Negotiating the global and the local; Evaluating development through public-private partnerships in Durban South Africa, Urban Forum, (22) .75-93.

Huchzermeyer, M. 2011, Cities with slums: From informal settlement eradication to a right to the city in Africa, UCT Press, Cape Town.

ILO, 1973, Employment, Income and Equality: A Strategy for Increasing Productive Employment in Kenya, Geneva, ILO.

ILO, 2000, Employment and social protection in the informal sector, Geneva, ILO.

Jackson, T., 2012, Cross cultural management and the informal economy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for organisation, employment and skills development, The International Journal of Human Resources management, ( 23), (14), 2901-2916.

Jeppsen S, Anderson JE, and Madson PV, 2006, Urban Environmental management in developing countries: Land use, environmental health and pollution, A review, Research networks on environment and development www. RENED.dk.

Kamete, A.Y.,2013, On handling urban informality in Southern Africa, Geografrisken Annaler B, Human Geography, vol.95, no. 1, pp. 17-31.

Kamete A.Y. 2007, Cold hearted, negligent and spineless? Planning, Planners and the rejection of filth in urban Zimbabwe, International Planning Studies, vol. 12, no. 2, pp.153-171

Lefebvre H. 1996: Writings on cities, Cambridge. . Blackwell,

Lefebvre, H.1968, Le Droita la Ville (The right to the city), Paris, Antropos.

Marcuse P, 2009, From critical urban theory to the right to the city: Analysis of Urban trends, culture, theory and policy action, City, (13), (2-3), 185-197.

Meregat R. 2002, Participatory democracy and sustainable development: Integrated urban environmental management in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Environment and Urbanisation, (14), (20, 181-206.

Parnell S, Simon D, and Vogel C, 2007, Global environmental change: Conceptualising the growing challenge for cities in poor countries, Area, (39), (3), 357-369.

Parnell, T. and Robinson J, 2012, Retheorising cities from the global south; Looking beyond neo-liberalism, Urban Geography, (33), (4), 593-613.

Potts D, 2006, Restoring order/ Operation Murambasvina and the urban crisis in Zimbabwe, Journal of Southern African Studies, (33), (2), 273-291.

Potts D 2008, The urban informal sector in Sub-Saharan Africa: From bad to good (and then back again), Development Southern Africa, (25), (3), 151-167.

Roy A, 2005, Urban informality, Towards an epistemology of planning, Journal of American Planning Association, (71), (2), 147-158.

Roy, A., 2009, Why India cannot plan its cities: Informality, Insurgence, and the Idiom of urbanization, Planning Theory, (8), (1), 76-87.

Sandercock, L., 1998, Towards Cosmo polis; Planning for multicultural cities, John Wiley, New York.

Saumngweme, T., Matsvai, S. and Sakuhuni, R., 2014, Econometric analysis of employment, output and growth of the informal sector in Zimbabwe, (1985-2013), International Journal of Economics Research, vol. 52, pp. 1-09.

Therkildsen H.P., Hansen C.J. Lorentezen A. (2009), The experience economy and transformation of urban governance and planning, European Planning Studies, (17), (1), 925-941.

UN-Habitat 2010, Land in support of sustainable urbanisation, Third African Ministerial conference on housing and urban development 22-24 November 2010, Bamako Mali.

van Duesen, R. jnr., 2002, Public space design as class warfare: Urban design, the right to the city and the production of Clinton Square Syracuse New York, Geo-journal, vol. 58, pp. 149-158

Watson V, 2007, The usefulness of normative planning theory in the context of Sub-Saharan Africa, Planning Theory, (1), (1), 27-52.

Zimstat, 2012, Population census, 2012, Harare, Zimstat.

Published

2020-12-05

How to Cite

Average Chigwenya, & Prisca Simbanegavi. (2020). Including Urban Informality for Economic Development in Masvingo City, Zimbabwe. Indonesian Journal of Social and Environmental Issues (IJSEI), 1(3), 137-149. https://doi.org/10.47540/ijsei.v1i3.83

Issue

Section

Articles