JUNE 2005 • EMBASSY OF SWEDEN, HARARE
Sida Country Report 2004
Content
1. Summary ...3
2. Strategic Country Development Trends ... 5
2.1 Poverty reduction: Overall trends and perspectives ...5
2.2 Macro-economic development ...6
2.3 Political development, good governance and human rights ...7
2.4 Development co-operation and partnership ...9
2.5 Humanitarian assistance ...9
3. Swedish Development Co-operation ...11
3.1 Strategic assessment and considerations ...11
3.2 Overall country programming review ...11
3.3 Sida support to regional co-operation programmes ...17
3.4 Office and administrative Issues ...19
Annex 1: Selected Economic Indicators 1999–2005 ...21
Published by Sida 2005 Department for Africa
Author: Embassy of Sweden, Harare Printed by Edita Communication AB, 2005 Art. no.: SIDA4780en
1. Summary
In early 2003, Zimbabwe introduced a new economic plan, the National Economic Recovery Plan (NERP).In spite of a number of constructive measures taken in NERP, for example the de facto devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar, the economy continued on its downward trend and contracted by around 13 percent during the year, with an inflation rate of around 600 percent. A new Governor of the Central Bank was ap-pointed and announced a new monetary policy that, among other things, introduced a foreign currency auctioning system. The main structural economic deficiencies were, however, not addressed.
The economic decline has had serious impact on the social sectors. The lack of resources has resulted in a major flight of qualified person- nil, especially from the health sector. The “Fast Track” land reform, although formally completed, is still being pursued with the government continuing to expropriate land. Expropriations of commercial farms and general insecurity of land ownership and use has reduced food produc-tion and caused displacement of farm workers.
Nearly half of the population is dependent on humanitarian food assist-ance. The political division and antagonism between the ruling ZANU-PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) remains deep. The political situation has remained tense during the year, with continued intimidation of the opposition and those, including civil society organizations, perceived to oppose the government. Donors have contin-ued to channel support solely via civil society. Assistance is mainly focused in the areas of promoting human rights and democracy, combating HIV/ AIDS, and humanitarian assistance. Given that the root cause of the crisis is manmade, and given the lack of any signs that there will be a change in the policies that caused the crisis, the humanitarian crisis is set to continue for some time to come. Efforts by UNDP to initiate dialogue on humani-tarian issues, supported by donors, has not proven successful and currently this dialogue has been put on the backburner.
Civil society is finding it more difficult to function freely, given the new laws that were introduced by the government in order to curb and limit the activities of civil society. In spite of these hindrances, many non-governmental organizations are still active.
In view of the deteriorating socio-economic situation, the Embassy has placed a stronger focus on children’s rights. Projects supporting torture victims and conflict resolution at local levels have been added to the portfolio. In the area of HIV/AIDS, the work has been expanded
in home based care, support to orphans and vulnerable children. Food security for those affected by HIV/AIDS has been given priority.
A heavy cloud hanging on all our development assistance in Zimba-bwe is the proposed new law making illegal for any local NGO working in the area of human rights and democracy to receive foreign funding. Similarly any foreign NGO whose charter incorporates promotion of human rights and democracy will not be registered and allowed to work in Zimbabwe. Needless to say this law, should it be passed by Parliament, will threaten most of Sida’s work in this country.
2.1 Poverty reduction: Overall trends and perspectives Recent reports from the UN indicated that due to the unfavorable climatic conditions and a rapidly declining economic situation, an estimated five million people out of the total population of 11.6 million are unable to meet their minimum food requirements. The situation in resettlement areas appears to be more difficult than in communal areas as commercial farms funded most support services to health, schools and infrastructure either directly or indirectly. Many farm workers continue to reside in these areas but have no longer access to income, land or social services. Food crop production is expected to be below what is needed to assure food security for the households. The current humani-tarian situation has eroded traditional coping mechanisms, with many families no longer able to meet their basic needs.
Health indicators are deteriorating fast. Chronic malnutrition has increased to 26, 5 percent and cholera; malaria and tuberculosis are on the increase. Vacancy rates for medical doctors are estimated at around 55 percent, at 73 percent for dentists, at 40 percent for nurses, and at 90 percent for pharmacists. A serious shortage of essential drugs exists, which is compounded by an acute shortage of water supply and sanitation in rural areas. The shortage and erratic supplies of water treatment chemicals (caused by lack of foreign exchange) has caused similar problems to urban centers. In the education sector there is a lack of basic infrastructure, quali-fied teachers and learning materials. Increase in school dropouts has been noticed due to the high increase of school fees and costs for school uniforms that have become out of reach for the majority of people. There are signals that girls drop out of school before boys, and to a higher extent.
Preliminary results from the Health Sector Capacity and Health Impact Assessment that was conducted in October and November 2003 indicate that the disease burden among vulnerable populations has increased as a result of declining health service delivery. Conditions like HIV/AIDS and poor nutrition have increased women’s vulnerability to developing obstetric complications.
The household level of poverty continued to widen and deepen during this period. More and more Zimbabweans, particularly adolescents, were forced to adopt negative coping mechanisms, such as contractual sex that greatly increases the risk of HIV infection. The food shortages continued to have a harsh effect on individuals infected with HIV by further compro-mising their immunity and escalating their descent to terminal illness.
2. Strategic Country
Development Trends
2.2 Macro-economic development
Zimbabwe’s economy has suffered a severe decline over the last five years. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined to an estimated 13% last year which is in sharp contrast to the developments in the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa. Structural unemployment is well above 60%. The economic decline has resulted in high inflation and interest rates, unsustainable budget deficits and debt, and the depreciation of the lo-cal currency and foreign exchange shortages. Zimbabwe is also facing a critical foreign debt problem as a result of the rapid build up of the external payment arrears. In addition, the decline in exports combined with almost no foreign financing has resulted in a severe compression of imports, which has seriously hampered the country’s financing capacity for development. The banking sector has during 2004 experienced major difficulties with seven local bank institutions being closed down and/or put under curatorships.
The economic policy has continued to be driven by the central bank governor, Gideon Gono. In his quarterly monetary policy statement, Gono had stressed that the economy should recover in 2005. However, the forecasts for this economic recovery, especially in the agricultural sector, are seen as extremely optimistic. The latest monetary policy state-ment for the 4th quarter of 2004 gave a summary of the yearly figures on inflation, foreign exchange inflows etc. Annual inflation rates have declined from a peak of 622, 8% in January 2004 to 132, and 7% in December 2004. The monthly inflation has been reduced from a peak of 33, 6% in November 2003 to 3, and 9% in December 2004. However, there are doubts over the accuracy of the data since the central bank has allowed only a modest fall in the auction exchange rate since September 2004. The auction rate has been revised to 6,200 ZWD to 1 USD as compared to the parallel market rate of 8,600 ZWD to 1 USD. Although the inflows of foreign exchange in 2004 have increased, amounting to USD 1,7 billion during January – December 2004, these inflows could only satisfy 57% of the demand.
Although inflation has been somewhat curtailed, negative social consequences such as high and rising unemployment and lower school enrolments have remained.
In September, the 2005 budget was presented by acting minister of fi-nance, Herbert Murerwa. The presentation highlighted a forecast budget deficit of 5% of GDP for 2005 but has been assessed as too optimistic by the IMF which expect a deficit of 7,5% of GDP.
Relations with IMF have remained restrained. The IMF is trying to avoid having to expel Zimbabwe from the organisation due to the accumulation of payment arrears that now total to roughly USD 307 million. During this year payments have been made amounting to USD 18 million to the IMF. The World Bank and the African Development Bank have also reported submission of payments of USD 1.5 million each. During a recent visit to the country, the Fund had expressed hope that recent developments in monetary policy, which have seen the annual inflation decline to 149,5% in December 2004, might foresee a general improvement in economic management.
The World Bank presented its Interim Strategy under the LICUS-pro-gramme (Low Income Countries under Stress) for consultation with core group of donors in November 2004. The relationship between Zimbabwe and the World Bank is limited to non-lending activities on account of Zimbabwe’s non-accrual status (since October 2000) and the accumula-tion of arrears. The raaccumula-tionale for the World Bank to stay engaged and keep
updates of the economic developments and poverty situation remain valid. Thus, the Interim Strategy is designed with the principal objectives of fill-ing knowledge gaps and catalyzfill-ing the World Bank’s in-country partner-ships for a suitable response, when economic and political circumstances are favourable and permit a re-engagement. The Interim Strategy covers a twelve-month period and activities during this period aim to close impor-tant analytical gaps in the areas of poverty and safety nets, social service delivery, and agriculture and infrastructure sectors.
2.3 Political development, good governance and human rights
In 2004 the ruling party Zanu-PF came to dominate the political scene. Its grip on power also became more firm and due to the opposition’s decision in August to suspend its participation in further elections, due to irregularities and a non-level playing field, Zanu-PF has been able to increase its seats in parliament unabated.
Infighting in Zanu-PF has erupted and the quarrels and power fights have become more and more fierce and exposed. The main antagonists in the power struggle have been the old guard and the so-called young turks. The in-fighting will most likely continue until and after the Parlia-mentary elections, due in March, since the crucial question of who will succeed the president remains to be answered.
There is no on-going official dialogue between Zanu-PF and the opposi-tion party MDC. The ruling party has no interest in such a dialogue in the current situation when its position in the country is rather strong.
Zimbabwe’s international status is one of pariah in most countries. Even though signs of a will to improve the relations to the international commu-nity have occurred, nothing has been done so far. The country’s few friends, mainly in the region, provide some moral support but are in no position to provide the economic support that Zimbabwe desperately needs.
The media situation is characterized by the domination by state-control-led media, this is especially apparent in the broadcasting sectors. The print media has some privately owned papers but varying degrees of self-censor-ship does not make them entirely free. During the first half of the year, The Daily News and the Daily News on Sunday were permanently shut down, as well as the weekly the Tribune. It has several times been declared that the opposition party would get access to the state media before the elections. In mid-February 2005 all parties and candidates contesting the March elec-tions were granted access to the broadcasting media.
The NGO bill, which has been a threat on the horizon for the last two years was approved by Parliament in December but has not yet been signed by the president and therefore has not entered into force. Accord-ing to the Constitution the time for signAccord-ing the Bill has elapsed and it will have to be referred back to Parliament. Most likely the Bill will not be signed before the Parliamentary elections. The main objective of the NGO bill is to regulate the civil society organisations working in the field of human rights, good governance and democracy. No such activities will be permitted and foreign funding will also be hampered. The imple-mentation of the NGO bill, once it is made into law, will most probably be selective. It remains to be seen which organisations will be targeted. Another blow to some parts of the civil society organisations is the newly appointed Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, since according to the new law regulating this body, no “unauthorised” voter education may be con-ducted. The new laws will undoubtedly further diminish the democratic space in Zimbabwe.
The Electoral Commission has been established by the government with an ambition to comply with the SADC principles on democratic elections. The appointment of the commission members is done by the President why it is deemed a partisan organ. The commission will be responsible for running all elections and referendums in the country.
The treason trial against the leader of MDC, Morgan Tsvangirai, came to an end in October 2004 when Tsvangirai was acquitted from the charges. Shortly after, he could obtain his passport that had been in the custody of the Supreme Court since the trial began in February 2003, and subsequently visited the neighbouring countries for delibera-tions on the situation in Zimbabwe. MDC made it clear on several occa-sions that the party would not participate in the elections if there was not a level playing field, of which a major factor is the access to media for all parties. Despite the lack of any improvement in the view of the MDC the party declared in the beginning of February its intention to contest the March elections.
The opposition MP for Chimanimani, Roy Bennett, was in October sentenced to a year of hard labour for contempt in Parliament. This fol-lowed an incident in the assembly when the Minister of Justice, Patrick Chinamasa, verbally insulted Bennett and the later pushed the Min-ister. Involved in the incident was also Didymus Mutasa, Anticorrup-tion minister, who kicked Bennett. The intraparliamentary disciplinary committee hence sentenced Bennett to prison while Chinamasa and Mutasa were acquitted since the committee found they had only acted in self-defence. The handling of this incident has been widely criticized by parliamentarians in other countries. It is symptomatic of the discrimina-tion and harassments of the political opposidiscrimina-tion in Zimbabwe.
There is no obvious risk of a conflict erupting within Zimbabwe. The dynamics in the social, economic and political crisis have not incited any major out-cries in the society in form of protests and the like.
There is an anticorruption minister in the government, Mutasa and some measures have been taken to tackle the problem of corruption. They have not been applied all over why there is some reason to believe that Even the Minister of Finance, Kuruneri, was arrested during the year for “externalisation of funds”. However, there seems to be some political aspects involved as well in the detention of Kuruneri.
The human rights situation in Zimbabwe give reason for serious concern. Several freedoms are severely restricted, such as freedom of expression, association and opinion. The record for 2004 shows however a lesser number in victims of political violence, which could be explained by a number of factors. The most important being that people are less willing to participate in demonstrations and mass actions, since the consequences of such action are known to be violent and biased. Another factor is that fewer elections have taken place during 2004, and violence has been particularly present at the holding of elections. In view of the upcoming parliamentarian elections, due in March 2005, there is wide-spread fear that the violence and the harassments by various state-agents, against those who are perceived as the opposition, will increase. The opposition party MDC cannot organise meetings without permission, according to the repressive POSA (Public Order and Security Act). An-other leg of the repressive legislation in Zimbabwe is the AIPPA (Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act) which has been amended during the year, since it was deemed not to be efficient enough. Arbitrary detentions are made regularly of human rights defenders and dissidents, often on lose grounds why they can’t be kept in custody for a long period
of time. Torture is being perpetrated in a systematic manner all over the country. The rule of law is not upheld, especially when political interests are at stake.
2.4 Development co-operation and partnership
As said earlier, there is very limited development co-operation in Zimba-bwe between the government and the international community, with one exception being the American organization Centre for Disease Control (CDC) that works through the Ministry of Health. However, most of the former major donors are still present in the country in one form or an-other, with the exception of Denmark (and Finland) as they closed their Embassies altogether.
Nearly all donors are involved in humanitarian support. This is mainly in terms of food aid, although the UK and the EU also supply medicines, mainly as a means of combating HIV/AIDS. Apart from the medicines which are channeled through the Government, all interna-tional donors’ assistance is channeled through the civil society.
The lack of dialogue between the government and donors as a result of terminated development co-operation agreements, is a major con-strain. UNDP has acted as a conduit for such a dialogue and all donors (US,UK,EU,NL,N,C,S) support UN’s efforts in coordinating humani-tarian aid through UNDP’s Relief and Recovery Unit (RRU). Although UNDP has now been forced by GoZ to close down RRU, most of the functions of the RRU are still being implemented within UNDP. Rela-tions amongst the donors are cordial and there is collaboration with regular donor meetings. The donor supported dialogue between UNDP and the government has not borne any fruit, as the government lacks willingness to constructive dialogue and rejects discussing even the hu-manitarian situation. The main bone of contention between donors and the government is defining the root cause of the crisis. The standpoint of donors is that the crisis is man-made and due mainly to economic mismanagement as a result of GoZ policies, while the government refers solely to the drought and/or economic sanctions by the West.
Apart from humanitarian assistance most donors are active in support of organizations working in the area of human rights and democracy; and HIV/AIDS. The like minded countries (Canada, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden) have been working together in capacity building of non-governmen-tal organisations and are still co-coordinating efforts in these areas.
2.5 Humanitarian assistance
During the first part of the year the Government declared that the national cereal production was sufficient and there was no longer a need for food aid. Instead, any assistance should be in the form of support to economic recovery activities and to social sectors. As a consequence, all general food distribution was stopped. The government statement on sufficient food production contradicts the results of vulnerability assess-ments conducted by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) and independent estimates made by international organisa-tions and the UN.
Despite some improvements in the overall situation in the country, major factors underlying the situation remain. The continued economic and social deterioration in Zimbabwe entered its fifth year and consti-tutes a continuing humanitarian crisis, affecting not only rural but also urban and peri-urban areas. The vulnerability of people is increasing and coping mechanisms are continuously weakened, especially due to the
HIV/aids pandemic. The most vulnerable groups are orphans, people living with HIV/aids and former farm workers. The displacement and evictions of former farm workers have continued during 2004. The fast track land reform programme has devastated the livelihoods of approxi-mately 800,000 former commercial farm-workers and their families.
The agricultural sector has been seriously affected by the fast track land reform, insecure land tenure, price controls of maize, shortages of tillage, fuel, seeds and fertilizer, which has reduced crop production. A progressive shift from modern, large-scale and capital-intensive produc-tion techniques to small-scale, weather-dependent subsistence farming methods is observed. In addition to this, the productive force is declining due to HIV/AIDS.
The Food and Crop Assessment mission of 2004 was not allowed by government to be completed, resulting in a lack of reliable information on production, stocks and imports. The country requires approximately 1,4 million metric tonnes (MTs) for human consumption. The Govern-ment estimated an unrealistic bumper harvest of 2.4 MTs maize, which has clearly not materialized. The estimated production according to UN was below 1 MTs. According to ZimVAC there is need for at least 177,681 tons of cereal in food assistance during the 2004/05 season for 2,3 million people in the rural areas or 30% of the population. The urban assessment from 2003 identifies an additional 2,5 million people in urban areas in need of assistance. In total, close to 5 million people or almost 50% of the population are estimated to be in need.
The quality of and access to social services, in particular health and education, has deteriorated rapidly. Economic conditions and policies have resulted in chronic under funding of public services and an exodus of educated professionals (brain drain), strikes, equipment breakdowns and shortages of essential supplies such as medicines and text books. The spread of HIV/AIDS has further depleted human resources in these and other sectors.
The Embassy has signed a new agreement for continued support to International Organisation of Migration (IOM) during 2004-05 for pro-vision of food and non-food items, including HIV/AIDS interventions, to internally displaced populations, mostly former farm-workers. The assistance is channelled through local NGOs all over the country. IOM provides 10.000 households monthly with food assistance. IOM also dis-tributes non-food items such as clothing, blankets, household utensils and seed packs. The conditions of the displaced ex-farm workers vary from newly evicted groups with huge emergency needs, resettled groups with intermediate needs, and a few groups who have been granted land and have prospects for durable solutions.
3.1 Strategic assessment and considerations
The socio-economic crisis of Zimbabwe originates from political deci-sions taken by GoZ. Efforts by different actors to promote a political dialogue between the government and the opposition to resolve the crisis has been unsuccessful. Unless the government adopts the necessary measures to address the underlying causes of the crisis in the country, the situation will not improve and the international community will have little opportunity in moving from humanitarian assistance to recovery. One key challenge for all actors is how to engage with the government in a constructive manner, in order to first of all discuss the humanitarian situation and secondly, to discuss the combat of poverty.
So far humanitarian assistance has been mainly in terms of food. But as the economy continues to deteriorate at a fast rate, the socio- eco-nomic decline accelerates and the social sectors, particularly health and education, are breaking down. There is increased dependency from the general populace on humanitarian aid (although this is not a view that is shared by the government). Some donors have started to support small- scale recovery at local levels instead of supplying humanitarian aid only, in order to escape dependency. The focus of the Swedish programme has been on economic and social rights during 2004.The rights of the child is important in this respect but it is difficult to achieve any notable gains without the government assuming its role to protect, promote and fulfill children’s rights. The biggest challenge therefore is finding common ground in trying to define the current problems facing the country, its causes and there after finding a remedy.
The high rate of inflation the last few years and the fluctuating ex-change rate resulted in more funds in local currency when exchanging Swedish Crowns. This reduced financial costs for the Embassy and for our partners. On the other hand, constant budget reviews of projected costs for implementing activities and actual costs on the ground caused complications and administrative costs. During 2004 though and after the introduction of the new monetary policy the value of the Zimbabwe dollar has become ‘stronger’ while inflation is still high resulting in finan-cial constraints for most of our co-operating partners.
3.2 Overall country programming review
The Swedish position (förhållningssätt) for development co-operation in Zimbabwe was revised in June 2004 and was extended until June 2005.
3. Swedish
Development
Co-operation
The support continues to focus on promoting human rights and democracy, combating HIV/AIDS and humanitarian assistance with special emphasis on the plight of children.
3.2.1 Human rights and democracy (general)
The major factor for limitations within the sector is the widespread repression, caused by control and intimidation through laws, such as the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) which re-quires media-houses and newspapers to register and is limiting freedom of expression; and through the Public Order and Security Act (POSA), which has been used increasingly to ban meetings and to arrest activists. A consequence of the extensive intimidation is a widespread culture of fear and self censorship among people in general as well as among activ-ists. Acts of violence have occasionally taken place during the year and are often directed towards supporters of the opposition and in relation to elections processes.
In addition, the proposed NGO-bill has stifled much of the activities in the sector during the past six months as it is directly aiming to forbid NGOs from engaging in governance activities, which has been defined in very broad terms. It seems as the bill has achieved its purpose before it has become law since it has spread much uncertainty about the future for NGOs and an immediate effect has been seen in restricting new work permits for international staff to be granted for longer than one month. The NGO-bill has also led to an increased fragmentation of civil society.
A number of factors have limited the impact of activities within this sector. Common limitations to achieving results have been constant budgetary changes caused by inflation, weak organisational structures, and a fragmented civil society.
Sida’s support to the sector can be divided into the following sub sec-tors: -Support to victims of violence -Support to civic education -Support to media
For support to victims of violence Sida has supported a newly formed organisation; Centre for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims (CERE-TOV) and Amani Trust. CERETOV is set up by survivors of torture and has conducted training of basic counsellors and is establishing a countrywide network of counsellors in order to provide rehabilitation of torture victims. CERETOV also conducts advocacy for ending the use of torture and has produced a newsletter. A new agreement was signed with Amani Trust for continued medical and psychological rehabilitation to survivors of organised violence and torture, forensic documentation of injuries, protection of high risk people, and provision of access to domes-tic and international legal bodies. Among others, Amani Trusts existence has been put under threat in light of the proposed NGO-bill.
Sida’s support to civic education is channelled through Zimbabwe Liberator’s Platform (ZLP), Civic Education Network (CIVNET), Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN), and National Constitu-tional Assembly (NCA). ZLP’s, a newly formed organisation consisting of “real” war veterans, agenda is conflict resolution and documenting the history of the independence war. However, due to management prob-lems, limited skills in the organisation and inflation these activities could not be implemented as planned.
The Embassy extended the current agreement with ZESN (Zimba-bwe Election Support Network) in December for the upcoming election observation activities in March 2005 with a one year support. ZESN has during 2004 performed observations of by-elections and was the
organ-iser of a regional conference on regional electoral reforms in the SADC-region which took place in August 2004.
CIVNET (Civic Education Network Trust) had during the year conducted a number of workshops but due to a high inflationary envi-ronment the last half of the year made budgeting and budgetary control difficult. A number of reports from field activities are still outstanding for some of the workshops. An exercise to identify facilitators to be trained was carried out. However, in some cases the facilitators identified were not willing to participate owing to intimidation and threats of victimi-sation by political activists. An audit also revealed that a significant number of trained facilitators have since relocated, in response to the land reform exercise, to places that are still unknown. The Embassy entered into a new agreement with NCA in December 2004 for a one year support due to the uncertainty with the NGO-Bill. NCA has during the year continued its advocacy work on a new constitution. In addition, organisational development of the NCA has been performed with the main aim to put in place a more effective and efficient secretariat and improve the NCA’s organisational culture. A number of workshops have been held in order to develop a strategic plan in order for the NCA to strengthen its mass membership base, emphasize the non-partisan nature of its focus and promote efficiency in its management systems. The great-est threat to the strategy plan, which may render it entirely inoperable, is the proposed NGO legislation which may make the NCA an “illegal organization”.
Sida’s support to the Legal Resources Foundation (LRF) has contin-ued during the year. The LRF has focused its outreach paralegal pro-gramme nationally. During the period LRF has experienced financial constraints due to high inflation as well as the closure of one of the local banks where a major part of the organisations funds have been held. The Embassy disbursed its second tranche of the funds in October and has now requested a full audited report on the accounts of the LRF.
During the second half of 2004 The Embassy granted support to the African Parliamentarian Network Against Corruption (APNAC) which is an initiative that started in 1999 by ten African countries. The overall objective of APNAC is to strengthen the capacity and commitment of Af-rican parliamentarians to fight corruption. The support has been aimed at a re-launch workshop of the Zimbabwe chapter of APNAC. The workshop outcomes were a new APNAC nominated committee as well as a work plan and priority areas were identified and agreed upon among others the lobbying for ratification of SADC, AU and UN anti-corruption protocols and moving motions for the investigation of corruption.
Sida’s media support includes Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zimbabwe-chapter and Kubatana Trust. MISA continued its work to promote a free, independent and pluralistic media, however in a more restricted media-environment. MISA has lobbied for Media Law Reform and conducted an information campaign for awareness rising on the importance of freedom of expression and the right to information. Media alerts monitoring media freedom were sent out over the inter-net. A campaign for Broadcasting Diversity was conducted, including a community radio initiative which was initiated during the year. Legal support through the Media Defence Fund was increased. MISA also promoted a Code of Conduct for media workers which were adopted by the Zimbabwe Independent Journalists Forum.
A new agreement was signed with Kubatana Trust for continued development of www.kubatana.net – web portal for over 250 Zimbabwean
NGOs. During the year Kubatana Trust has developed an Information Technology Training Centre for capacity building of and technical assist-ance to NGOs in electronic advocacy and activism and in online security.
Institute for Democracy in South Africa (Idasa) has finalised the last activities on a two year long organisational development process for capacity building of for 13 NGOs in the democracy and human rights sector. The programme included leadership training, values, vision and mission of the organisation, institutional building, coaching for executive directors, skills training and regional and sector civil society exchanges. The programme has been evaluated during the year.
The Embassy has given ad-hoc support during the year to Parlia-mentarians for Global Action (PGA) with the purpose of facilitating Zimbabwean members of Parliament to participate in two international conferences; a two-member multiparty delegation from Zimbabwe to its Seminar on Parliamentary Ethics and Accountability, held in the US Senate, in Washington D.C on June 3-4, 2004, and a Parliamentary Dialogue between Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom in the House of Commons, London, United Kingdom. This support is of great im-portance given that this is one of the few possibilities where members of parliament from both political parties can dialogue on crucial issues.
Sida has commissioned KPMG to conduct compliance reviews for six of its partners during the year; NCA, MISA, CIVNET, ZLP, Amani Trust and Human Rights NGO Forum, in order to follow up on the internal control systems of the partners in the sector. The reports have been delivered and Sida has followed up on the results and taken action as appropriate. KPMG workshop for Sida staff and for all partners has been held in order to improve financial follow up and accountability from both sides and as part of the strategy for fighting corruption.
3.2.2 Children’s rights
In 2004 Sida consolidated its support to the rights of children in Zim-babwe. Organisations like the Farm Orphan Support Trust, Cadec Masvingo, Save the Children UK, Scripture Union and Justice for Children Trust continued implementing their programmes unabated, despite a number of challenges which included inflation and uncertainty in the environment caused by the NGO Bill. The volume of funding was expanded to most partners so that they could reach more children.
The Farm Orphan Support Trust for example increased its cover-age by almost 100%. Through the pre school feeding programme Fost is reaching 5 517 children in 94 pre schools, 18 897 children in 33 primary schools and 300 students in secondary schools. Save the Children UK expanded its programme to include a health care component and CARE Zimbabwe also expanded its programme to Nyanga.
The process of evaluating and auditing the partners was kicked off in 2004 and will be completed in 2005. Scripture Union and Justice for Chil-dren Trust were evaluated and audited, Scripture Union has incorporated the recommendations into its current programme and Justice for Children is incorporating the recommendations into the 2005 to 2007 proposal still to be submitted to Sida. A major finding of the evaluations was that most of the child rights projects were not based on good baselines. Efforts were started in 2004 to rectify this through commissioning needs assessment surveys through consultants for CADEC Masvingo and Justice for Children Trust. The audits highlighted the fact that though there was compliance the finan-cial systems had to be revamped. As a follow up KPMG will work with most of the partners on strengthening the financial systems in 2005.
A great challenge here is not only the issue of expanding the pro-gramme to reach more children but more important to improve the qual-ity of the services and a great hindrance here is the question of the state delivering its part. Given that we cannot work with the state, there is a huge risk that the quality of the health and education services delivered to the children, whose rights we wish to protect and promote, will suffer.
3.2.3 Culture
All the cultural organizations were audited by KPMG in 2004. The audits highlighted the fact that most of the organizations had very weak financial management systems. In the 2005 work plan Sida will invest in capacity building these partners so that they can have effective financial management systems.
The audits mentioned above led to Sida suspending funding to two major partners in the culture sector namely Rooftop Promotions and Amakhosi due to lack of compliance in the use of funds.
The Zimbabwe Culture Fund had a rather discouraging start in 2004 when it lost four Board members due to various reasons and the national Coordinator was also laid off for failure to deliver. For most of 2004 the organisation worked with a much reduced Board and a secretariat with no substantive head. However a substantive National Coordinator was appointed at the end of 2004. Preliminary work for the evaluation of the Fund to be carried out in 2005 was done and a team of consultants was selected in December 2004 to carry out the evaluation/audit scheduled for February 2005.
3.2.4 HIV/AIDS
The major strategic areas for Sida support to the HIV/AIDS sector in 2004 continued to be centred on prevention, care and impact mitigation through direct support mainly towards organisational capacity build-ing for partners such as CRS/Strive, Deseret International, Zimbabwe AIDS Prevention and Support Organisation (ZAPSO), Zimbabwe AIDS Network (ZAN) as well as concretising mainstreaming and emerging dialogue opportunities, despite the challenging macro-economic and po-litical environment. Scaling up HIV/AIDS support to existing and new strategic interventions was achieved through workplace and school-based programmes. Increased food security for HIV/AIDS affected households remained a high priority area with access to comprehensive Voluntary Counselling and testing (VCT), care and treatment through palliative care units (Mashambanzou) and youth friendly clinics for out- of school youth (Population Services Zimbabwe).
In the Ruvheneko- mission hospital/community programme jointly supported by Sida and Cida through Pact, for instance, a total of 1 602 VCT clients were seen during October to December 2004 alone, and 1533 took the HIV test. This 109% increase in the number of people get-ting tested was directly attributed to the increased access and confidence by rural communities to the Ruvheneko services. The overall positive serological rate was 32.7%, with the majority being women (1033 female: 500 male). These figures mirror the conditions of escalating poverty and gender inequality on one hand and also provided a widow of opportu-nity for Sida and other funding partners to further scale up intervention efforts through direct support, mainstreaming (HIV/AIDS and gender), and dialogue in 2005.
Sida financed an organisational development project of ZAPSO that was conducted by Ernst and Young from April- June 2004. ZAPSO
works with over 30 private sector companies through workplace mitiga-tion programmes throughout Zimbabwe. The implementamitiga-tion of the recommendations has since been in progress and will be reviewed in February 2005.
From May – August 2004, a sample of fifteen Sida -supported NGOs working in HIV and AIDS since the year 2001 to date, were evaluated by a team of local consultants. The mid term sector evaluation assessed the impact of the implemented Sida policies and came up with recom-mendations for a management response on identified gaps which will be implemented through 2005 programme work plans.
In adherence to the compliance review requirements and recommen-dations from this sector evaluation, programme evaluations and financial audits for CRS-Strive, Deseret International, Musasa Project and PSZ were conducted by KPMG and other consultants from January to De-cember 2004. This process is ongoing.
The Embassy also participated in the first National HIV and AIDS Conference held in June 2004, followed by attendance by partner or-ganisations at the XII International Conference on HIV and AIDS in Bangkok, Thailand in July 2004. The conference provided a strategic opportunity for Sida to showcase Sweden’s commitment and contribu-tion in fighting HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe, regionally and globally through its policy ‘Investing for Future Generations’. Sida’s information kiosk, the only one with a conference specific document, generated a lot of interest, with most visitors (over 127) admitting that it was their first time to hear of Sweden’s humanitarian work.
Dialogue with key donors such as Cida, DFID, USAID, the UN and representatives of the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and other sector ministries was highly active in 2004. Donor coordination and harmonisation for all HIV/AIDS work in Zimbabwe continued to be strengthened through the UN HIV/AIDS donor group. Priorities were set on consolidating institutional capacity building of National Aids Council (NAC), support and care for People Living with HIV & AIDS and orphans and creation of a lead agency fund (namely the Trust Fund proposed by UNAIDS). Discussions are now at an advanced stage and will be cemented in 2005. The exclusion of Zimbabwe from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria leading to the rejection of the country’s US $218 million application and the implications of the NGO Bill were also critical dialogue issues during 2004 which will be tabled again in 2005.
The Embassy is supporting Swedish Co-operative Centre for Mitigat-ing the effects of drought and HIV/AIDS on households’ food security for vulnerable households through enhanced sweet potato and cassava production, processing, storage and utilisation in Gokwe and Shurugwi districts. SCC has provided planting material for project beneficiaries combined with agricultural training and HIV/AIDS awareness. A mid-term evaluation of the project has been planned.
3.2.5 Gender
In the gender mainstreaming arena, 2004 activities were characterised by a host of important events that resulted in prioritising women’s issues on the national development agenda. A mid-term review was undertaken of Sida support through a comprehensive gender analysis of all program-ming, which included other cross cutting issues such as HIV/AIDS, pov-erty reduction, human rights, democracy and good governance. It was established that most current Sida supported programmes do not have
the skills or capacity to develop, mainstream and operationalise gender policies into their activities and organisational structures.
A legal review of Children and Women’s Rights in Zimbabwe was also undertaken and published by UNICEF in 2004, and set the tone for the urgency to refocus attention on human rights in all development interventions through rights-based programming and evidence-based advocacy strategies. The review explored the extent to which the Bei-jing Platform for Action among NGOs, CRC and CEDAW have been domesticated and operationalised in Zimbabwe’s regulatory systems. Sida partners such as Musasa Project and Zimbabwe Women’s Lawyer’s Association (ZWLA) participated and have prioritised HIV/AIDS and Gender mainstreaming in their planned activities for 2005 onwards.
Plans for 2005 will look into developing practical strategies of ensur-ing that gender issues as a basis for recognisensur-ing human rights, are ad-dressed in the design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evalu-ation of all Sida supported programmes. More specifically, addressing gender inequality through mainstreaming e.g. focusing on poverty, socio-cultural imbalances, gender based violence against women/children and HIV/AIDS, women and men as caregivers, property and inheritance rights, access to education, care and treatment, etc will be critical. This process will be informed through technical support from the Regional Adviser for Good Governance and the gender desks in Nairobi and Stockholm in developing an in-house ‘gender support unit’, possibly with a budget line for 2005.
3.3 Sida support to regional co-operation programmes
3.3.1 Regional water resources management programme for Southern Africa
The regional water resources program is focussed on river basin manage-ment in transboundary river basins, as well as support to thematic areas such as research and capacity building, and awareness.
SADC Water Division (WD) has the political mandate from the SADC protocol on shared water courses to co-ordinate the activities in the water sector in Southern Africa. Sida’s support to the WD is mainly at the level of dialogue with the SADC WD and Sida participates in the WD’s Water Strategy Reference Group meetings. Support from Sida has mainly been direct to selected implementation agencies in the region.
Capacity constraints remain a problem in the southern Africa Wa-ter Sector. One challenge is the gap between the regional level and the national level when it comes to capacity.
Discussions and interventions in the Water Sector continue to be influenced by targets spelt in instruments such as the SADC Regional Strategic Indicative Development Plan (RSIDP), and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), etc.
New projects have been initiated in 2004 whilst some projects have received extended support. Support to the Okavango Delta Management Plan (ODMP), communication component has commenced. The pro-gram has initiated a work towards the establishment of river basin secre-tariat in the Okavango basin. This work is been done together with the OKACOM Commission. The Every River has its people has received support for an additional three years.
The Water Demand management project was extended to February 2004. An analysis will be done on how best to structure future support to Water Demand Management issues in the region.
work-shop to discuss a water quality project has been financed and the way forward on the resultant proposal will be further discussed in 2005. A discussion and preparation for new support to waterNet, an academic network of Universities offering training in integrated water Resources Management was initiated.
The Water Research fund for Southern Africa (WARFSA) started discussions about the future and a concept note for a five year third phase was submitted to Sida. Sida will make an assessment of the con-cept note in relation to the WARFSA long term strategy.
Work on the refocusing of the ZACPRO 6.2. project continued. Zac-pro 6:2, which is implemented by ZRA in co-operation with SADC WD, is going through a re-structuring process. This is a project co-financed with Danida and Norad. The main achievement of the project during the year was the signing of the agreement for the Zambezi Basin Commission (ZAMCOM) by the states sharing the Zambezi River basin.
The regional water team held its annual planning week in Maun, Botswana and it was decided that this exercise be continued each year.
3.3.2 Conclusions from 2004
It was noted that the support to regionally shared water resources ful-fils the highest priority in Sida’s strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa. The support will continue to focus mainly on the co-operation, joint manage-ment and developmanage-ment of three river basins: Zambezi, Okavango and Pungue. The thematic projects, such as water demand management and water quality, should as much as possible be linked to the basin projects to support these in practical application of new concepts.
It was also noted that the regional water team should prepare for increased funds for the regional water resource management program in southern Africa, due to an increase in the overall development budget. The limiting factor may be the capacity of the team.
Projects within the regional water resources portfolio are entering phases, which may require more resources. Therefore, different implementing mechanisms, e.g. trust funds, need to be assessed for the investment phase.
3.3.3 Democratic governance in Southern Africa
A priority for the new regional adviser during his first months was to prepare for the regional meeting on democracy and human rights for Swedish embassies in the region, which was held in co-operation with the Swedish Embassy in Maputo, in January 2005. The purpose of this seminar was to discuss the adviser’s work plan with the embassies and to divide his time between them and other regional programmes and activities. In addition, it was decided to highlight the issue of integrat-ing a rights’ based perspective in all areas of development co-operation and how to address the issue of corruption in development co-operation, which are both are areas that will be prioritised the coming years.
Like the previous year, 2004 continued to see support to the promo-tion of democratic governance in Southern Africa through partnership with a number of regional non-governmental organisations. The main areas covered were gender, democracy and human rights.
Activities in the area of gender and human rights of women were aimed at consolidating gender information and complementing efforts to engender developments in Southern Africa in a proactive way, as well as strengthening networks, and create awareness of the existence of infor-mation resources within the region. Work in this area contributed sig-nificantly to events and processes leading up to the formulation of gender
policies in most SADC countries and various institutions and organisa-tions. This was done through production of information tools, provision of platforms and networks for sharing of information needed to facilitate policy formulation and change, and capacity building on information management. Workshops, conferences and seminars were held to em-power government officials, parliamentarians, civil society organisations, media practitioners and the public to appreciate and articulate gender equality issues and to facilitate the review of existing laws and passage of gender sensitive laws and policies in order to accelerate the achievement of the SADC Declaration on Gender and Development. Emphasis was also put on the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and the girl child and the related policies. The main co-operation partners in this area were the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre and SADC-Parliamentary Forum.
In the area of Human rights capacity building, support was given to The Southern Africa Human Rights Trust (SAHRIT), in order to de-velop capacity of civil society organisations in the area of human rights, based on the fact that very few human rights defenders in the region have received formal training in human rights. During the year under review three three-week regional courses on human rights, focusing on civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights; and children’s rights were held with the aim of promoting knowledge of human rights in the region in order to ensure the promotion, protection, enjoyment and respect of human rights for all.
SAHRIT’s regional programme for police organisations facilitated a process whereby the police organisations in the region received training on international and regional human rights standards relating to their duties. Resource books; training manuals and promotion posters and a compilation of regional and international human rights standards on po-licing were, in co-operation between SAHRIT and the Southern Africa Regional Police Chiefs Organisation produced and distributed to various police services in the countries of the region.
In addition support was provided to SAHRIT for the implementation of a programme aiming at assisting governments in the region to pro-duce state reports under international human rights conventions, to the respective treaty body.
During the period under review support was also given to the Elec-toral Institute of Southern Africa (EISA) for a research project aiming at consolidating democratic governance in the SADC. The work is aimed at strengthening the mechanisms for qualitative and quantitative data collec-tion for formulating criteria for evaluating democratic consolidacollec-tion within SADC. This research oriented project will result in country profiles on consolidation of democratic governance and adherence to international human rights norms and standards in the Southern Africa Region.
As the regional programme on democracy and human rights for Southern Africa has limited financial resources, several interesting initia-tives, such as in the areas of trafficking and anti-corruption have been turned down. However, attempts are being made to include such initia-tives in the portfolio during 2005 and 2006, when agreements with some of the present partners are terminated.
3.4 Office and administrative Issues
During this period three Swedish Programme officers left the Embassy upon completion of their tour of duty.
regional adviser on democracy and human rights. He was replaced Mr. Mikael Johansson, who, in September, joined the Embassy in order to take up the role of regional adviser.
The responsibility for the Regional Water Initiative for Southern Africa has been transferred to the Swedish Embassy in Maputo where a new Programme Officer (Gunilla Wingvist) has replaced Tomas Anders-son who left for Sweden. Gunilla will have the overall responsibility for the Water Initiative in the field. The NPO position in Harare will be maintained for an additional year due the increased work in the Water Initiative. Johanna Palmberg returned to Stockholm after her completion of duty and was replaced by Izabella Eriksson.
A new post of public relations officer was created and a person re-cruited locally. The Embassy has at last relocated to a new building and in November direct bookkeeping was introduced.
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 (est)
2004* 2005* (proj)
Real GDP growth, percent change -3,6 -7,9 -3 -11,1 -9,3 -4,8 3
CPI Inflation, percentage change 57 55 112 199 599 132
Exchange rate, period average 38 44 55 55 697 6200^^
Employment, percentage change -2,3 -6,3 -4,1 -5,8
Fiscal deficit, percentage of GDP -9,8 -21,6 -9,4 -3,9 -0,3
Current Account Balance, millions of USD 47 -38 -497 -604 -421
Capital Account Balance, millions of USD 143 -227 -396 -304 -256
Exports, percent change -0,1 14,3 -28,4 -11,2 -12,4
Imports, percent change -17,1 13,9 -6 7,3 -15,4
Source: IMF, Staff Report for the 2004 Article IV Consultations, June 2004
Social Indicators
Life expectancy at birth (in years) 39,9 39,5 39
Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) 73 76 76
Adult literacy rate
(percent of adult ages 15 and above)
11,3 10,7 10
HIV/Aids adult infection rate (percent of adult ages 15-49)
24,6
Source: Zimbabwean authorities, World Bank World Development Indicators 2003 and IMF staff estimates and projections
* Monetary Policy Review Statement by Governor Gono * GDP growth acc. to Budget presentation 2005 ^^Official exchange forex auction rate
Annex 1
Selected Economic Indicators
1999–2005
Annex 2
Planning Overview – Zimbabwe 2004
Outcome and forecasts in TSEK
Allocation frame Inside Country Allocation
Outcome 2003 Outcome 2004 Forecast 2005 HR/Democracy/Culture 36 920 36 543 60 436
HIV/Aids, social sectors 17 111 15 788 14 345
Humanitarian Assistance 2 725 5 200 2 000
NPOs Total 1 348 1335 1 535
Other Total 2 472 2972 2 744
Inside Country Allocation Total 60 576 61 838 81 060 Outside Country Allocation
HIV/Aids Secretariat 80 0 0
Regional Programmes Africa
Human Rights 417 474 500
Water 456 483 460
Research 0 0 0
Non-governmental Organisations 14 939 12419 12765
Humanitarian Assistance 5 191 19 152 2 022
Outside Country Allocation Total 21083 32528 15747 Zimbabwe Total 81 659 94 366 96 807
Halving poverty by 2015 is one of the greatest challenges of our time, requiring cooperation and sustainability. The partner countries are responsible for their own development. Sida provides resources and develops knowledge and expertise, making the world a richer place.
SWEDISH INTERNATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION AGENCY SE-105 25 Stockholm Sweden
