FAILED ECONOMIC BLUEPRINTS
The status of paralysis in which Zimbabwe has slipped in the past 40 years might be traced back to the early 1980s.
By Leonard Koni | A number of economic policies have been formulated and subsequently implemented in Zimbabwe and yet the economy is still under intensive care.
This puzzle has been so difficult to read as the country cannot find who is to blame.
This is the question that is probably being asked by many Zimbabweans locally and in the diasapora.
The country’s economic policies have been facing failures. Thank God, this analysis does not seek to address issues to do with the “blame game”, but rather attempts to demystify Zimbabwean economic policy dynamics by critically examining the success/failure of economic policies implemented in Zimbabwe since 1980.
Zimbabwe has had many economic blue prints from Esap, Zimprest, ZimAsset and current new Zimbabwe National Development Strategy (NDS).
The only thing that is needed in Zimbabwe aren’t economic blueprints but good politics and paying our debts rather than eating more than we can chew.
The economy has been nose diving due to the lack of monitoring. Are these blueprints achieving their objective?
The former British territory, Zimbabwe has been an independent nation for 40 years now and is one of only 23 countries with a GNI per capita below $2,000. Low-income countries typically rely heavily on agriculture, and in Zimbabwe, farming accounts for 67% of total employment.
The problem is that the Zanu PF government has never had an economic strategy since 1980, all it did was benefitting from a strong economy left by Ian Smith and it started spending, looting and stealing. Economic building is all about trust.
The most important question asked is, do the people have trust in the government?
Trust is the most valuable currency in economics. People and institutions local and abroad should have trust in the current government and the question still remains why do the people not “`trust“` the government?
Every year end people are fed with lies and propaganda that the economy is performing very well. Come the following year you hear the same government singing from a different script, that previous year’s econmy was bad and that the year coming shall be promising and shall be great in economic performance and yet the results will be speaking for themselves on the ground.
The government of late has been focusing on winning elections than fixing the economy. There is need to revitalise the dying economy which is in the sludge.
The economic war is the best foot forward to development. People are tired of a government which boasts and hit its chest for winning elections whilst the majority is living in abject poverty.
Economic blueprints such as the previous Esap, Zimprest and ZimAsset were just means of covering up the massive looting of country’s resources. Not even a single economic blueprint has improved the country’s ailing economy and not even an assessment was carried to evaluate whether it was a failure or not.
Does the government do evaluations on these policies/ blueprints to establish their effectiveness before jumping or eloping to the next policy? Policy making is meant to be incremental.
These politicians must stop the looting and smuggling of minerals. Proper accountability of minerals and security must be put in place.
The money should also be channelled to infrastructure development and improving the lives of citizens.
No country was developed by foreigners from UK, US, Canada, China, Japan, India or Russia and the economy must be owned and controlled by the citizens.
The government should learn to support local entrepreneurs through home grown economic policies not these Breton Woods.
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