Beyond the Enclave

Beyond the Enclave
Author: Godfrey Kanyenze
Publisher: African Books Collective
Total Pages: 548
Release: 2011
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1779221517

Beyond the Enclave sets out to unravel the contradiction of a country, Zimbabwe, where a rich, diverse resource base co-exists with endemic poverty. One reason lies in the colonial economy, which was predicated on an ideology of white supremacy, creating an enclave formal economy employing one-fifth of the labour force. Yet over three decades after independence, the non-formal segment has become even more entrenched. This book assesses Zimbabwe's economy through three main phases: 1980- 0 when a strong social policy framework proved difficult to sustain due to erratic growth, and 1991- 6, when "structural adjustment" demanded a market-driven approach to development. The third phase is characterized by crisis-management leading to policy inconsistencies and reversals. Not surprisingly, such incoherence saw the economy descend into hyperinflation and paralysis in 2007- 8, leading to the signing of the Global Political Agreement in September 2008. In the absence of formal dollarization, economic recovery after the adoption of the multi-currency regime has remained fragile, leaving an estimated 70 per cent of the population outside the banking system. This has further entrenched uneven (enclave) growth as the economy remains locked in a low-income poverty trap. There is a need to facilitate transition towards formality to promote decent jobs. Furthermore, a strategic, developmental role for the state in the economy is now widely recognized as vital for development. Beyond the Enclave argues for a new approach to development in Zimbabwe based on pro-poor and inclusive strategies, which will contribute to the well-being of all of its citizens and wise stewardship of its resources. It offers suggestions on policy formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation in all sectors, designed to promote inclusive growth and humane development.

Zimbabwe's Fast Track Land Reform

Zimbabwe's Fast Track Land Reform
Author: Prosper B. Matondi
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2012-11-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1780321511

The Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe has emerged as a highly contested reform process both nationally and internationally. The image of it has all too often been that of the widespread displacement and subsequent replacement of various people, agricultural-related production systems, facets and processes. The reality, however, is altogether more complex. Providing new and much-needed empirical research, this in-depth book examines how processes such as land acquisition, allocation, transitional production outcomes, social life, gender and tenure, have influenced and been influenced by the forces driving the programme. It also explores the ways in which the land reform programme has created a new agrarian structure based on small- to medium-scale farmers. In attempting to resolve the problematic issues the reforms have raised, the author argues that it is this new agrarian formation which provides the greatest scope for improving Zimbabwe’s agriculture and development. Based on a broader geographical scope than any previous study carried out on the subject, this is a landmark work on a subject of considerable controversy.

Beyond the crises: Zimbabwe's prospects for transformation

Beyond the crises: Zimbabwe's prospects for transformation
Author: Murisa, Tendai
Publisher: Weaver Press
Total Pages: 423
Release: 2015-12-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1779222858

Over the past years, few African countries have been the focus of discussions and analyses generating a vast array of literature as much as Zimbabwe. The socioeconomic and political crises since the turn of the century have deeply transformed the country from the ideals of a vibrant freshly independent nation just two decades earlier. These transformations have necessitated the call for the restructuring of Zimbabwean society, polity, and economy. But this literature remains exclusively within the realm of academic thinking and theorising, with no concerted effort to move beyond this by explicitly drawing out the policy implications. Beyond the Crises: Zimbabwe's Prospects for Transformation is a welcome addition to the academic and policy literature with a much broader and all-embracing focus in terms of policy interventions. By focusing on different aspects of social and economic justice, Murisa and Chikweche go beyond initiating a broad discussion on these two key pillars of human development with a view to suggesting possible future directions of practical solutions and policy development for the attainment of inclusive social and economic justice for Zimbabweans.

Reconfigured Agrarian Relations in Zimbabwe

Reconfigured Agrarian Relations in Zimbabwe
Author: Shonhe, Toendepi
Publisher: Langaa RPCIG
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2017-12-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9956764213

Radical land reform programmes generate changes in agrarian structures and capital accumulation trajectories in the countryside. This book examines how capital accumulation is being reshaped by changing financing and marketing of agricultural commodities and presents an emerging Quadi-PMMR-model agrarian structure composed of the poor, middle, middle-to-rich peasants and some rich capitalists with a growing middle scale farmer base constituting two thirds of the rural population in Zimbabwe. This evidence based assessment, 15 years after the FTLRP, sheds light on policy outcomes and impacts on communities, revealing the changing production, marketing, capital accumulation and class formation tendencies across Zimbabwe’s settlement models and agro-ecological settings. The book fuses the reliance on agrarian political economy lenses and factor component analysis to reveal the dynamics of agrarian change and to explore the dialectic between production and circulation and between the centre and periphery in exceptional fashion that expands our understanding of Zimbabwe’s agrarian transition.

Outcomes of post-2000 Fast Track Land Reform in Zimbabwe

Outcomes of post-2000 Fast Track Land Reform in Zimbabwe
Author: Lionel Cliffe
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2014-06-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 131798126X

The struggle over land has been the central issue in Zimbabwe ever since white settlers began to carve out large farms over a century ago. Their monopolisation of the better-watered half of the land was the focus of the African war of liberation war, and was partially modified following Independence in 1980. A dramatic further episode in this history was launched at the start of the last decade with the occupation of many farms by groups of African veterans of the liberation struggle and their supporters, which was then institutionalised by legislation to take over most of the large commercial farms for sub-division. Sustained fieldwork over the intervening years, by teams of scholars and experts, and by individual researchers is now generating an array of evidence-based findings of the outcomes: how land was acquired and disposed of; how it has been used; how far new farmers have carved out new livelihoods and viable new communities; the major political and economic problems they and other stakeholders such as former farm-workers, commercial farmers, and the overall rural society now face. This book will be an essential starting place for analysts, policy-makers, historians and activists seeking to understand what has happened and to spotlight the key issues for the next decade. This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Peasant Studies.

Institutional Constraints to Small Farmer Development in Southern Africa

Institutional Constraints to Small Farmer Development in Southern Africa
Author: Ajuruchukwu Obi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2011-04-27
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9086867049

The Southern Africa region has experienced more than its fair share of problems in recent years. Just when it seemed that the hardships wrought by the devastating cycle of droughts and floods of 2000 to 2002 were a thing of the past, other problems emerged. At one level, there have been the weak and often erratic governance mechanisms and political crises in some countries of the region, leading to severe disruptions in agricultural production to the point that supplies and markets have virtually disappeared. At another level, socio-cultural rigidities have often militated against the adoption of efficient farming practices, resulting in sub-optimal choices that lock smallholders into a low equilibrium trap. In the face of the disappearing supplies and missing markets, these have engendered hyper-inflationary trends of a magnitude unknown anywhere else in the world. But in the midst of all this apparent dreariness, cases are emerging from which immense lessons can be drawn. This book assembles a collection of research papers based on studies completed in 2008 and 2009 in Southern Africa that examine various dimensions of the institutional constraints small farmers are facing in the region and how they are going about dealing with them. The papers draw from these diverse and polar experiences and present some theoretical and practical insights that should form the basis for more in-depth, country-level, sector-specific analyses, focusing mainly on citrus, horticultures, cotton and livestock. The thematic issues of income inequality, land reform, natural resource management and value chain governance and chain choice, are covered in this book and are expected to be of interest for a wide constituency, including researchers, development practitioners, rural animators, and policy makers.

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe
Author: H. Besada
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 517
Release: 2011-01-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0230116434

Formerly one of Africa s most promising economies, Zimbabwe has begun a process of economic reconstruction after decades of political turmoil and economic mismanagement. The advent of a national unity government in February 2009 launched a new but still tentative era of political stability. The government has a daunting political and economic agenda. Top priorities include restoring the rule of law, demonstrating fiscal responsibility, and putting in place macroeconomic and structural reforms to win the confidence of domestic and international investors. An optimistic time frame for its socio-economic recovery is now estimated to be at least ten years. Zimbabwe: Picking Up the Pieces chronicles the steps that led to the downturn of the Zimbabwean state and economy before assessing what can be done to resuscitate a once-thriving society. Leading experts from and on the region explore the country s options on key governance issues, from strengthening institutions to addressing food security to promoting private sector development to mobilizing donor country assistance. This collection offers a unique glimpse into a fragile state and the severe costs Zimbabweans have and will have to endure if there is to be any hope of recovery.