through subsidised exchange rates for selected government purchases and multiple currency practices, and financial sector restructuring.”2 The scrapping of the Zimbabwean dollar allowed for greater access to a broader range of goods for those with access to foreign currency. The first year of the GPA also witnessed the opening of more schools and hospitals in the country and the Western donors concentrated their engagement on humanitarian-plus assistance. However the introduction of the multi-currency regime, while bringing some temporary relief has not been able to address the longer-term structural problems in the economy, particularly for those with little access to foreign currency.3 As the ZCTU’s research unit noted: In spite of the gains the economy still remains in the grip of a number of underlying structural challenges which militate against the attainment of pro-poor inclusive and broad based economic growth. These challenges include the dual and enclave economy; lack of fiscal space; inadequate social protection……The majority of the labour force continues to struggle to eke out a living as average incomes lag far behind the Poverty Datum Line (PDL). The average wage for December 2009 of USD180 represents only 36% of the corresponding PDL of USD500. Therefore, quite clearly even though the multicurrency regime has brought some economic gains it has unfortunately also consigned the majority of people into poverty.4 As the economy has continued its incapacity to provide the levels of employment and livelihoods required to sustain workers at national level, migration out of the country has continued, as shown in the accompanying report Desperate Lives, Twilight Existence In the process not only has this movement created new challenges for the region, it has also exposed Zimbabweans to enormous difficulties such as xenophobic attacks in South Africa and the “new regimes of border security, policing and migrant surveillance”5 in Southern Africa, as they attempt to deal with the economic and political crisis at home. It is also clear that the massive movement of people out of Zimbabwe has created a “multitude of new transnational networks” with families, and economic and political networks now covering the region.6 The new Minister of Finance, Tendai Biti, has valiantly attempted to deal with this multitude of inherited problems by pushing for a re-engagement with the international financial institutions, after the cessation of the government of Zimbabwe’s repayment commitments in the late 1990’s. Recently Biti has been pushing for Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) status for Zimbabwe as the only way to deal with the country’s US$5.7 billion debt, a move that would push Zimbabwe into very stringent structural adjustment conditionality. In February the IMF also restored Zimbabwe’s voting rights as part of a move towards more substantive re-engagement                                                              2  Labour and Economic Development Institute of Zimbabwe (Ledriz), “Conceptual Framework and Overview of the  Zimbabwean Economy.” Forthcoming 2010, p35.  3  Solidarity Peace Trust, Gone to Egoli: Economic Survival Strategies in Matabeleland‐A��Preliminary Study,  (Johannesburg, 2009.)  4  Ledriz, op cit p 43.  5  Amanda Hammar, Jo‐Ann McGregor and Saul Landau, “Introduction: Displacing Zimbabwe‐ Crisis and  Construction in Southern Africa”. Special issue of the Journal of Southern African Studies, forthcoming 2010.  6  Ibid.  5