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ZIMBABWE’S policies have been ranked among the best in Africa but the country needs to improve on implementation to increase economic growth, the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) latest report indicates.
The Harare-based research firm noted in its annual Africa Capacity Report 2014 released last month that the continent needs to hasten regional integration operationalisation and improve financing of projects to achieve meaningful economic growth.
It said while most African countries were “doing well” in terms of creating conducive policy environments and implementation processes, they lacked the necessary capacity and financing to meet desired outcomes.
Zimbabwe is presently pushing the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset) policy aimed at driving economic growth and creating thousands of jobs by 2018.
The report ranked Zimbabwe at level 21 with an average score of 50,9 points out of the 44 African countries that were placed under the survey.
Of the 44 countries surveyed in the Africa Capacity Index (ACI), 30 fell in the medium bracket, eight in the high bracket and six in the low bracket – with Morocco faring the best, with a score of 73.1, and Central African Republic the worst, with a score of 22.4.
South Africa was not surveyed.
Zimbabwe scored high on gender equality (79,9 percent), assessment of needs (100 percent), agriculture and food security (63 percent) and aid effectiveness related to capacity development (80 percent).
“No countries are at the extremes of capacity (very low or very high). It’s encouraging that eight countries are in the high category, and that no countries are very low. However, countries still have to make more effort to break into the coveted Very High bracket,” read the report.
“Countries in the medium and low brackets now have to strive to break into the high and very high brackets. On the policy environment, all countries are ranked high or very high (91percent).”
The report notes that impressive implementation processes were also evident, with around 81 percent of countries scoring high or very high points.
It said Africa was poised for development and urged countries to focus more on capacity development outcomes in their strategies and policies, particularly on carrying out regular capacity profiling and capacity needs assessments.
Meanwhile, ACBF identified poor regional integration and lack of enforcement capacity as the continent’s weakest link for the 54 member continent compared to the European Union and Asian countries.
The report identified overlapping membership, limited financing, uneven commitments, and slow implementation as major challenges hampering progress on regional integration.
“Clearly, capacity is needed to drive the integration process in Africa and to support the creation of the African Economic Community. The encouraging message is that our efforts to focus on regional integration are well placed.
“We need to continue working along the same lines by providing financial and technical support to the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and other bodies working on regional integration—and by redoubling our efforts to achieve results,” said ACBF.
The report also calls attention to giving more prominence to increasing financing, improving intra-regional trade, sharing knowledge and practices, and implementing the various regional cross-border projects and programmes. Regional integration is a priority focus area of the Foundation.
Regional integration is a reality of modern times and it is even more important for Africa, as featured in the continental Agenda 2063.
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