adminAnthony Musiwa
My humble years in development practice have taught me that major challenges facing Zimbabwe are grounded in livelihoods issues. Sexual abuse, for instance, is related to poverty and powerlessness, where poor housing and illiteracy increases the vulnerability of children and women to sexual and economic exploitation.
Drug use and abuse in youth is a direct correlation of unemployment, where the “idle mind is the devil’s workshop” mantra becomes self-fulfilling. Hence, for me, it stands to reason that, if livelihoods issues were to be addressed accordingly, then we can begin to guarantee the safety of all citizens, woman and man, young and elderly. And yet, it is evident that liable authorities can no longer guarantee adequate housing, employment or safety for all.
So, my next question would be, what remains of the fate of the homeless and unemployed, the disempowered and the marginalized? The answer here is not far-fetched! In researching more about what happened with the ill-fated, soon-to-expire Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), I learnt that one of the major criticisms of this framework was the lack of ownership.
In its “Post-2015 Thematic Consultation Document on MDG 1”, the International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty states that,
“The major limitation of the MDGs by 2015 was the lack of political will to implement due to the lack of ownership of the MDGs by the most affected constituencies”. In other words, the entire MDG process lacked legitimacy due to failure to include the voices of the very people it sought to assist.
Further, my reading convinces me that the recently inaugurated Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are “action-oriented, concise and easy to communicate, limited in number, aspirational, global in nature and universally applicable to all countries while taking into account different national realities, capacities and levels of development and respecting national policies and priorities”.
If that is truly the case, then despite its envisaged limitations, the SDG framework, as a striking departure from the MDG framework, seeks to genuinely and sustainably solve the major problems facing the global community.
Granted, this is a very welcome movement, but what does it mean for all of us as Zimbabweans?
Pay attention! Given that our national leaders have signed and ratified the SDGs, committing and affirming to them as a highly meaningful and inclusive post-2015 development agenda, from now and onwards, it will be justified for one concerned citizen to question why she or he is not benefiting from the same mainstream socio-economic and politico-environmental development our leaders have committed to.
Equally important, it will also be defensible to question what that concerned citizen is actually doing to contribute towards her or his own development and that of her or his community and nation at large.
In other words, we have reached a no-excuse and no-nonsense stage where leaders and citizens should engage in collaborative, meaningful partnerships for win-win outcomes.
This is the only part I like most about the post-MDG framework – the emphasis on the role each and every global citizen has to play to ensure the respect, protection, facilitation and fulfilment of human rights and, thus, development. The development process is now more than before expected to come from “within”.
I would like to believe that the SDGs came at a time when we, as Zimbabweans, are already in the “mood” for our “own” development.
In fact, I am obliged to say that the SDGs are not only late in coming but, most importantly, are a confirmation of what our very passionate President, His Excellency R. G Mugabe, has always been emphasising all along – indigenisation, value-addition, land reform, industrialisation, food security, you name it. I suppose those who make a fool out of him when he preaches these pan-African ideals can as well go ahead and lick their own wounds!
The SDGs are really a “rude awakening” call to all citizens. Instead of complaining about why the Government has let down the youths by not providing jobs for them, we should be questioning our own contributions as citizens to solving youth unemployment.
Some beneficiaries of the fast-track land reform and the Presidential Agricultural Inputs Scheme sub-lease their lands or sell the donated inputs at meagre prices and, thereafter, make noise about being food insecure.
I can give many examples, but the long and short of the story is that the onus is on us to move from that mind-set of waiting for “manna from heaven” to both embracing and joining in our Government’s noble interventions towards facilitating indigenous development – a development from “within”. President Mugabe started leading us on this journey way back: the SDGs have just confirmed his ideals.
The writer works as OVC technical programmes officer with Family Aids Caring Trust in Mutare, Zimbabwe. He is also currently interning at Break the Cycle in Los Angeles, California, USA, as a US Department of State Fellow under the Community Solutions Program (an initiative of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State in partnership with the International Research and Exchanges). He can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected]
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