In Zimbabwe the National Social Security Authority (NSSA), constituted and established in terms of the NSSA Act of 1989, Chapter 17: 04 DOWNLOAD: NATIONAL SOCIAL SECURITY AUTHORITY ACT 17 04 (PDF 128.4 KB), is the statutory corporate body tasked by the Government to provide social security. The provision of social security can be defined as instituting public policy measures intended to protect an individual in life situations or conditions in which his/her livelihood and well being may be threatened, such as those engendered by sickness, workplace injuries, unemployment, invalidity, old age, retirement and death.
It is based on the principle of social solidarity and pooling of resources and risks, involving drawing of savings from periods of employment, earnings and good health to provide for periods of unemployment, old age, invalidity and death. At the moment NSSA is administering two schemes: Pension and Other Benefits Scheme and Accident Prevention and Workers’ Compensation Scheme, although, in an endeavor to provide a more comprehensive social security package for the Zimbabwean society, groundwork for the introduction of more schemes is underway.