Last week, l visited my mother in the country side, Zvishavane communal areas and l was privileged to witness a gathering in which one of the many non governmental organisation, the Australia aid was giving money to rural people which they were supposed to use to buy livestock thereby alleviating poverty. But, what l personally observed prove otherwise .
Firstly, people are shared my observation, it is important to highlight that in rural areas in Zimbabwe the majority of people are living below the poverty datum line. More interesting, is the fact that the majority of people relied on the agrarian economy of the country and hence they need livestock and seed in order for them to cultivate their pieces of land. I’m quiet convinced that the Australia Aid put this into cognisance, hence prioritising the provision of funds to people to purchase livestock.
But, here is what the workers in that organisation failed to put into consideration in order to achieve community-oriented development. Firstly, you can not give a person who can not afford to buy sugar a sum of $US160.00 because he/she will use that money to buy other basic commodities like sugar, rice etc and this is exactly what is happening in Zvishavane. Secondly, a mechanism to ensure that the money is used to achieve the intended goal must be in place to ensure transparency and accountability and this is not happening in this community. So for a community-oriented development all of the aforementioned issues must be put into consideration
This has been a submission by Musavengana Hove.
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