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Lovemore Chikova
Development Dialogue
Whoever chose the picture accompanying President Mnangagwa’s foreword to the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) document managed to fulfil the old adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words”.
The President stands there, majestically as usual in his trademark scarf with his hands outstretched in a welcoming gesture, spiced with a smile.
It is a picture that embodies the spirit of the New Dispensation, as it makes a huge point about the preparedness of Zimbabwe to welcome the world to take part in its broad development agenda.
The gesture is about embracing everyone in that development agenda and reinforcing the reform and opening up policy being pursued through engagement and re-engagement with both external and internal stakeholders.
In fact, one of the broad aims of NDS1 is to ensure that no one is left behind when it comes to development, while there is no departure from the course that will eventually lead to industrialisation, modernisation and prosperity.
The launch of the NDS1 supports this factor, as it becomes a vital cog in the attainment of Vision 2030 meant to achieve an upper middle income economy.
The NDS1 has an aptly crafted theme: “Towards a Prosperous and Empowered Upper Middle Income Society by 2030”.
The policy will run from January 2021 to December 2025 when it will be succeeded by the National Development Strategy 2 from January 2026 to December 2030.
On Monday, it was a huge leap forward for Zimbabwe, the country took the second step towards achieving Vision 2030 by launching the NDS1.
The first step was the Transitional Stabilisation Programme, which was a huge success. Many could wonder what’s the farce about launching an economic blueprint, after all the country has in the past seen many blueprints.
Well, the cause for celebration lies in that the New Dispensation means business and we have seen in the last three years how Government has strictly implemented its promises.
In fact, the TSP provides a good example on how economic blueprints are now being treated seriously.
Some of the successes of the TSP included stabilisation of the exchange rate after the introduction of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe auction system, which resulted in the stabilisation of prices.
There was also the achievement of surpluses instead of deficits, as well as cutting of the public wage bill from 68,9 percent of total expenditure in 2017 to 50 percent by this year.
Infrastructure development was followed up, and many projects implemented in road works, energy, agriculture, tourism and industry.
For NDS1, what is important is the buy-in it got from various sectors which contributed to the crafting, and this will ensure that it will monitored from different quarters.
Red flags should be raised early when it appears as if the strategy is moving off the rails to ensure that appropriate measures are taken to remain on course.
The Integrated Results Based Management system will be implemented for monitoring and evaluation of the progress being made under NDS1.
This will help inculcate a culture of high performance, quality service delivery, measurement, goal clarity, continuous improvement and accountability across the public sector.
According to the NDS1 document, the policy’s objectives include strengthening macroeconomic stability, characterised by low and stable inflation, as well as exchange rate stability. It is aimed at achieving and sustaining inclusive and equitable real Gross Domestic Product growth and promote new enterprise development, employment and job creation.
The policy will “strengthen social infrastructure and social safety nets, ensure sustainable environmental protection and resilience, promote good governance and corporate social investment. It will modernise the economy through use of ICT and digital technology. The priorities are in economic growth and stability, food security and nutrition, moving the economy up the value chain and structural transformation.
The other sectors of priority are human capital development, environmental protection, climate resilience and natural resource management, housing delivery and ICT and digital economy.
Health and well-being, transport, infrastructure and utilities, image building and international engagement and re-engagement, social protection, youth, sport and culture.
The NDS1 envisages a massive economic turnaround, with an average annual real GDP growth rate of above five percent, while maintaining fiscal deficits averaging not more than three percent of the GDP.
The other aim is to achieve and maintain single digit inflation, increase international reserves to at least six months import cover by 2025 and establish a market determined and competitive foreign exchange rate regime.
The strategy also aims at guaranteeing external and domestic debt at below 70 percent of GDP, maintain a current account balance of not more than -3 percent and create at least 760 000 formal jobs over the five years.
In agriculture, the strategy will result in the increase production and productivity, especially by smallholder farmers to ensure food and nutrition security starting from the household level.
It will create opportunities for value addition and the development of agro-business value chains.
The strategy will also focus on enhancing investment in mining towards exploration, beneficiation and value addition of minerals, including levelling the field to accommodate small scale miners.
The policy document has chapters that specifically focus on what will be implemented over the five-year period. The chapters are on microeconomic framework, economic growth and stability, food and nutrition security, structural transformation and value chains and infrastructure, utilities and digital economy: the economic growth enablers.
The other chapters are on housing delivery, human capital development and innovation, health and well-being, image building, international and engagement and re-engagement, devolution and decentralisation, cross cutting issues, financing and monitoring and evaluation.
In the foreword, President Mnangagwa said NDS1 was in pursuit of Vision 2030 that will “deliver broad-based transformation, new wealth creation and expand horizons of economic opportunities for all Zimbabweans, with no one left behind”.
“NDS1 is premised on four critical guiding principles,” he said.
“The first is a recognition that bold and transformative measures are required to underpin the drive towards the attainment of our 2030 national vision.
“Secondly, it is clear that, while we continue to make headway with our international re-engagement efforts, which in time will yield positive results, we must intensify our efforts to generate growth through intentional mobilisation of domestic growth vectors.
“Thirdly, the NDS1 must deliberately leverage Zimbabwe`s competitive advantages particularly with regards to the configuration of our natural resource endowment, our excellent ecological endowment and our skills base.
“Finally, for transformative and inclusive growth to bring benefits to all Zimbabweans in a fair, transparent and just manner, we must deepen our commitment to the tenets of good corporate governance as enunciated in our Vision 2030 document.”
President Mnangagwa called upon all the people of Zimbabwe, including the private sector, civic society and cooperating partners to work together through NDS1 to realise Vision 2030 goals.
This column will from next start delving into the provisions of the NDS1 document, dissecting the chapters, stating clearly how Government envisages to achieve the goals and how people can contribute to make it a success.
Online Reporter