ZHUWAO: Accelerated implementation of Zim-Asset… but how?

09 Nov, 2014 - 06:11 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

How can implementation of Zim-Asset be accelerated when most people do not even understand what Zim-Asset is?

Do our leaders know what they are talking about when they use the phrase “in line with Zim-Asset”?

It is not enough to say that Zim-Asset has four clusters. That’s as lame as trying to define a dog by saying that it has four legs. So does a cat, a mouse, a cow, a lion, an elephant and a host of other creatures. That does not make all of them dogs!

It is a year since Zim-Asset was launched.

Furthermore, the theme of the 6th Zanu-PF Congress is “Accelerated Implementation of Zim-Asset”.

The nation rightly seeks to know how the implementation of Zim-Asset will be accelerated.

I will review five factors that will impact on the rate of implementation of Zim-Asset; three of which relate to the structure of the blueprint whilst two relate to economic factors and fundamentals.

Because Zim-Asset impacts on and is impacted upon by everyone, it is critical that there is clear and proper understanding and appreciation of what it entails.

Secondly, it is important that there is adequate knowledge and quantification of the resources available for Zim-Asset since it is designed to be propelled by the “judicious exploitation of the country’s human and natural resources”. Thirdly, because Zim-Asset is based on the Results-Based Management approach, it is necessary to integrate RBM into whatever established systems, procedures and structures are in use in various institutions.

The fourth factor that will impact on the rate of Zim-Asset implementation is what is commonly referred to as the ease of doing business.

In some instances this has been taken to mean competitiveness or productivity.

The fifth and final factor that will impact on accelerating implementation of Zim-Asset involves measures aimed at addressing liquidity.

I will be addressing these five factors over the next few weeks.

I will start by providing my own conceptualisation of what Zim-Asset is before proposing the use of a number of tools that can be used towards its accelerated implementation.

I will conclude by submitting that accelerated implementation of Zim-Asset requires not just the institutional leadership of the Office of the President and Cabinet, but co-ordination of public-private sector initiatives through the National Economic Consultative Forum.

What is Zim-Asset?

Last year, as I played around with the words that would constitute the title of the manual that would guide the implementation of the mandate that Zanu-PF had been given by the people on 31st July 2013, my mind sought to develop an acronym that would not only serve as a brand, but would also be a rallying call.

Zim-Asset has not only become a brand but has also evolved to be a national slogan and a transformational war cry.

It was embarrassing to hear Zimbabweans plagiarising the “Proudly South African” slogan as if we were incapable of creativity and innovation.

We now refer to anything Zimbabwean as Zim-Asset.

My feeling then, was guided by the fact that we were coming out of the inclusive Government after having successfully mobilised the nation towards the critical national objective of developing Zimbabwe’s constitution.

This was against a backdrop of entrenched polarisation in Zimbabwe.

There was a desperate need to mobilise the nation around a common slogan and brand. Zim-Asset provided such an opportunity.

It is heart warming to realise that the acronym Zim-Asset has caught on and is finding expression in almost all spheres of Zimbabwean life.

Sometimes I cringe at the use (or should I say abuse) of the Zim-Asset acronym in extremely inappropriate circumstances. This has included the theme of a beauty pageant, “Taking Zim-Asset to greater heights”. Seriously?!

There is danger in over-use of a concept without giving it commensurate value.

In the case of Zim-Asset, we are now finding that comedians are beginning to develop material around it.

There is an audio clip by Richard Matimba, better known as Uncle Richie. Uncle Richie’s clip manifests the level of confusion surrounding the understanding of Zim-Asset.

 

 

Understanding the agenda

 

What is Zim-Asset? It is an agenda for sustainable socio-economic transformation. But what is an agenda?

To be able to better understand what an agenda is we need to look at the etymology of the word.

Online references say “agenda” is derived from the Latin verb “ago”, “agree”, “agi”, “actum” – which means “to drive on” or “set in motion”. Agenda constitutes something that must be driven forward.

Zim-Asset is therefore the drive for socio-economic transformation that is sustainable. It is that simple.

President Mugabe has brilliantly, succinctly and eloquently elucidated the salient components of Zim-Asset in the four paragraphs that constitute the one page foreword of the document.

Zim-Asset is described in the one page that most people skip to get to what they consider to be the meat of the document.

Each of the four paragraphs of the foreword is full of meaning and clarity. That clarity is largely overlooked in the haste for the search for individual and organisational value, benefits and/or mandates. A lot of people miss the wood for the trees.

The first paragraph of the foreword defines the “pursuit” of Zim-Asset as a “new trajectory of accelerated economic growth and wealth creation”; the emphasis being on new trajectory.

This new trajectory is embodied in the mission of Zim-Asset, which is “To provide an enabling environment for sustainable economic empowerment and social transformation to the people of Zimbabwe”. The operative phrase here is “to provide an enabling environment”.

This represents a major paradigm shift in that Zim-Asset is a facilitative policy as opposed to previous policies of government which have largely been distributive.

The foreword’s first paragraph also states that Zim-Asset seeks to achieve sustainable development and social equity.

The wealth creation and social equity components are often forgotten and overlooked. Zim-Asset is anchored on the theme of the 2013 Zanu-PF Manifesto of indigenisation empowerment and employment creation.

The last phrase of that first paragraph is the sine qua non of Zim-Asset. It defines how Zim-Asset “will be largely propelled by the judicious exploitation of the country’s abundant human and natural resources”.

For me, the human resource is the most critical ingredient of Zim-Asset; even more valuable than minerals.

The second paragraph of the foreword defines Zim-Asset as a results-based agenda that is built around four strategic clusters.

It is unfortunate that this conceptualisation has largely been misunderstood from two perspectives. Firstly, Zim-Asset has been defined around these clusters as opposed to defining Zim-Asset as the DRIVE for sustainable socio-economic transformation.

Secondly, the four strategic clusters have been mistaken to represent clusters of sectors into which institutions must be placed. I view the clusters as clusters of results as opposed to clusters of institutions.

This, therefore, means that each and every individual and/or institution should be able to contribute towards the achievement of results across all four strategic clusters.

This point is reinforced in paragraph 4.2, which enjoins clusters to “eliminate compartmentalisation and the silo mentality by creating strong synergistic relationships”.

The foreword’s third paragraph emphasises how the cluster approach will “enable Government to prioritise its programmes and projects”.

The private sector, development partners and the nation at large are called upon to work with Government ministries and agencies in “championing the implementation of this results-based agenda”.

In this way, congruence in the prioritisation of programmes and projects is achieved.

The third paragraph of the foreword is also pragmatic in acknowledging the resource constraintsthat the nation faces and thus exhorting the development of “robust and prudent fiscal and monetary policy measures”.

This exhortation needs to be read together with the enunciation of how Zim-Asset will “largely be propelled by the judicious exploitation of the country’s abundant human and natural resources”, as well as some of the strategies contained in the implementation matrices such as public-private partnerships.

The final paragraph of the foreword gives responsibility to the Office of the President and Cabinet to “play a leading and coordinating role as overseer of the implementation process to ensure attainment of set targets of the plan”.

 

 

Grasping the vision

 

Zim-Asset’s guiding vision is enunciated as “Towards an Empowered Society and a Growing Economy”.

I notice that the empowered society is placed first followed by a growing economy meaning that the empowerment of people is paramount, and that an empowered society should be supported by a growing economy.

In my view, the most important components of Zim-Asset include the fact that it is in pursuit of a new trajectory of accelerated economic growth and wealth creation, and that the trajectory is premised on a shift in paradigm from the distributive policy perspective towards the facilitative policy paradigm.

The other critical component relates to the fact that Zim-Asset will be largely propelled from internal resources.

 

 

Tools for accelerated implementation

 

The implementation chapter of Zim-Asset is comprised of two paragraphs on one page.

This is problematic for a number of people who also have to come to grips with understanding the conceptualisation of Zim-Asset.

Most people still have to disengage from having viewed Government as a distributor and benevolent benefactor for 33 years, to now considering it as a facilitator and enabler.

This is further compounded by the need to internally generate the resources that are required for Zim-Asset’s implementation.

To assist in facilitating conceptualisation of implementation modalities, Zhuwao Institute proposes the use of several tools that can be configured to work with the RBM approach.

These tools have been structured into what Zhuwao Institute calls the “Research for Economic Action and Development (READ) Framework”.

Zhuwao Institute’s READ Framework is comprised of the Appreciative Inquiry paradigm, the RBM approach, Knowledge Integration methodologies, use of ICT platforms, and internal generation of resources.

I will briefly touch on the Appreciative Inquiry paradigm and the Knowledge Integration methodologies.

Appreciative inquiry is a strategic planning paradigm that focuses on positives. It is a change management approach that focuses on searching for and identifying the best in people, institutions and society.

It identifies and analyses what is working well with a view to do more of that.

For example, Zimbabwe would be best served by conducting appreciative inquiry into the areas that the nation has done well on such as education and literacy levels, reduction in HIV and Aids prevalence rates, and tobacco production, amongst a host of other achievements.

Knowledge integration is the process of incorporating new information into a body of existing knowledge with an interdisciplinary approach.

It allows for absorption of knowledge from external sources and blending it with internal skills, expertise and knowhow.

Knowledge integration facilitates for a broader understanding of a given subject area from different perspectives in a manner that allows for redefining opportunities.

Professor Sheunesu Mpepereki’s ground-breaking work on soya bean production in Zimbabwe has used such a knowledge integration approach by incorporating multiple disciplines.

Knowledge integration could also be used, for example, by Zinwa to contribute further to Zim-Asset.

Although Zinwa’s internal skills, expertise and knowhow are primarily in the area of water harvesting, it could secure external knowledge and expertise on such diverse areas as aquaculture, run-off hydro-electricity power generation and tourism to contribute to the food security and nutrition cluster, power generation cluster result area, and value addition and beneficiation cluster respectively.

In essence, the use of knowledge integration enables the “elimination of compartmentalisation and the silo mentality”.

There are a multitude of such tools and methodologies that can be deployed towards assisting the acceleration of the implementation of Zim-Asset.

I believe that Zimbabwe will be best served by selecting a few of these tools and methodologies and reconfiguring them for use within the Zimbabwean environment.

Already, Zim-Asset has adopted the RBM approach. But to do this requires leadership.

 

 

Institutional framework

 

I conclude by submitting that the leadership for deployment of methodologies and toolkits for accelerating the implementation of Zim-Asset needs to be encompassed within a coherent, credible and effective institutional framework.

That institutional framework has already been determined in Zim-Asset as being led, co-ordinated and overseen by the Office of the President and Cabinet.

The Office of the President and Cabinet has already set up structures for co-ordinating implementation of Zim-Asset for Government departments, agencies and institutions.

Furthermore, the National Economic Consultative Forum has established mechanisms for the dialogue with the private sector and Government on Zim-Asset’s implementation.

It is important to reiterate that accelerating the implementation of Zim-Asset requires a comprehensive understanding of Zim-Asset.

There is need to be able to quantify the resources that can be deployed towards accelerating the implementation of Zim-Asset whilst also ensuring that the RBM approach is integrated with established systems, procedures and structures of institutions.

Accelerated implementation requires that some of the institutional and structural issues of the economy such as the ease of conducting business and improving liquidity be addressed.

Zim-Asset: Mina lawe silomsebenzi. Iwe neni tine basa.

Honourable Patrick Zhuwao is Chair of Zhuwao Institute, an economics, development and research think tank that focus on integrating socio-political dimensions into business and economic decision making, particularly strategic planning. Zhuwao is the holder of a BSc (Honours) degree in Computer Systems Engineering and an MBA in Information Technology Management (City University, London). He also holds BSc (Honours) and MSc degrees in Economics(University of Zimbabwe), as well as a Master of Management (with distinction) degree in Public and Development Management (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg). He can be reached at [email protected]. You can get more information on the website [email protected]

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