rather than staying and trying to fix the country8. This also feeds into the kiya-kiya economy where the only alternative means of survival is not in the formal economy. With the rise in unemployment and the political pressure being mounted from the youthful population, Government has embarked on a drive to encourage young people to start up their own businesses to address the employment crisis. It is important to note here that government is responding to a new economy it has no control over, perhaps to divert attention to its failure to resuscitate the formal economy where it can exert some controls and realise revenue through collection of taxes. Through the Youth Fund and programmes, such as Upfumi Kuvadiki (Wealth to the Youth), young people were expected to access financial resources in all parts of the country to implement projects and start up business ventures. However, at the local level very few young people accessed the resources as there were reports of abuse of the funds by senior politicians9. When talk about the youth funds emerged, it was reason to attend the meetings called in by councillors and traditional leaders as they expected to be told how to access funds for their projects. One of the challenges raised by young people was that it was very difficult to access finances to start up their own companies. From the respondents in the study, only 2.5% of the male respondents confirmed that they were running their own businesses and none of the female respondents had businesses running. Even those running their businesses most stated that they are not registered entities and have challenges accessing finances, taxation and basic training in business management. Special attention is needed to support young women to equip them with skills to run their own business. Civic Capabilities Earlier we referred to agency and described it as the ability to express oneself freely. Voice and agency are valuable ends in themselves and have a direct impact on citizen engagement. One has to feel confident with his or her own skills and use them in public forums. In this section we analyse the responses on how the respondents engage as citizens and with their local leaders in public spaces. Table 4: Speaking in public, Mean scores10 Males Females Speaking in public 3.9 3.2 Speaking to leaders 3.8 3.1 Expressing opinion 3.6 3.4 Discuss [friends] politics 3.8 3.1 Discuss [family] politics 4.1 3.8 It is surprising to see the extent of activism and ―ability to speak in public‖ amongst the respondents given the perception that there is a ―police‖ state and that people need to be careful especially when they speak in public spaces and public meetings. The trust issues are raised in the FGDs where respondents highlighted that what they talk about is dependent on the people around and the place they are at. 8 M. Oosterom & Pswarayi – Being a Born Free: Violence, Youth & Agency in Zimbabwe, 2014 http://www.participatorymethods.org/resource/being-born-free-violence-youth-and-agency-zimbabwe 9 http://www.tellzim.com/2015/09/youth-fund-abused-zhuwawo-told.html , https://www.newsday.co.zw/2017/04/28/parly-stalks-zhuwao/ 10 The difference between males and females was statistically significant (see Table 2). 8