Urban poverty in Zimbabwe: Unmasking severe deprivations in cities

By Stanley Ganure Gwavuya, Knowledge Management Specialist, UNICEF Zimbabwe

Why urban poverty

Poverty is one of the most serious challenges facing the world today, with more than 30 percent of the world's population estimated to be living in multidimensional poverty (UNDP, 2013). In developing countries poverty has been highly associated with rural areas and hence young economically active people have moved to urban areas in the hope of getting better lives for themselves and their families. This view, especially in Zimbabwe, has changed over the last two decades as poverty has become widespread in both urban and rural areas of Zimbabwe, with poverty in urban areas increasing at a faster rate than in rural areas. Results from the Poverty Income Consumption Expenditure Survey (PICES) of 2011/12 carried out by the National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) indicate that 38 per cent per cent of urban households, and almost 47 per cent of people living in urban areas in Zimbabwe were classified as poor. Unlike rural households, urban households almost always require cash to access social services such as health and education and hence greater need for households to have secure and consistent income to meet these costs. The urban dwellers usually face costly accommodation rentals, out-of-pocket payments for health, education, water and power supplies. Urban areas are highly associated with high levels of social fragmentation resulting in declining social cohesion and increased social exclusion especially for the poor women and children.

National statistics, which usually have limited levels of disaggregation, tend to mask inequities and severe deprivations among poor and rich urban communities. These surveys usually portray, on average, urban dwellers including urban children as better off than their rural colleagues. The heterogeneity in urban communities may likely mask inequities and severe deprivations when its indicators are averaged with richer urban communities. National surveys also fail to capture children without formal addresses such as those who live and work on the streets. These limitations make it difficult to model poverty reduction programmes and policies that are effective in tackling urban poverty.

The Convention on Rights of the Child (CRC) sets standards that all children have the right to a core minimum level of wellbeing, including the right to nutrition, basic education, survival and protection. Poverty denies children of their fundamental human rights.

What have we done and found out

It is against this background that the UNICEF Zimbabwe Country Office and Institute of Environmental Studies (IES) of the University of Zimbabwe in collaboration with government Ministries carried out a specialised study on aspects of multidimensional urban poverty in two high density, low-income suburbs of Harare, Highfield and Epworth (an informal settlement), and children living and working on the streets in Harare’s Central Business District in April-May 2013, in order to understand more about children living in poor urban situations. This study used two approaches in looking at poverty, i.e. using the consumption expenditure poverty measurement and also using the multidimensional approach to measuring child poverty. The aim of the research was to contextualize urban poverty and find out the patterns and drivers of poverty and deprivations prevalent in urban areas. This evidence is intended to be used for promoting equitable and evidence-based interventions and public policies related to multidimensional poverty in urban communities especially for the benefit of women and children.

Take home message

The study found that consumption poverty levels and depths that urban children experience are unexpectedly high. Slightly over one half of the households surveyed were classified as being in poverty with consumption below the recommended, though data suggests informal settlements are more likely to be impoverished than formal settlements. It was also noted that there were high levels of household debts, low levels of permanent employment, cash transfers from government and non-government organizations were very low however happiness levels were high and there was optimism for the future.

This data is a unique base of knowledge that allows vertical analysis of the level of deprivations, access to rights, and children's integration into broader urban society and opportunity. The study not only found high levels of poverty amongst urban households and severe deprivations suffered by children, especially regarding access to safe drinking water and nutrition, it also found that urban households are experiencing climate-related challenges. Urbanisation is causing more pressures on the environment and natural resources, leading to increased poverty and vulnerability.

Next steps

The specialised urban poverty study confirms that large surveys can indeed mask inequalities. It is not possible to improve the quality of life without more in-depth knowledge of the conditions of the urban poor. Against this background, the UNICEF-IES partnership seeks to build on the new and unique dataset to specifically better understand the relationship between both urbanization and risk and thus create policy-relevant evidence that can inform efforts by stakeholders at all levels to build urban resilience and manage risk and uncertainty.

The Zimbabwe UNICEF country office received additional funding in 2014 to carry out addition primary research in urban areas in Zimbabwe to investigate and quantify the impacts and risks of urbanisation on the poor. The findings will be immediately used to inform Zimbabwean policy makers and practitioners on how resilience can be enhanced. When completed, recommendations from the primary research in Zimbabwe are expected to provide valuable information, models and best practices that can be used by relevant stakeholders including government ministries, UNICEF, and the Zimbabwe Vulnerable Assessment Committee (ZIMVAC), as well as be applied to other urban areas in countries in Africa.

Photo credit: Greg + Jannelle