Moving forward in Zimbabwe - Brooks World Poverty Institute - The ...

Moving forward in Zimbabwe
Reducing poverty and promoting growth
Notes
1. In September 1980, when this programme was announced, the average minimum wage in the country was about Z$70 a month. This
meant that the majority of Zimbabweans had access to free health care.
2. By 1989 over 323 rural health centres or clinics had been erected (Sanders and Davies, 1988).
3. According to Stoneman and Cliffe (1989: 173), by 1987 this programme had trained 7,000 out of the target 15,000 village health
workers.
4. It should be noted that the positive price incentives offered to agriculture were motivated by the government’s desire to become selfsufficient
in food by removing reliance on food imports from apartheid South Africa (see Rukuni and Eicher, 1994; Herbst, 1990)
together with political pressures to transfer visible benefits to the rural population (Bratton, 1987).
5. Zimbabwe is divided into five agricultural regions, based on rainfall patterns. See chapter 1, section 1.2.
6. Initially, all members of households in which the head of household earned an income less than the statutory minimum wage were eligible
for food aid. However, such a broad eligibility criterion essentially meant that the majority of rural households were eligible to receive
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
million people from a rural population of about 5.7 million benefited from this policy.
7. However, the early growth was undercut by a three-year drought (1981-84), a world recession and South African destabilisation. In
response to the shrinking economy (and tax base from which to fund social spending) the government attempted to control its spending
by removing some food subsidies, freezing wages, being less aggressive in adjusting agricultural prices and adjusting the maximum wage
below which Zimbabweans were entitled to receive free health care and education. Sanders and Davies (1988: 724) suggest that removal
of food subsidies and wage freezes had direct consequences on nutritional status. These changes placed many Zimbabweans under stress,
as food prices rose sharply in response to the removal of subsidies while wages and earnings from agriculture declined (Sanders and
Davies, 1988; Herbst, 1990).
8. These surveys were administered biannually by the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare to approximately 4,000-5,000
households and 40 representative communities.
9. See Munro (2002), for an assessment of the components of the relief. Feeding points for about 40 children were set up across the country.
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
grams of beans per day per child) through a system of over 18,819 feeding points across the country.
10. See Munro (2001) and Munemo (2008b) for a comprehensive discussion of this programme.
11. The report also suggests that school enrolments might have dropped by as much as 25 per cent, due to the operation.
12. Colloquially called ‘green bombers’ in reference to the green uniforms they wear.
102