Jeanette Manjengwa

Who will make the ‘best’ use of Africa’s land? Lessons from Zimbabwe

Conflict over African land – between smallholders and large industrial farmers and between domestic farmers and global agribusinesses – raises key questions about who will make the best use of African land and which farmers do most to decrease poverty and produce more food, industrial inputs and exports. Zimbabwe has already gone through two major changes in land occupation, and thus provides an important test of what is the ‘best’ use of the land. Three measures of ‘best’ use have been cited in Zimbabwe: reward for military victory, poverty reduction and agricultural production. Initial evidence indicates that commercial smallholder production is a better use of the land than larger, more mechanised farming.

Problems Reconciling Sustainable Development Rhetoric With Reality in Zimbabwe

Many sustainable development initiatives in developing countries are characterised by weak implementation and low impact on the ground. This article focuses on one specific sustainable development initiative, District Environmental Action Planning (DEAP), modelled on Agenda 21 that was implemented in Zimbabwe. Although externally inspired and donor-funded sustainable development programmes, such as DEAP, are espoused and implemented as national programmes, they have had little ground level impact. Despite the populist sustainable development rhetoric, DEAP was not based at local level, environmental concerns were not integrated into development plans, and the projects that were implemented had negligible impact on either environmental or human well-being. DEAP was implemented within a strongly hierarchical framework and failed to bridge the gap between micro and macro levels. Analysis of DEAPs implementation has shown that the programme was essentially top-down, only partially participatory, and depended on the usual technocratic solutions to environmental management. This article provides lessons learnt from the DEAP experience and concludes that sustainable development initiatives need to concentrate on ensuring that action takes place on the ground. * The research on which this article is based was undertaken as part of a PhD thesis with the Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM), University of Manchester, UK and was an activity under the NORAD-funded Zimbabwe Environment Sector Programme in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Zimbabwe.

Using scenario planning for stakeholder engagement in livelihood futures in the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area

Scenario planning has gained prominence among conservationists and policy-makers as a tool for planning, forecasting and learning about the future. This paper explores how participatory scenario planning was applied as a tool for promoting stakeholder engagement on discussions of desired livelihood futures. The study was conducted in Sengwe Communal lands, an area that falls within the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA). Data collection was based on semi-structured interviews, document reviews, focus group discussions and scenario workshops. Future desirable livelihoods that emerged include tourism enterprise development, small-scale irrigation, wildlife and livestock improvement, and energy generation. Development options imagined by locals are inseparable from contemporary politics of transfrontier conservation area governance requiring researchers to shift roles from being catalysts and knowledge brokers to facilitators of learning and negotiation. This paper contributes to contemporary debates on novel approaches to promote engagement with communities for improving biodiversity conservation and livelihoods in emerging transfrontier conservation areas.

Deprivation among children living and working on the streets of Harare

ABSTRACT This article investigates the extent of deprivation and vulnerability among children who live and work on the streets of Harare. A questionnaire survey was administered to 100 children in Harares central business district; this was supplemented by in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. The study found that these children suffered severe deprivation, in particular in terms of shelter and education. The majority of the children obtained their income from begging and selling small items. They were exposed to verbal, physical, sexual and emotional abuse by the public, as well as by other children and adults on the streets. Poverty was the main reason for the children being on the streets, while social factors such as family disintegration or the death of their parents also played a role. These push factors can be addressed through providing more social protection, cash transfers to families, and education and health assistance.

Shifting Gender Dimensions and Rural Livelihoods after Zimbabwe’s Fast-Track Land Reform Programme

Zimbabwe’s Agrarian livelihoods have drastically changed within the last decade due to the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme (FTLPR) that saw massive transfer of land from white commercial farmers to black farmers. The agricultural revolution led to re-peasantization processes coming back on the national agenda, with women participating in the process of land acquisition and investing in farming activities. In this article, we discuss the role that women have been playing in the new agricultural sphere in Zimbabwe, in light of land acquisition modes, the crops that are grown and the different entrepreneurial activities undertaken by women. The article demonstrates how re-peasantization processes have led to the recognition of land as a central resource shaping rural livelihoods, especially for women, in terms of contributing to the national and household food baskets.

Linking environment and development, easier said than done: learning from the Zimbabwean experience

Despite the popularity of the concept of sustainable development, there is growing evidence that, globally, human enterprise is becoming less sustainable rather than more. This paper examines this concept and the difficulty of linking it with environmental concerns. Developing countries emphasise economic growth and the eradication of poverty as prerequisites for sustainable development, but despite national strategies and programmes, implementation, especially in Africa, remains weak and fraught with problems. Focusing on national strategies for sustainable development in Zimbabwe, this paper highlights the fragmented and sectoral approach that results in low impact. Agenda 21 as a blueprint for sustainable development underestimates the complexities of diverse situations on the ground and the political and socio-economic realities of development that are in constant flux. Sustainable development initiatives fail to successfully integrate development with environmental concerns, poverty is not adequately addressed, and conservation is regarded as merely an income-generating luxury.Despite the popularity of the concept of sustainable development, there is growing evidence that, globally, human enterprise is becoming less sustainable rather than more. This paper examines this concept and the difficulty of linking it with environmental concerns. Developing countries emphasise economic growth and the eradication of poverty as prerequisites for sustainable development, but despite national strategies and programmes, implementation, especially in Africa, remains weak and fraught with problems. Focusing on national strategies for sustainable development in Zimbabwe, this paper highlights the fragmented and sectoral approach that results in low impact. Agenda 21 as a blueprint for sustainable development underestimates the complexities of diverse situations on the ground and the political and socio-economic realities of development that are in constant flux. Sustainable development initiatives fail to successfully integrate development with environmental concerns, poverty is not adequately addressed, and conservation is regarded as merely an income-generating luxury.

Special issue: Towards resilient urban communities

In Africa, urban life is often perceived to be better than the rural situation of widespread poverty, hunger and hard labour, relying on subsistence rain-fed agriculture in the face of unpredictable rainfall and climate change. Urban areas are seen as offering greater amenities, better employment opportunities and better services. However, urban areas concentrate risks and health hazards. The heterogeneity in urban communities can mask inequities and severe deprivations when its indicators are averaged across the poorer and richer urban communities. Goods and services in urban areas are commoditised and are often too expensive for the urban poor to afford. Many of the urban poor live in conditions that are overcrowded and unhygienic, without proper sanitation or access to clean water. They are often deprived of public services such as water supply and solid waste disposal. Urban infrastructure in some urban areas is poor or inadequate, with sub-standard housing and limited maintenance of amenities. High population density areas are usually more prone to disease outbreaks and experience environmental hazards arising from density and exposure to multiple pollutants. Access to essential goods and services is determined by pricing and availability of goods on the market. As such, urban people have to find ways of raising income to enable them to access the resources. At times they have to rely on environmental resources to generate income or goods and services required by their households. This is linked to the mushrooming of informal activities and unplanned (and often illegal) land uses, such as sand abstraction and tree cutting. These activities put more pressure on the environment and natural resources, as well as on infrastructure and services. Poor urban populations also often lack access to education, health facilities and employment opportunities. The urban poor are thus vulnerable to a complex network of risks which affects access to income and hence makes their lives difficult. The most vulnerable and deprived are the growing number of children who work and live on the streets. The risks and shocks range from economic shocks such as unemployment to natural conditions such as climate change-related weather events like droughts and floods. These risks drive income poverty and other household and child deprivations. The poor have to struggle through a variety of coping strategies and adapt their behaviour and activities to reduce the negative impacts of the risks to sustain their livelihoods and become more resilient. There is a need to better understand the relationship between both urbanisation and risks, thus creating policy-relevant evidence that can inform efforts by stakeholders at all levels to build urban resilience and manage risk and uncertainty. How can the ability of at-risk urban households, communities and systems be strengthened to anticipate, cushion, adapt, bounce back better and move on from the effects of shocks and hazards experienced in urban areas? Which characteristics, capacities and conditions are most strongly linked to urban resilience in the face of climatic and economic shocks faced by urban communities?

Understanding urban poverty in two high-density suburbs of Harare, Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT Urban communities are heterogeneous and averages mask inequities and deprivations among poor and rich urban communities. This article examines the situation of households residing in two low-income, high-density suburbs of Harare, Zimbabwe. The aim of the research was to contextualise urban poverty by looking at selected urban communities and vertically analysing the patterns and determinants of poverty. A household survey was administered to 1000 households and qualitative data were collected through focus group discussions and key informant interviews. The study found high levels of income poverty and also found differences in poverty experiences between the two suburbs. The major proximate determinants of poverty were large family size; low education level of the household head; lack of income from permanent employment; low cash transfers; and short length of residence in the suburb. Increasing household income consumption can be addressed through scaling-up industries, which would result in more quality employment.