Fig 1.
The Jena Model of Social Change and Human Development conceptual framework, adapted for Zimbabwe.
The Jena Model of Social Change and Human Development, developed by Silbereisen and Tomasik [30] describes how communities experience and respond actively to the demands of social change. This model was adapted to the Zimbabwe context and is a conceptual framework for how economic collapse might produce changes to sex work organization. The economic crisis placed new demands on individuals (e.g. job loss, food insecurity). Factors such as gender or geographic context can modify the influence of this social change by reducing or enhancing the impact of these demands at the individual level. Resources form part of the process of adaptation to new challenges and mediate individuals’ to meet them. Adjustments are the individual-level and structural changes that occur in response to the macrolevel social change (i.e. economic collapse).
Table 1.
The location and participant composition of the focus group discussions.
Table 2.
Thematic analysis of how social and structural changes in Zimbabwe have had an impact sex work.
Fig 2.
A theoretical framework for the change in sex work in eastern Zimbabwe during the economic crisis.
Solid arrows indicate a pathway of adjustment due to social and economic changes; the dashed arrow reflects the shift of local attitudes to the increase in transactional sex (TS). Social change: Economic collapse caused widespread unemployment from both formal and informal sectors. Hyperinflation meant that money ceased to have any value and a barter economy developed. Widespread fear of HIV resulted in scapegoating FSWs. Demands: Men in all communities suffered from the drop in regular income; they reduced visits to bars and visits to female sex workers (FSWs), creating a shortage of client demand for paid sex. Poverty, particularly in poorer households, intensified causing hunger. Institutional filtering: On the commercial forestry estate sex work was sustained because of continued pay, the campus-style onsite accommodation, migrant labor, inequality in employment opportunities and income between the sexes. In the roadside trading settlement (RTS), the community had taken a zero-tolerance approach to FSWs, banning them from bars. As a consequence, sex work was no longer conducted openly. Resources: FSWs met clients outside of bars and developed strategies to indicate they were available for sex. Adjustments: Growth in transactional sex among non-FSWs due to poverty. Prevailing social and economic conditions caused adjustments to the timing, location, terms (e.g. condom use and payments) of transactions. Dashed arrow: Rise in TS (where condom use was not as tolerated because of its association with sex work) shifted local attitudes towards FSWs who were seen as more responsible for using condoms.