RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access

Competition is not necessarily a barrier to community mobilisation among sex workers: an intervention planning assessment from Zimbabwe Sibongile Mtetwa1*, Joanna Busza2, Calum Davey2, Ramona Wong-Gruenwald3 and Frances Cowan1,4* Background: Community mobilization among female sex workers (SWs) is recognized as an effective strategy to empower SWs and increase their uptake of health services. Activities focus on increasing social cohesion between SWs by building trust, strengthening networks, and encouraging shared efforts for mutual gain. Several studies, however, suggest that high levels of interpersonal competition between SWs can pose a barrier to collective action and support. We conducted a study to examine levels of perceived competition between SWs in Mutare, Hwange and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe in order to inform development of a community-based intervention for HIV prevention and treatment. This paper focuses on our qualitative findings and their implications for the design of HIV programming in the Zimbabwean context. Methods: Following a respondent driven sampling (RDS) survey, we explored issues related to social cohesio