The Sunday Mail
Taura mourns the passing on of Zanele Naledi Ntombizodwa Moyo. Zanele is an unsung hero of the youth movement who, in a grand way advocated for young people’s issues through her ability to constantly challenge Professor Moyo in ways that his peers and colleagues could not even fathom.
Prof Moyo’s “angel” contributed to sharpening what has been referred to as the thinking part of Zanu-PF. The death of Zanele is not only a loss to the Moyo family, but a loss to Zanu-PF and the whole nation.
To this week’s issue.
IYUT has it on good authority that the Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Ministry is continuing with developing a National Economic Empowerment Strategy after hosting the inaugural National Economic Empowerment Conference.
It is understood that the second stage of the four-part process has started with creation of the template for developing District Economic Empowerment Strategies to be used as the foundation for conducting District Economic Empowerment Conferences in all administrative districts on November 3, 2015.
This week, the ministry will train four facilitators per administrative district on how to facilitate development of District Economic Empowerment Strategies.
These facilitators will include the district youth development officer, indigenisation and economic empowerment officer, youth officer, and the officer responsible for administrative issues at each of the ministry’s district offices.
Training will be in Harare for the Mashonaland and Harare provinces, in Masvingo for Manicaland, Midlands and Masvingo provinces, and in Bulawayo for the Matebeleland and Bulawayo provinces. The ministry’s provincial and head office staff will attend the training sessions. But what exactly are these facilitators being trained to do? What is the objective of developing District Economic Empowerment Strategies given that there exists an indigenisation and economic empowerment policy framework and supporting legislative measures?
To be able to fully discuss the objective of conducting District Economic Empowerment strategies, it is necessary to be clear on three components of Government’s work; namely, policy, legislation and strategy. Although there may be several definitions of the above concepts, IYUT will pick one definition for each.
The Zimbabwean definition of policy as articulated by the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Dr Misheck Sibanda, is that “policy is a statement of Government intent as articulated by the President in his capacity as the Head of Government or as agreed to by Cabinet”.
This means Cabinet ministers can only articulate policy that would have been the subject of a Cabinet resolution.
After policy has been agreed to in Cabinet, or articulated by the President, it must be given legal force. Consequently, legislation provides the legal basis upon which policy is implemented.
The Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act (Chapter 14:33) provides the principle legislation for the policy with supporting legislation in the form of various statutory instruments and general notices. Legislation provides the legal framework for “the statement of government intent”. This point naturally leads to clues on providing an answer to the paradox that suggests that Zimbabwe is very good at developing magnificent policies but fails at implementation.
IYUT does not wish to discuss the merits of this line of thought at this point save to remind Zimbabweans that despite whatever shortcomings we have as a nation, we have scored major policy successes such as in education, and peace and security, to name two. IYUT posits that provision of legislation to give legal force to Government’s statement of intent does not necessarily translate into successful implementation.
Implementation is action.
It can be speculated that Government policy and legislation are sometimes implemented by different agencies from different perspectives. This may result in some actions working against each other.
It is, therefore, necessary that implementation is co-ordinated to achieve the required intention. Such a co-ordination plan is known as a strategy.
To be more specific, a strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve an intention.
Given the above explanation, it becomes obvious that after the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Policy Frameworks were approved in Cabinet in 1998 and 2004, they had to be provided for by legislation. This has been done in the principle legislation and its supporting subsidiary legislation. The next stage is strategy development. Strategy must be alive to the dictates of other policy measures.
Consequently, the Youth Ministry is developing a National Economic Empowerment Strategy borrowing on Zim-Asset’s vision for an empowered society and a growing economy.
The theme of the National Economic Empowerment Strategy formulation process is “Accelerating Economic Empowerment” as resolved by Zanu-PF’s 6th National People’s Congress.
The sub-theme of the National Economic Empowerment Strategy formulation process relates to the 1-Point Plan articulated by President Mugabe in his 2015 State of the Nation Address.
IYUT hopes the objective of the District Economic Empowerment Strategy processes as the development of plans of action to achieve multiple government policies has been unpacked.
The process will also add towards other Government policies such as investment promotion by identifying and highlighting resource endowments and opportunities. For the District Economic Empowerment Strategies to achieve the objectives set out above, it is necessary that there are facilitators who will guide the processes.
It is these facilitators who will be undergoing training in Harare on October 27, Bulawayo on October 28, and Masvingo on October 29.
IYUT can reveal that both processes of facilitator training and strategy development will be broken into six components; the first of which outlines the concept and context of the exercises. The second component provides a synopsis of strategy formulation as an inherently natural process of everyday life which entails evaluating your current position, targeting your desired future, and conceptualising how to move from your current position to your desired future.
These aspects, of evaluation, targeting and strategising, make up the third, fourth and fifth components respectively of the processes. Evaluation of your current position requires appreciative discovery of past success, historical reflection of previous attempts, evaluation of resources available to us, and analysis of our capabilities based on appreciative discovery, historical reflection and resource evaluation.
Targeting involves developing a mission to define our fundamental purpose, creating a vision of our desired future, and articulating the values that define how we conduct ourselves.
Strategising requires that we develop objectives and the associated goals to meet each objective, coming up with actual strategies and determining appropriate measures. The sixth and final component sets out how each of the points of the 10-Point Plan should be applied to the strategic planning process outlines above.
For example, evaluation of the current position on the first point of revitalising agriculture and the agro-processing value chain could possible look at how previous seasons have been affected by drought whilst recognising the water reservoirs available for supplementary irrigation, and acknowledging such capabilities as conservation agriculture skills.
Each of the ten points will need to be strategised upon within the context of the peculiarities of our districts.
Should the Youth Ministry succeed in training its facilitators well, then the District Economic Empowerment Strategies will result in an empowered society and a growing economy.
The process of developing District Economic Empowerment Strategies is a major activity which will required close to three hundred facilitators combining the individual views and plans of over 1 500 technocrats that make up the District Development Committees, with the wishes and aspirations of local level stakeholders.
IYUT wishes the Youth Ministry luck; they definitely need it. None but ourselves. Over and out.
