ZimAsset<\/a>) \u2013 it seems there is no respite in the battle to promote sustainable economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe ZimAsset initiative was crafted by this country\u2019s governing Zimbabwe Africa National Union-Patriotic Front party in 2013 to achieve sustainable development through use of the country\u2019s abundant human and natural resources but, with no activity taking place around the initiative, it has not yet shown itself capable of promoting sustainable economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cZimAsset lacks funding and it also has no buy-in from international financial institutions,\u201d Tapiwa Mashakada, Zimbabwe\u2019s opposition Movement for Democratic Change shadow Minister of Finance, told IDN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The result is that many like Simango have been forced to hatch desperate plans for survival in the country\u2019s comatose economy. \u201cApart from collecting empty plastic containers for recycling, I also do all sorts of menial jobs to earn a living while my wife is a vendor in the capital, where our school-going children join her daily after school,\u201d Simango told IDN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Zimbabwe is not the only country in this part of the world facing woes when it comes to promoting sustainable economic growth. In South Africa, for example, unemployment hovers around 27 percent of the country\u2019s population of about 52 million people, according to Statistics South Africa, while Zambia is also battling to contain joblessness which stands at around 14 percent of the country\u2019s estimated population of 15 million people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In fact, the entire Southern African region stands at a critical point as far as the UN\u2019s sustainable development goal (SDG) of economic growth is concerned. Some of the highest unemployment rates on the African continent are in Southern Africa, where 51 percent of young women and 43 percent of young men are unemployed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In May this year, Zimbabwe\u2019s Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa told journalists that the government was developing a two-year poverty reduction strategy which \u201cwill focus on practical well-targeted measures that can be implemented in the short to medium term, with long lasting impacts that guarantee improvement in the welfare of the citizenry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Agriculture was singled out as key to dealing with the poverty challenges that the country face which had been exacerbated by an El Nino-induced drought in the previous season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But even before then, poverty had already shot up thanks to the country\u2019s chaotic land seizures from white commercial farmers 16 years ago, leaving the land in the hands of poorly-equipped indigenous farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With huge tracts of land rendered less productive following the country\u2019s land redistribution exercise, Dr Jesimen Chipika, national coordinator of the Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (IPRSP), attributed the deepening poverty levels here to the underperforming agricultural sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPoverty levels keep rising across the country, with most families experiencing food deficits owing to underperforming agriculture,\u201d Chipika told IDN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, while poverty rages among the country\u2019s peasants where, according to the country\u2019s Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, approximately seven million of rural dwellers live in abject poverty, economic development minister Chinamasa points to agriculture as a springboard of economic breakthrough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTransforming agriculture will have a positive impact on the rest of the economy, and certainly that is where livelihoods are made, as 75 percent of the population depends on agriculture,\u201d Chinamasa told IDN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zimbabwe has a population of approximately 13 million people, with 67 percent of these living in the rural areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Poverty in Zimbabwe has been long blamed on corruption in government circles and civil society activists here say that Zimbabwe\u2019s bid to achieve the UN\u2019s sustainable economic growth goal rests on the country\u2019s determination to tackle corruption at top government levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPoor corporate governance repels public trust while it can also be destructive to the country\u2019s economy at a time the country is in dire need of international capital,\u201d Owen Dliwayo, programme officer of the Youth Dialogue Action Network, a youth lobby group here, told IDN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe\u2019s underperforming economy is also to be blamed on President Robert Mugabe\u2019s tenacity with controversial economic policies, according to independent economists here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These, they say, have resulted in this country lagging behind in terms of achieving the UN SDG of promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDespite seeing how destructive the indigenisation policy that his [Mugabe\u2019s] government keeps chasing, he has kept calling for the seizure of foreign owned firms by local black Zimbabweans, scaring away any potential investors,\u201d Kingston Nyakurukwa, an independent economist here, told IDN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Zimbabwe\u2019s Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act, 51 percent of foreign businesses should be ceded to indigenous persons, a move many like Simango feel would keep them jobless a bit longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIndigenisation has helped to keep foreign investors away from Zimbabwe, meaning continued unemployment for us,\u201d said Simango. [IDN-InDepthNews \u2013 1 July 2016]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo: With Zimbabwe\u2019s economy falling apart, the country faces an arduous task to promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth and decent work for all, with many jobless Zimbabweans taking to street pavements as vendors. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo | INPS-IDN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Analysis by Jeffrey Moyo HARARE (IDN) \u2013 Clad in faded trousers and shirt and an old pair of shoes dotted with a mixture of patches and holes, 38-year-old Jemitius Simango trudges along First Street in the Zimbabwean capital with a huge sack containing empty plastic bottles hanging on his back as he rummages through dustbins […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5879,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,28,16,32,3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"category-economy-finance-trade","9":"category-news","10":"category-regions","11":"category-sdgs-2"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5880,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5878\/revisions\/5880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}