The World Bank, quoted in Mhishi (1998) estimated urban poverty in Zimbabwe in 1990/91 to be 12%. The 1995 Poverty Assessment Study found that urban poverty was now 39%. What is evident from these statistics is that urban poverty is increasing at unprecedented levels. What is also evident from studies that have been carried out is that those caught up in urban poverty resort to the informal sector as a survival strategy. Of concern also is the likelihood of more people living in cities than in rural areas in the next millennium. The past eight years of "structural adjustment without growth" unleashed massive retrenchments in both the public and private sector, and as we embark on the second phase of the reform programme, there are indications that the formal sector will shrink even further. It is therefore evident that the only sector with potential to create more jobs is the informal sector. It is against this background of increasing urban poverty, urbanisation and declining formal employment opportunities that his paper puts forward some suggestions for promoting the growth of the informal sector.
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