An Assessment of Public Works Programmes as a Poverty Reduction Strategy for Rural Zimbabwe: A Study on Chivi District

Abstract

With the progression of the new millennium, a new socio-economic order has taken charge in most developing countries, unfavourable to the well-being of the less economically advantaged populations. Seemingly, Zimbabwe was not an exception to this development. Increasing concerns have been expressed about the effects of the several interventions aimed at poverty reduction in Zimbabwe, both from within and outside the country. The programmes and projects that have been devised to address poverty nationally and at local levels since 1980 have allocated vast amounts of resources and funding to different projects and initiatives. The nature of these initiatives have not demonstrated huge and resounding successes mostly because there have been serious shortcomings in their conceptualization and implementation. Based on the social development theory that believes that the human being should be the centre of development, this paper conceived poverty as deprivation of means of securing necessities in life. This study focused on assessing why the contribution of Food-for-work and Cash-for-work (public works) programmes towards reducing vulnerability of households to the problems of food deprivation, unemployment, and social exclusion in making important decisions in life has not produced resounding results. From the discussions held it was established that, poverty in the Chivi District is strongly linked to a failure of productive agriculture and exclusion from formal or urban wage employment. The main conclusions are that the public works programme has neither brought all the benefits its proponents expected, nor negatively affected the society as badly as critics of the programme might have believed.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p1739