Entrepeneurship in Urban Zimbabwe

1. Entrepeneurship in Urban Zimbabwe

2. Entry into Entrepeneurship • “What Drives the Small-Scale Enterprise Sector in Zimbabwe: Surplus Labor or Market Demand?“ • Lisa Daniels

3. Entry into Entrepeneurship • Allocation of alleviation resources often ineffective • Necessity to consider sustainability of microsized and small enterprise (MSE) employment • What drives entry? • High-profit enterprises • Low-profit enterprises

4. Hypotheses • Market-demand hypothesis: • Entry driven by consumer demand • Implies that most firms would be profitable • Labor-supply hypothesis: • Entry driven by excess supply of labor • Search for alternative income sources

5. Entry into Entrepeneurship Results: - Both labor-supply and market-demand hypotheses influence entry - The MSE sector is heterogenous - barriers of entry differ for high- and low-profit industries - For economic growth: assistance for high-profit industries - For poverty alleviation: assistance for low-profit industries - Experience not a significant barrier to entry among low-profit industries - Most low-profit industries saturated - Poverty alleviation: move proprietors from low-profit into high-profit industries - Remove or reduce licensing constraints

6. Urban Economy “Home Industries and the Formal City in Harare, Zimbabwe“ - Amin Y. Kamete

7. Home Industries and the Formal City • “Home Industries“: • Situated at frontier between formal and informal city • Designated sites within residential areas • Zones of viable enterprise (production, trade, commerce) • Welding, carpentry, building materials manufacturing, automobile engineering and rebuilding, trading (furniture, motor vehicle parts, domestic appliances, etc.) • Goods and services much cheaper

8. Nature and Composition of Home Industries • Site: Warren Park • 153 enterprises • 40% manufacturing • 27% service provisioning • 12% repairs • Diverse Profile

9. Contribution to Urban Development

10. Institutional Reactions to Home Industries

11. Conclusion • Self-made in establishment and financing • Practically no assistance • Transport and storage managed separately • Most input from private sector • Irregularities and violations regarding planning, public health and safety, environment, labor, trading laws

12. Recommendations • Redefine image (local authority and financiers) • From protégé to partner • Interface between formal and informal city needs better concept and management

13. Women Microentrepeneurs in Urban Zimbabwe • “Overcoming Challenges: Women Microentrepeneurs in Harare Zimbabwe“ • Nancy E. Horn • “Negotiating Identities during Adjustment Programs: Women Microentrepeneurs in Urban Zimbabwe“ • Mary Johnson Osirim

14. Why Women Enter Microentrepeneurship • Role as mothers and household food provisioners • Limited employment opportunities for women • Two major areas of income earning for women: • Small-scale agricultural production • Microentrepeneurship

15. The Challenges Informal Sector: • Lack of capital and credit • Regulations and bylaws Agricultural Sector: • Disconnected linkages • Sourcing wholesale stocks • Market sites and architecture

16. The Economic Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP) • 1991: Zimbabwe becomes part of World Bank and International Monetary Fund Structural Adjustment Program • Problems: • Increased competition • Reduction in profitability of enterprise • Decline in customer base • Escalating costs / acquisition difficulties • Increased transportation expenses • Inadequate sites

17. Ten Tenets of Women‘s Entrepeneurship • Entrepeneurship is a gendered activity • Requires risk taking • Requires opportunity • Requires initial investment capital • Requires market intelligence • Requires knowledge of clientele • Requires business accumen • Requires operational space • Requires ability to make profit • Women‘s entrepeneurial activites entail freedom from domestic choice

18. Recommendations • Promotion of arena where all members of the horticultural sector benefit • Policies must address longevity of informal sector • Policies must address women‘s ability to own property • Recognition of women‘s role in distribution • Provosion of adequate facilities • Improve urban transportation • Alter training orientation • Address restrictions of women‘s social mobility and gendered inequalities • Identify new markets • Greater attention to indigenous and regional development goals

19. Questions