Moving forward in Zimbabwe - Brooks World Poverty Institute - The ...
Moving forward in Zimbabwe - Brooks World Poverty Institute - The ...
Moving forward in Zimbabwe - Brooks World Poverty Institute - The ...
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<strong>Mov<strong>in</strong>g</strong> <strong>forward</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>Zimbabwe</strong><br />
Reduc<strong>in</strong>g poverty and promot<strong>in</strong>g growth<br />
Notes<br />
1. In September 1980, when this programme was announced, the average m<strong>in</strong>imum wage <strong>in</strong> the country was about Z$70 a month. This<br />
meant that the majority of <strong>Zimbabwe</strong>ans had access to free health care.<br />
2. By 1989 over 323 rural health centres or cl<strong>in</strong>ics had been erected (Sanders and Davies, 1988).<br />
3. Accord<strong>in</strong>g to Stoneman and Cliffe (1989: 173), by 1987 this programme had tra<strong>in</strong>ed 7,000 out of the target 15,000 village health<br />
workers.<br />
4. It should be noted that the positive price <strong>in</strong>centives offered to agriculture were motivated by the government’s desire to become selfsufficient<br />
<strong>in</strong> food by remov<strong>in</strong>g reliance on food imports from apartheid South Africa (see Rukuni and Eicher, 1994; Herbst, 1990)<br />
together with political pressures to transfer visible benefits to the rural population (Bratton, 1987).<br />
5. <strong>Zimbabwe</strong> is divided <strong>in</strong>to five agricultural regions, based on ra<strong>in</strong>fall patterns. See chapter 1, section 1.2.<br />
6. Initially, all members of households <strong>in</strong> which the head of household earned an <strong>in</strong>come less than the statutory m<strong>in</strong>imum wage were eligible<br />
for food aid. However, such a broad eligibility criterion essentially meant that the majority of rural households were eligible to receive<br />
the 20kg of un-milled maize per person per month under the drought relief programme. In the end, it was estimated that as many as 2.3<br />
million people from a rural population of about 5.7 million benefited from this policy.<br />
7. However, the early growth was undercut by a three-year drought (1981-84), a world recession and South African destabilisation. In<br />
response to the shr<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g economy (and tax base from which to fund social spend<strong>in</strong>g) the government attempted to control its spend<strong>in</strong>g<br />
by remov<strong>in</strong>g some food subsidies, freez<strong>in</strong>g wages, be<strong>in</strong>g less aggressive <strong>in</strong> adjust<strong>in</strong>g agricultural prices and adjust<strong>in</strong>g the maximum wage<br />
below which <strong>Zimbabwe</strong>ans were entitled to receive free health care and education. Sanders and Davies (1988: 724) suggest that removal<br />
of food subsidies and wage freezes had direct consequences on nutritional status. <strong>The</strong>se changes placed many <strong>Zimbabwe</strong>ans under stress,<br />
as food prices rose sharply <strong>in</strong> response to the removal of subsidies while wages and earn<strong>in</strong>gs from agriculture decl<strong>in</strong>ed (Sanders and<br />
Davies, 1988; Herbst, 1990).<br />
8. <strong>The</strong>se surveys were adm<strong>in</strong>istered biannually by the M<strong>in</strong>istry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare to approximately 4,000-5,000<br />
households and 40 representative communities.<br />
9. See Munro (2002), for an assessment of the components of the relief. Feed<strong>in</strong>g po<strong>in</strong>ts for about 40 children were set up across the country.<br />
Children under five were to be given rations which amounted to 40 per cent of their daily caloric needs (60 grams of maize meal and 20<br />
grams of beans per day per child) through a system of over 18,819 feed<strong>in</strong>g po<strong>in</strong>ts across the country.<br />
10. See Munro (2001) and Munemo (2008b) for a comprehensive discussion of this programme.<br />
11. <strong>The</strong> report also suggests that school enrolments might have dropped by as much as 25 per cent, due to the operation.<br />
12. Colloquially called ‘green bombers’ <strong>in</strong> reference to the green uniforms they wear.<br />
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