Zimbabwe: Viset Launches a Major Vendors Rights Project in Harare

Following the launch of the Vendors Initiative on Participation and Accountability (VIPA) in Gweru last week, Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET) on March 20th conducted the second meeting under the same project to incorporate members in Harare. The two objectives of the project are (1) To enhance street vendors' knowledge of their constitutional, socio-economic rights and (2) To improve street vendors' social accountability skills and knowledge. The Socio-Economic Rights Teach-In (SERAT) was attended by 36 street vendors (22 women and 14 men) drawn from VISET's Socio-Economic Champions (SOCHAMP) structures in Harare CBD and Chitungwiza. Today's training was a platform that sought to capacitate SOCHAMPs with socio-economic rights and tools to demand transparency and accountability from solution holders.

VISET anticipates that these trained vendors will cascade this knowledge to fellow vendors in their respective communities and ultimately be able to find solutions to challenges/problems in the day-to-day running of their businesses. The VIPA project will benefit an estimated 1000 vendors in Harare and Gweru, as key targets and it is a direct result of the consultations that the organisation conducted with street vendors in the two areas in which the majority of the vendors indicated that they needed assistance on engagement with solution holders to hold them accountable for their commitments as well as delivery of constitutionally enshrined rights.

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