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under its Economic Empowerment and HIV Vulnerability Reduction along Transport Corridors in Southern Africa project.
This year, an estimated US$50 000 is expected to be disbursed.
Mr Colly Masuku, national project co-ordinator for the ILO Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa, told The Sunday Mail Business that “HIV prevention without economic empowerment is a failed agenda”.
He said the ILO has registered success in Beitbridge where commercial sex workers have been roped into the programme and have since embarked on “real” income-generating projects.
Last year the project saw 56 beneficiaries, who worked as groups, embark on successful income-generating projects.
“From the interviews we conducted with some of the prostitutes in the area, we discovered that the main reason they are in the vice is survival.
“While there may be a few isolated cases of some who are into prostitution because it is generational and runs in their families, most of the cases were purely for survival.
“As the ILO, we have deployed resources in bringing them (prostitutes) together, training them and assisting them in drafting workable business proposals which have qualified for funding.
“This has not only been limited to prostitutes in Beitbridge but to youths, women and other vulnerable groups in the border town.
“We do not just fund any project. We take the cue from asking them, ‘If given resources what project would they start’?
“We look at the sustainability of the projects as well because if one were to sell vegetables they would easily slide back to prostitution given the small revenue streams from such a project.
“We have been helping them think of sustainable projects and help them identify and secure markets for their products.
“I am happy to say that a number of them have since profitably ventured into goat farming and the harvesting of amarula fruit which is doing well in the Beitbridge,” explained Mr Masuku.
The programme, which commenced in 2006, comprised three main components, namely: HIV prevention and impact mitigation in the transport sector; mobilising co-operatives and community-based organisations in the fight against HIV and Aids; and legal and policy provision.
In 2009, ILO Aids decided to redefine the strategy of the programme from 2010 onwards by adopting a two-pronged approach to create more synergies between the transport sector and the informal sector.
Phase II (2010-2013) of the ILO’s HIV Vulnerability Reduction and Economic Empowerment Strategy is expected to focus attention on the informal economy, co-operatives and associations of women and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), cross- border officials and transport sector workers along identified transport corridors in Southern Africa, including Zimbabwe.
Mr Masuku noted that the US$28 000 disbursed last year was paid out through the Small Enterprises Development Corporation (Sedco), adding that the ILO Zimbabwe country office already has a working relationship with Sedco which falls under the ambit of the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Co-operatives Development.
“The emphasis is on promoting self-reliance among workers, women and trade groups operating along the transport corridors and assisting them and their associations to provide business-related services that ensure increased productivity and thus strengthen HIV prevention and related risky behaviour as well as mitigating the impact of the epidemic among the most at risk populations, including the informal economy.
“The project endeavours to work more closely with the informal sector workers through their own associations or structures and advocate for self-reliance.”
Beitbridge Border Post is the busiest inland port of entry in Sub- Saharan Africa and due to the highly unsustainable unemployment levels a number of vices ranging from corruption, border jumping and prostitution have broken the very moral fibre of the society in that town.
The ILO through its Economic Empowerment and HIV Vulnerability Reduction project seeks to bridge the gap and between unemployment and economic empowerment in the border town through training, identifying markets and linking the vulnerable groups to markets through introducing value addition projects to complement the current ones.- The Sunday Mail
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