Social Protection

This essay examines how international sanctions imposed on key figures in Zimbabwe have disrupted remittance flows from Zimbabwean migrants working in care jobs abroad, such as caring for children or the elderly. These workers bear the emotional burdens of caring for people on both sides: the individuals they assist in destination countries and their families in Zimbabwe. Remittances are an essential aspect of the latter, as they play a crucial role in shaping the family relationships of migrants and their families. The fact that these migrants send money to family members residing in a country under a heavily sanctioned regime poses specific challenges for Zimbabwean migrants and their families. Migrants are faced with high fees and must rely on informal money transfer channels, which carry significant risks. These costs and risks ultimately hinder the steady flow of money to their families back home. International sanctions thus add a significant burden to the many challenges faced by Zimbabwean migrant care workers: the high cost of sending money to their families back home and the resulting weakening of family and community ties.

The African Sovereign Debt Justice Network, (AfSDJN), is a coalition of citizens, scholars, civil society actors and church groups committed to exposing the adverse impact of unsustainable levels of African sovereign debt on the lives of ordinary citizens. Convened by Afronomicslaw.org with the support of Open Society for Southern Africa, (OSISA), the AfSDJN's activities are tailored around addressing the threats that sovereign debt poses for economic development, social cohesion and human rights in Africa. It advocates for debt cancellation, rescheduling and restructuring as well as increasing the accountability and responsibility of lenders and African governments about how sovereign debt is procured, spent and repaid. Focusing in particular on Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria and Senegal, the AfSDJN will also amplify African voices and decolonize narratives on African sovereign debt . Its activities include producing research outputs to enhance the network’s advocacy interventions. It also seeks to create awareness on and elevate the priority given to sovereign debt and other economic justice issues on the African continent and beyond throughout 2021.

Unfortunately, the Guide appears to be blind to the way in which conceiving land and tenure rights in the context of global vale chains can multiply the relevant spaces of engagement and challenges the traditional notion of jurisdictional spaces and fragmentation. Luckily, communities, activists and lawyers acting on the ground have come to this realization long ago, and I  believe that they will find the best way to use a document that aims to normalize large-scale investments but can also open new interesting spaces for political and legal resistance.