Linking formal and informal social protection in an insecurity regime: The case of Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is an insecure regime with weak formal institutions of social protection coexisting with informal social protection. Opportunities to link these are potentially gainful for welfare outcomes if the synergies between them can be harmonised. This chapter maps the social protection strategies deployed by residents as drawn from household and community level survey data in different communities. Second, it explores the linkages between these systems. The findings show that household-level transfers such as migrant remittances and participation in community risk-sharing schemes are relatively effective in reducing food insecurity. Formal provision is limited to social insurance for public and private sector workers, reaching less than a fifth of poor households. Formal and informal systems intersect to some degree with market and financial services. The chapter explores ways to link these systems to mitigate risk and unlock productive capacity, including the use of mutual household networks as collateral.