Integrating Street Food Vendors into Zimbabwe’s Economy: Policy Approaches for Economic Inclusion and Social Security
Date
2025
Authors
Mutandwa, Edward
Saidi, Petronella T.
Munyaka, Jean-Claude Baraka
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AERC
Abstract
Since the year 2000, Zimbabwe’s economy is now largely informal with millions living from these activities that include urban street food vending. However, the government of Zimbabwe has been emphasising the need for illegal urban street food vendors to formalize their activities and daily operations. To this end, a robust policy architecture along with stringent set of bylaws and statutes was enacted with the aim of ensuring formalization of these activities. Due to the perceived high cost of compliance, many urban street food vendors still prefer to operate informally. As a result, they have exposed to a variety of risks mainly emanating from the run-ins with municipal police (Sepadi and Nkosi, 2022). Women, in particular, have faced several risks on a daily basis. The most common form of risk faced by female street vendors is linked to a dearth of licensing and permits which often leads to fines or even imprisonment (Thanh and Duy, 2024). This often precipitates into other gender issues that are not often visible but borne by women. This activity remains critical to the survival of many individuals and households. Subsequently, this research analyses the contribution of urban street food vending to male and female street vendor incomes, and specifically how men and women balance productive and reproductive roles. Furthermore, the research determines how the policy environment is related to the regulatory burden faced by urban street food vendors in Harare, Zimbabwe.