Idioms of accumulation: corporate accumulation by dispossession in urban Zimbabwe

​David Harvey’s accumulation by dispossession has inspired a wide range of studies in different places. But it has hardly registered in the area of urban land grabbing in Africa and the role of local capital in these processes. Using archival data, field observations and insights from key informant interviews in Harare, this paper examines how the 1990s neo-liberalism and post 1999 Zimbabwe crisis created new opportunities for accumulation of wealth through irregular and fraudulent transfer of public urban land into private hands including those of reputable corporate institutions. It speaks to the literature on contemporary land grabbing and raises questions and new insights for comparative understanding of the transformative role and nature of the state, postcolonial African cities, anti-capitalist struggles, the status and meaning of planning in different settings

The human resource implications of improving financial risk protection for mothers and newborns in Zimbabwe

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Secondary education reform in Lesotho and Zimbabwe and the needs of rural girls: Pronouncements, policy and practice

Analysis of the educational needs of rural girls in Lesotho and Zimbabwe suggests a number of shortcomings in the current form of secondary education, and ways in which it might be modified so as to serve this sizeable group of students better. Several of the shortcomings, notably in relation to curricular irrelevance and excessive focus on examinations, have long been recognised, including by politicians. Yet political pronouncements are seldom translated into policy, and even where policy is formulated, reforms are seldom implemented in schools. This paper makes use of interviews with educational decision-makers in the two southern African countries and a range of documentary sources to explore why, despite the considerable differences between the two contexts, much needed educational reforms have been implemented in neither

Coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) response in Zimbabwe: A call for urgent scale-up of testing to meet national capacity

Control of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) heavily relies on universal access to testing in order to identify who is infected; track them to make sure they do not spread the disease further; and trace those with whom they have been in contact. The recent surge in COVID-19 cases in Zimbabwe is an urgent national public health concern and requires coordinated efforts to scale up testing using the capacity already in existence in the country. There is a need for substantial decentralization of testing, investment in better working conditions for frontline health workers, and the implementation of measures to curb corruption within government structures

Multi-donor trust funds and fragile states: assessing the aid effectiveness of the Zimbabwe multi-donor trust fund

It is widely acknowledged that multi-donor trust funds (MDTFs) contribute to aid effectiveness. This paper challenges this assertion through assessing the aid effectiveness of the Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Fund. The paper makes four key arguments. First, political relations between recipient and donor countries are vital in the functioning of MDTFs. Second, the design of MDTFs affects the delivery and functioning of the trust fund. Third, whilst the legitimacy of national governments in fragile states is often contested, targeting legitimate and credible institutions can offer tangible and life changing results. Fourth, MDTFs focusing on the recovery of key sectors such as water, sanitation and energy have direct impacts to economic recovery and people’s lives

"LAND REFORM, IDEOLOGY AND URBAN FOOD SECURITY: ZIMBABWE'S" THIRD CHIMURENGA

This paper is used to comment on the political, legal and ideological struggles between the Zimbabwean State and an alliance comprised of the Commercial Farmers Union of Zimbabwe (CFU) and the British Government over the country's land reform and the theoretical context in which these processes may be situated. A related and equally important objective of the study is to understand how ordinary Zimbabweans construe the impacts of the unfolding dynamics on their livelihoods. The study examines the mechanisms, which both the State and the alliance have used to manipulate land reform in pursuit of their various ideological and political objectives. Finally, it explores how these strategies are being interpreted by the urban poor in the local discourse of food insecurity. These issues are all contextualised in terms of what a former Zimbabwe cabinet minister describes as the "Third Chimurenga", a reference to the country's first two agrarian/liberation struggles or "chimurengas". Copyright (c) 2007 by the Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG.