Rethinking development in post-colonial Zimbabwe: the case of the CAMPFIRE Programme in Kanyemba
- Authors: Maheve, Neil Batsirai
- Date: 2025-04-02
- Subjects: CAMPFIRE (Program) , Postdevelopment theory , Rethinking , Kanyemba/Chapoto Ward (Zimbabwe) , Natural resources Management , Community development Zimbabwe Kanyemba/Chapoto Ward
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478537 , vital:78195 , DOI 10.21504/10962/478537
- Description: This study is concerned with people’s attitudes towards the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE). This study is situated in Kanyemba, a ward in Mbire District, Mashonaland Central, Zimbabwe. CAMPFIRE is a community-based natural resource management programme that aims at empowering local communities to sustainably manage and benefit from wildlife and other natural resources within their confines. This study explores people’s attitudes towards development (and CAMPFIRE as a development programme) and how they perceive, engage with, and contest development. There are two subgroups living in Kanyemba: the Chikunda, which is the majority group, and the Tembo Mvura. Rooted in post-development thinking, this study highlights the nuances and ambiguities in people’s attitudes towards development. The study relies on interviews, participant observation, and archival material. The study has three guiding objectives. Firstly, I set out to explore how the Tembo Mvura and Chikunda community members living in Kanyemba perceive and interact with the CAMPFIRE programme and how their views coincide with or diverge from mainstream development discourse. The study discusses the Tembo Mvura and Chikunda definitions and descriptions of development and the two groups’ perspectives and experiences of the CAMPFIRE programme. While the Tembo Mvura have mostly negative attitudes towards CAMPFIRE, their Chikunda neighbours exude both positive and negative attitudes towards development, projecting a sense of joy and appreciation but also disillusionment with development. Secondly, I highlight how Tembo Mvura and Chikunda actively participate in and challenge the CAMPFIRE project and how these interactions can be interpreted within the framework of post-development theory. As I explore these attitudes, I portray the ambivalence evident in people’s simultaneous desire for and dismissal of development. While the people dismiss some aspects of development, they still want some development, hence the ambivalence. Finally, I explore how the residents of Kanyemba have responded to the limitations of CAMPFIRE, what alternatives to development they propose, and what role cultural, historical, economic, and environmental factors play in shaping the communities’ alternatives to development. The residents of Kanyemba have different historical and cultural backgrounds, and I highlight how these have influenced the different alternatives to development proposed by Tembo Mvura and Chikunda. In this regard, I explore the nuanced critiques of development held by residents of Kanyemba, examining how cultural and historical factors influence their selective engagement with different aspects of the CAMPFIRE initiative. This thesis contributes to post-development thinking by arguing that the ambivalence evident in people’s attitudes towards development in Kanyemba makes dismissing development more complicated than some post-development theorists suggest. The findings of the study show that people’s ambivalence towards development emanates from CAMPFIRE’s approach that strips individuals of agency, stifles their voices, and curtails democratic participation in determining their preferences and how they desire to progress. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2025
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2025-04-02
- Authors: Maheve, Neil Batsirai
- Date: 2025-04-02
- Subjects: CAMPFIRE (Program) , Postdevelopment theory , Rethinking , Kanyemba/Chapoto Ward (Zimbabwe) , Natural resources Management , Community development Zimbabwe Kanyemba/Chapoto Ward
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478537 , vital:78195 , DOI 10.21504/10962/478537
- Description: This study is concerned with people’s attitudes towards the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE). This study is situated in Kanyemba, a ward in Mbire District, Mashonaland Central, Zimbabwe. CAMPFIRE is a community-based natural resource management programme that aims at empowering local communities to sustainably manage and benefit from wildlife and other natural resources within their confines. This study explores people’s attitudes towards development (and CAMPFIRE as a development programme) and how they perceive, engage with, and contest development. There are two subgroups living in Kanyemba: the Chikunda, which is the majority group, and the Tembo Mvura. Rooted in post-development thinking, this study highlights the nuances and ambiguities in people’s attitudes towards development. The study relies on interviews, participant observation, and archival material. The study has three guiding objectives. Firstly, I set out to explore how the Tembo Mvura and Chikunda community members living in Kanyemba perceive and interact with the CAMPFIRE programme and how their views coincide with or diverge from mainstream development discourse. The study discusses the Tembo Mvura and Chikunda definitions and descriptions of development and the two groups’ perspectives and experiences of the CAMPFIRE programme. While the Tembo Mvura have mostly negative attitudes towards CAMPFIRE, their Chikunda neighbours exude both positive and negative attitudes towards development, projecting a sense of joy and appreciation but also disillusionment with development. Secondly, I highlight how Tembo Mvura and Chikunda actively participate in and challenge the CAMPFIRE project and how these interactions can be interpreted within the framework of post-development theory. As I explore these attitudes, I portray the ambivalence evident in people’s simultaneous desire for and dismissal of development. While the people dismiss some aspects of development, they still want some development, hence the ambivalence. Finally, I explore how the residents of Kanyemba have responded to the limitations of CAMPFIRE, what alternatives to development they propose, and what role cultural, historical, economic, and environmental factors play in shaping the communities’ alternatives to development. The residents of Kanyemba have different historical and cultural backgrounds, and I highlight how these have influenced the different alternatives to development proposed by Tembo Mvura and Chikunda. In this regard, I explore the nuanced critiques of development held by residents of Kanyemba, examining how cultural and historical factors influence their selective engagement with different aspects of the CAMPFIRE initiative. This thesis contributes to post-development thinking by arguing that the ambivalence evident in people’s attitudes towards development in Kanyemba makes dismissing development more complicated than some post-development theorists suggest. The findings of the study show that people’s ambivalence towards development emanates from CAMPFIRE’s approach that strips individuals of agency, stifles their voices, and curtails democratic participation in determining their preferences and how they desire to progress. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2025
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2025-04-02
Decolonizing the curriculum: a case study of the Humanities Faculty at Rhodes University
- Authors: Machiha, Nigel
- Date: 2024-10-11
- Subjects: Africanization , Curriculum change South Africa Makhanda , Decolonization , Rhodes University , Indigenization , Language barrier
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/466005 , vital:76676
- Description: This thesis explores students’ experiences in the Faculty of Humanities at Rhodes University, specifically focusing on their perspectives on decolonization. The thesis has two central aims: first, to investigate the students’ general understanding of decolonizing the curriculum and second, to examine their experiences within the Humanities Faculty and their perception of how decolonized the faculty is. Through in-depth interviews with students in the faculty, the study aimed to answer questions regarding students’ thoughts on the decolonization of university curricula and their experiences within the Faculty of Humanities at Rhodes University. The findings reveal diverse student views on decolonization, with definitions of decolonization provided by students touching on topics such as the Africanization or Indigenization of the curriculum, systemic transformation, the importance of unlearning colonial ideologies and the relationship between language and decolonization. The students’ perceptions of the level of decolonization they witness in the faculty are categorized along three lines: the views of those who believe the departments they interact with are decolonized, the views of those who think efforts are being made but more progress is needed, and those who see no evidence of decolonization. The thesis highlights that while some students believe that positive steps towards decolonization are being taken, others express scepticism and call for a more diverse representation of scholars and scholarship and a departure from traditional Eurocentric approaches. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2024
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2024-10-11
- Authors: Machiha, Nigel
- Date: 2024-10-11
- Subjects: Africanization , Curriculum change South Africa Makhanda , Decolonization , Rhodes University , Indigenization , Language barrier
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/466005 , vital:76676
- Description: This thesis explores students’ experiences in the Faculty of Humanities at Rhodes University, specifically focusing on their perspectives on decolonization. The thesis has two central aims: first, to investigate the students’ general understanding of decolonizing the curriculum and second, to examine their experiences within the Humanities Faculty and their perception of how decolonized the faculty is. Through in-depth interviews with students in the faculty, the study aimed to answer questions regarding students’ thoughts on the decolonization of university curricula and their experiences within the Faculty of Humanities at Rhodes University. The findings reveal diverse student views on decolonization, with definitions of decolonization provided by students touching on topics such as the Africanization or Indigenization of the curriculum, systemic transformation, the importance of unlearning colonial ideologies and the relationship between language and decolonization. The students’ perceptions of the level of decolonization they witness in the faculty are categorized along three lines: the views of those who believe the departments they interact with are decolonized, the views of those who think efforts are being made but more progress is needed, and those who see no evidence of decolonization. The thesis highlights that while some students believe that positive steps towards decolonization are being taken, others express scepticism and call for a more diverse representation of scholars and scholarship and a departure from traditional Eurocentric approaches. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2024
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2024-10-11
The Amadiba Crisis Committee: sustaining mobilisation in Xolobeni, South Africa
- Authors: Nowicki, Lucas Joel
- Date: 2024-10-11
- Subjects: Amadiba Crisis Committee , Social movements South Africa , Civil society South Africa Political aspects , Environmental protest , Resource-based communities South Africa Eastern Cape , Grassroots movement
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/466027 , vital:76678
- Description: This thesis seeks to understand how the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC), a rural movement from Xolobeni, has sustained mobilisation and worked with allies in civil society. The ACC was formed in 2007 in response to attempts by a mining company, Transworld Energy and Mineral Resources (TEM), to establish a sand mine off the coast of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Since 2007, the ACC has achieved significant victories in their fight against imposed development projects they argue threaten existing livelihoods that rely on the land. This thesis theorises the ACC’s mobilisation by drawing on concepts such as political opportunity, resource mobilisation, repertoires of action, framing and resource frontiers’. The thesis responds to the research question(s) by undertaking a thematic analysis of textual data drawn from semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with ACC members and their allies in civil society, most of which were collected during fieldwork in Xolobeni. The study finds that the ACC has sustained mobilisation through the combination of more public and institutional repertoires of action with more subtle everyday forms of resistance. These repertoires include dynamic uses of the law and rights discourses to further the movement’s goals. The ACC also used more confrontational tactics whereby activists use their bodies to physically disrupt extractive projects’ operations, actions which are coordinated through communication networks and local leadership structures. Furthermore, the ACC promotes alternative development strategies in a way which can be conceived as a type of prefigurative politics whereby activists actualise and embody the types of relations and development they want to see in the world. Many of these tactics were supported and made possible due to the presence of allies in civil society such as Sustaining the Wild Coast (SWC). Although there is a risk that such allies may end up co-opting and undermining mobilisation, this risk has been averted because both the SWC and the ACC are committed to maintaining separation between the movement and NGO in mobilisation. The SWC’s support has included facilitating access to media and civil society networks located in urban areas and using these networks and social capital to access information and other necessary resources. Overall, the movement has sustained resistance to imposed development projects by drawing on strong existing historical community ties, using diverse repertoires to achieve goals and build the movement’s base, and by consistently outlining alternative development strategies as a positive vision to their mobilisation. This has consolidated the ACC as a movement and established them as a powerful force with the ability to shape local development, policy and public discourse. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2024
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2024-10-11
- Authors: Nowicki, Lucas Joel
- Date: 2024-10-11
- Subjects: Amadiba Crisis Committee , Social movements South Africa , Civil society South Africa Political aspects , Environmental protest , Resource-based communities South Africa Eastern Cape , Grassroots movement
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/466027 , vital:76678
- Description: This thesis seeks to understand how the Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC), a rural movement from Xolobeni, has sustained mobilisation and worked with allies in civil society. The ACC was formed in 2007 in response to attempts by a mining company, Transworld Energy and Mineral Resources (TEM), to establish a sand mine off the coast of the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Since 2007, the ACC has achieved significant victories in their fight against imposed development projects they argue threaten existing livelihoods that rely on the land. This thesis theorises the ACC’s mobilisation by drawing on concepts such as political opportunity, resource mobilisation, repertoires of action, framing and resource frontiers’. The thesis responds to the research question(s) by undertaking a thematic analysis of textual data drawn from semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with ACC members and their allies in civil society, most of which were collected during fieldwork in Xolobeni. The study finds that the ACC has sustained mobilisation through the combination of more public and institutional repertoires of action with more subtle everyday forms of resistance. These repertoires include dynamic uses of the law and rights discourses to further the movement’s goals. The ACC also used more confrontational tactics whereby activists use their bodies to physically disrupt extractive projects’ operations, actions which are coordinated through communication networks and local leadership structures. Furthermore, the ACC promotes alternative development strategies in a way which can be conceived as a type of prefigurative politics whereby activists actualise and embody the types of relations and development they want to see in the world. Many of these tactics were supported and made possible due to the presence of allies in civil society such as Sustaining the Wild Coast (SWC). Although there is a risk that such allies may end up co-opting and undermining mobilisation, this risk has been averted because both the SWC and the ACC are committed to maintaining separation between the movement and NGO in mobilisation. The SWC’s support has included facilitating access to media and civil society networks located in urban areas and using these networks and social capital to access information and other necessary resources. Overall, the movement has sustained resistance to imposed development projects by drawing on strong existing historical community ties, using diverse repertoires to achieve goals and build the movement’s base, and by consistently outlining alternative development strategies as a positive vision to their mobilisation. This has consolidated the ACC as a movement and established them as a powerful force with the ability to shape local development, policy and public discourse. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2024
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2024-10-11
Social upgrading or dependency?: Investigating the implications of the inclusion of commercial wine farms within South African Fairtrade certification
- Authors: Bell, Joshua
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Competition, Unfair South Africa , Wine industry South Africa Employees , Unfair labor practices South Africa , Fairtrade International , International trade , Economic development Moral and ethical aspects South Africa , Wine industry Moral and ethical aspects South Africa , Work environment South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/327155 , vital:61086 , DOI 10.21504/10962/327155
- Description: The South African wine industry is one of the oldest sectors of the country’s economy, beginning in the early years of South African colonialism in the 17th century through the use of slave and slave-like labour. As an industry that has been defined by farm paternalism and dependency, the South African wine industry has had to demonstrate changes from its history of extreme racial and gendered exploitation to an industry that reflects the democratic values of a new South Africa. Ethical certifications are considered one way through which the post-apartheid South African wine industry can demonstrate that it has moved away from its historical practices and is now characterised by practices of decent work and social transformation. An important certificatory label that allows local wine producers entry into global wine production networks is Fairtrade International. While Fairtrade certification is often reserved for small-scale producers, this certification has been extended to large-scale, commercial producers within the South African wine industry despite its history of farm paternalism and dependency. This research asks if this inclusion promotes decent work through social upgrading or if it offers a platform for the continuation of farm dependency under the guise of ‘Fairtrade’. In this study, social upgrading has been defined through a ‘bottom-up’ approach that prioritises workers’ independence as a key means of improvement. Four key pillars are applied as embodying the concept of social upgrading: regular employment with set working hours; legally enforceable worker rights; social protection through collective and individual bargaining power; and non-discriminatory social dialogue that promotes significant socio-economic progression. A key finding of this research is that practices of dependency and paternalism continue on some large-scale commercial farms, despite their Fairtrade certification. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the benefits that farmworkers receive lock farmworkers into their position on the farm with marginally improved conditions and cease if workers depart from the Fairtrade wine farm. This suggests that, at best, this inclusion of commercial farmers within Fairtrade certification appears to create a top-down form of social upgrading that locks farmworkers into their position on the farm with marginally improved conditions and beneath a glass ceiling of development. At worst, this Fairtrade inclusion facilitates a global poverty network through paternalism and dependency under the guise of ‘Fairtrade’. As a result, where meaningful, bottom-up social upgrading may occur on South African wine farms, the study suggests that this is despite the presence of Fairtrade and not a result of it. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and Interntional Studies, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-10-14
- Authors: Bell, Joshua
- Date: 2022-10-14
- Subjects: Competition, Unfair South Africa , Wine industry South Africa Employees , Unfair labor practices South Africa , Fairtrade International , International trade , Economic development Moral and ethical aspects South Africa , Wine industry Moral and ethical aspects South Africa , Work environment South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Academic theses , Doctoral theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/327155 , vital:61086 , DOI 10.21504/10962/327155
- Description: The South African wine industry is one of the oldest sectors of the country’s economy, beginning in the early years of South African colonialism in the 17th century through the use of slave and slave-like labour. As an industry that has been defined by farm paternalism and dependency, the South African wine industry has had to demonstrate changes from its history of extreme racial and gendered exploitation to an industry that reflects the democratic values of a new South Africa. Ethical certifications are considered one way through which the post-apartheid South African wine industry can demonstrate that it has moved away from its historical practices and is now characterised by practices of decent work and social transformation. An important certificatory label that allows local wine producers entry into global wine production networks is Fairtrade International. While Fairtrade certification is often reserved for small-scale producers, this certification has been extended to large-scale, commercial producers within the South African wine industry despite its history of farm paternalism and dependency. This research asks if this inclusion promotes decent work through social upgrading or if it offers a platform for the continuation of farm dependency under the guise of ‘Fairtrade’. In this study, social upgrading has been defined through a ‘bottom-up’ approach that prioritises workers’ independence as a key means of improvement. Four key pillars are applied as embodying the concept of social upgrading: regular employment with set working hours; legally enforceable worker rights; social protection through collective and individual bargaining power; and non-discriminatory social dialogue that promotes significant socio-economic progression. A key finding of this research is that practices of dependency and paternalism continue on some large-scale commercial farms, despite their Fairtrade certification. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the benefits that farmworkers receive lock farmworkers into their position on the farm with marginally improved conditions and cease if workers depart from the Fairtrade wine farm. This suggests that, at best, this inclusion of commercial farmers within Fairtrade certification appears to create a top-down form of social upgrading that locks farmworkers into their position on the farm with marginally improved conditions and beneath a glass ceiling of development. At worst, this Fairtrade inclusion facilitates a global poverty network through paternalism and dependency under the guise of ‘Fairtrade’. As a result, where meaningful, bottom-up social upgrading may occur on South African wine farms, the study suggests that this is despite the presence of Fairtrade and not a result of it. , Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and Interntional Studies, 2022
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2022-10-14
The roots run deep?: Understanding branch politics within the African National Congress
- Authors: Mkhutle, Nhlanhla Handsome
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: African National Congress , Manipulative behavior Political aspects South Africa , Cartels South Africa , Power (Social sciences) South Africa , Patronage, Political South Africa , Political party organization South Africa , Branch politics
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190261 , vital:44978
- Description: This thesis explores the functioning of branch politics within the African National Congress (ANC) and the influence of branch politics on the organization and its structures. The ANC has many of the characteristics of a mass party. In mass parties, mass participation is supposed to be promoted through the activities of party branches. This thesis documents the weakening of the ANC’s local level structures and their political control over the organization’s decisions. ANC branches are investigated as democratic vanguards of ANC’s mass party persona, in relation to their functioning as the most basic units of the organization. The thesis reflects on branch members’ experiences in different ANC branches to understand the interplay between branch politics, political power, and patronage politics within the ANC. This research project also explores the possibility of manipulation of ANC branches by senior leaders and would-be-leaders of the ANC. The thesis then concludes by summarising the state of branch politics within the ANC and giving recommendations on further study with regards to branch politics of the ANC. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
- Authors: Mkhutle, Nhlanhla Handsome
- Date: 2021-10-29
- Subjects: African National Congress , Manipulative behavior Political aspects South Africa , Cartels South Africa , Power (Social sciences) South Africa , Patronage, Political South Africa , Political party organization South Africa , Branch politics
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190261 , vital:44978
- Description: This thesis explores the functioning of branch politics within the African National Congress (ANC) and the influence of branch politics on the organization and its structures. The ANC has many of the characteristics of a mass party. In mass parties, mass participation is supposed to be promoted through the activities of party branches. This thesis documents the weakening of the ANC’s local level structures and their political control over the organization’s decisions. ANC branches are investigated as democratic vanguards of ANC’s mass party persona, in relation to their functioning as the most basic units of the organization. The thesis reflects on branch members’ experiences in different ANC branches to understand the interplay between branch politics, political power, and patronage politics within the ANC. This research project also explores the possibility of manipulation of ANC branches by senior leaders and would-be-leaders of the ANC. The thesis then concludes by summarising the state of branch politics within the ANC and giving recommendations on further study with regards to branch politics of the ANC. , Thesis (MA) -- Faculty of Humanities, Political and International Studies, 2021
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2021-10-29
A comparative analysis of the use of participatory practices by indigenous trusts and mainstream development NGOs in Zvimba Communal Area Zimbabwe
- Authors: Mbanje, Bowden Bolt
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Caritas Zimbabwe , Zvimba Community Share Ownership Trust (ZvCSOT) , Non-governmental organizations -- Zimbabwe -- Zvimba District , Community development -- Zimbabwe -- Zvimba District , Rural development -- Zimbabwe -- Zvimba District , Zvimba Communal Land (Zimbabwe)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/167099 , vital:41437
- Description: This thesis compares the extent to which participatory practices have been used by Caritas Zimbabwe, a mainstream NGO, and the Zvimba Community Share Ownership Trust (ZvCSOT), an indigenous Trust, in Zvimba District, Zimbabwe. Participatory development initiatives are common practice in NGO and government development work in Zimbabwe. The thesis begins with a discussion of two aspects of participatory development (PD). Firstly, PD is discussed in relation to decentralization processes where central government transfers administrative and financial authority to sub-national government units in order to enhance the participation of rural communities in development interventions. Secondly, PD is discussed in relation to the increased role of NGOs in development work. During the 1980s and 1990s, shifts in development thinking resulted in NGOs being perceived as important actors who could attend to the development gaps left by an economically incapacitated state. Both NGOs and sub-national government units were seen to be closer to rural communities and so were thought to be in a better position to enhance the participation of these communities in meaningful development projects. An analysis of the practices of the NGO and CSOT under consideration in this study shows that while there has been much rhetorical commitment to participation, community participation in the development interventions of the NGO and the CSOT is inadequate. In introducing and implementing development interventions, there has been a tendency by both the NGO and CSOT to give priority to organizational preferences over local needs. While recognizing the participatory efforts made by mainstream development NGOs (Caritas in particular) and indigenous Trusts (Zvimba Community Share Ownership Trust in particular) in Zimbabwe, this thesis also considers the impact of other factors on participatory development initiatives. A major observation from the study is that in as much as we expect genuine participatory approaches which include grassroots communities’ inputs from the project’s conceptualization all the way to its evaluation, the challenge is that the elites at the higher level (central government and donor offices) have their own development preferences and interests while the elites at the lower levels (local government and NGO offices) also have their own priorities and needs. Consequently, local communities tend to be confined to implementing development projects foisted on them by elites at the higher level as well as those at the lower level. Worse still, the study shows that elites at the lowest level (community) sometimes hijack or take advantage of the imposed projects. Participation has been stalled by elites at various levels of the participatory development ladder. Thus, unless power imbalances are seriously addressed at all levels, participatory development will remain elusive.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
- Authors: Mbanje, Bowden Bolt
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: Caritas Zimbabwe , Zvimba Community Share Ownership Trust (ZvCSOT) , Non-governmental organizations -- Zimbabwe -- Zvimba District , Community development -- Zimbabwe -- Zvimba District , Rural development -- Zimbabwe -- Zvimba District , Zvimba Communal Land (Zimbabwe)
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/167099 , vital:41437
- Description: This thesis compares the extent to which participatory practices have been used by Caritas Zimbabwe, a mainstream NGO, and the Zvimba Community Share Ownership Trust (ZvCSOT), an indigenous Trust, in Zvimba District, Zimbabwe. Participatory development initiatives are common practice in NGO and government development work in Zimbabwe. The thesis begins with a discussion of two aspects of participatory development (PD). Firstly, PD is discussed in relation to decentralization processes where central government transfers administrative and financial authority to sub-national government units in order to enhance the participation of rural communities in development interventions. Secondly, PD is discussed in relation to the increased role of NGOs in development work. During the 1980s and 1990s, shifts in development thinking resulted in NGOs being perceived as important actors who could attend to the development gaps left by an economically incapacitated state. Both NGOs and sub-national government units were seen to be closer to rural communities and so were thought to be in a better position to enhance the participation of these communities in meaningful development projects. An analysis of the practices of the NGO and CSOT under consideration in this study shows that while there has been much rhetorical commitment to participation, community participation in the development interventions of the NGO and the CSOT is inadequate. In introducing and implementing development interventions, there has been a tendency by both the NGO and CSOT to give priority to organizational preferences over local needs. While recognizing the participatory efforts made by mainstream development NGOs (Caritas in particular) and indigenous Trusts (Zvimba Community Share Ownership Trust in particular) in Zimbabwe, this thesis also considers the impact of other factors on participatory development initiatives. A major observation from the study is that in as much as we expect genuine participatory approaches which include grassroots communities’ inputs from the project’s conceptualization all the way to its evaluation, the challenge is that the elites at the higher level (central government and donor offices) have their own development preferences and interests while the elites at the lower levels (local government and NGO offices) also have their own priorities and needs. Consequently, local communities tend to be confined to implementing development projects foisted on them by elites at the higher level as well as those at the lower level. Worse still, the study shows that elites at the lowest level (community) sometimes hijack or take advantage of the imposed projects. Participation has been stalled by elites at various levels of the participatory development ladder. Thus, unless power imbalances are seriously addressed at all levels, participatory development will remain elusive.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2020
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