The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development has requested involvement of CSOs in the development of the full Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (IPRSP) which will be developed for the period 2017 – 2018.
It’s been two years since NANGO together with seven other organisations formed a united non-state actor body called Non State Actors Apex Alliance (NSAA). This alliance is fundamental in lobbying and engaging with one voice in order to achieve positive development outcomes for the citizenry. NSAA comprises of National Association of Youth Organisations (NAYO), Women Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ), Zimbabwe National Council for the Welfare of Children (ZNCWC), Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC), Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) and National Association of Societies for the Care of Handicapped (NASCOH).
NSAA influenced national processes through mobilisation and facilitating non-state actors to effectively participate and engage in the processes. This saw an increase in the number of non-state actors participating in national policies that reflect and address the needs of the people. Through this the government has provided further a window for participation and involvement of NSAA in the development of the full PRSP, which is going to be developed over the two-year period 2017-2018. The IPRSP mainstreamed a number of issues from the non-state actors including input from women, youth, children, people with disability and business sectors. Non-state actors are now oriented to influence national development processes in a collaborative and harmonised manner.
NSAA was accorded an opportunity to influence the development of the IPRSP which was being developed by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. The government put in place an IPRSP inter-ministerial committee to develop the IPRSP and NSAA was co-opted into this committee which facilitated the development of the poverty reduction strategy for the period April to July 2016. The government recognised the role that CSOs should play in development of national policy by coopting NSAA in the committee. Government reflected its appreciation of CSOs through inclusion in this rigorous process. In total there were 592 participants representing the CSOs who took part in the consultative process of the IPRSP at the national, provincial and district levels. These translate to a 51.2% representation of CSOs. At provincial level CSO participation was high. In Harare 187 organisations participated, 132 in Manicaland, 117 in Bulawayo, 69 in Midlands and Masvingo had the least organisations at 18. At district level 20 CSOs from Nkayi participated, 19 from Umzingwane, 16 from Centenary and Mudzi had 14. The participation of CSOs at district levels was low and this can be explained by the low representation of CSOs at that level. As such, development of the full IPRSP is in the works.
The Non State Actors Coordination and Capacity Strengthening Programme developed capabilities of non-state actors to participate in policy dialogue and contributed immensely to the development of national policies in Zimbabwe. The Non State Actors Coordination and Capacity Strengthening Programme has resulted in strengthening coordination of non-state actors to influence national development processes. The capacity of Non State Actors to effectively influence national processes was strengthened through national, provincial and district level capacity enhancing programmes in areas such as results based management, monitoring and evaluation, corporate governance, policy advocacy, lobby and research and understanding government. This enhanced knowledge and understanding of non-state actors to participate and engage government, in a more effective manner. The project initiated policy dialogue platforms, which allowed non-state actors to engage various policy makers and push for their agenda informed by research, which the project had carried out during the course of the year. Some of the policies the project influenced, include the IPRSP, National Peace Reconciliation Bill, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Universal Periodic Review (UPR), Aligning the Disabled Persons Act [Ch.17:01] to the New Constitution of Zimbabwe.
