UNDP Poverty Report 2000

Creating a Poverty Reduction Forum

In 1990 Zimbabwe began a five-year structural adjustment programme, precipitating high human development costs. The government cut spending on education by 30%, while real wages fell by a third and poverty rose in both urban and rural areas. In response, it turned to UNDP for assistance in formulating a poverty programme - and in 1994 it adopted a Poverty Alleviation Action Plan.

The Evolving Plan to Alleviate Poverty

By 1997 other donors were involved, and the plan grew in scope. The Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare took over leadership in implementing the plan, and UNDP focused on resource mobilization. Today the plan has no set duration, and each poverty alleviation project has its own timetable.

Overall poverty afflicts 61% of the population, extreme poverty 45%. About a quarter of the population has HIV/AIDS, creating a huge burden on resource-starved medical facilities.

The government's action plan targets the poorest 26 of 57 districts through a geographical poverty map based on a UNDP-supported national poverty survey in 1996. United Nations Volunteers have been deployed in 12 of the poorest districts, while national officers have been sent to the other 14. Both the volunteers and the national officers work with communities to identify self-help projects and formulate project proposals. Once a community chooses a project, it is approved by a rural district council or, if the project is large, by the central government. Funding comes from donors.

Promoting Community Development

UNDP supports the government's action plan in microfinance, community development and poverty monitoring and assessment. For community development, the largest of the three components, UNDP concentrates on piloting projects that other donors can replicate.

An interesting example is the work of the Africa Community Publishing and Development Trust, a local civil society organization that focuses on training community leaders to help communities identify problems and devise solutions. Its activities show that communities can direct their own development and create possibilities for donor investment. The trust also helps link communities directly with district government and empowers them to present development proposals and claim their rights to resources.

An emerging concern is that donors are seeking to set time-bound goals and produce measurable results for their development assistance, but poverty reduction work rarely fits such timetables or frameworks. Empowering communities can take years, and measuring its impact is not always easy.

Another concern is that different ministries carry out their own externally funded projects and donors do not coordinate activities among themselves. UNDP has been trying to improve coordination by helping the government create an Integrated Poverty Monitoring and Assessment System that brings together all the government agencies and donor institutions, such as UNDP, UNICEF and the World Bank, that have been involved in monitoring.

One of UNDP's most promising initiatives is the Poverty Reduction Forum, created in 1996 to bring together representatives from government, civil society and donors to discuss poverty issues, programmes and areas of collaboration. In 1998 the forum worked with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, the National Chamber of Commerce and the National Council of Churches to develop pro-poor budget recommendations, which it then presented to a pre-budget seminar for parliamentarians. One immediate result: an increase in the budget of the Ministry of Health.