Zimbabwe Women Claim Economic Reforms Made Them 'Poorer'

Harare - Zimbabwe's women claim that the Short Term Emergency Recovery programme (STERP), aimed at improving the economy, actually made them "poorer", Radio VOP can reveal.

In a document the women, led by the country's Deputy Prime Minister, Thokozani Khupe, said :"STERP also acknowledges that women's presence in key decision-making positions is minimal and this has been compounded by unsound market liberalisation policies which have resulted in the feminisation of poverty."
Khupe made the document available to local and international investors last year.
It is called "Prospectus on investing in women".
The women said poverty levels remained higher for females than males.
It said the Poverty Assessment Study Survey (PASS II) suggested that structural unemployment was higher for females (70 percent) than males (56 percent) because of the inclusion of the very poor and poor in agriculture and informal economy who are largely women.
"Rural areas had a higher structural unemployment rate (62 percent) than urban areas (35 percent)," the document said. "These findings suggest that structural unemployment is high in Zimbabwe, in both rural and urban areas, with the rate higher for rural areas and women."
In a Foreword to the document Khupe, who is Vice President of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T), said  women leaders had a duty and responsibility to improve and inspire each other and ensure that they were not relegated by society to perpetual consumers but to become producers of the bread basket of Africa.
She said :"The positive effect of the inclusive government can be measured by its ability to impact positively on the lives of women in Zimbabwe regardless of race, religion, social class or political affiliation."