i
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF PEACE AND GOVERNANCE
AN INVESTIGATION ON THE IMPACT OF AID DONATIONS EXTENDED TO
MBIRE DISTRICT BY NGOs IN ZIMBABWE A CASE OF LGDA (MUSHUMBI) 2010-
2015
COMPILED BY
BEAUTY R MAZHAMBE
B1232020
SUPERVISOR MRS.ZEMBERE
A DESERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE HONORS DEGREE IN PEACE AND GOVERNANCE AT
BINDURA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE EDUCATION.
2016
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APPROVAL FORM
The undersigned confirm that they have supervised, read and recommend to the Bindura
University of Science Education for acceptance of a research project entitled: An investigation
on the impact of aid donations extended to Mbire District by NGOs in Zimbabwe with special
focus on LGDA (Mushumbi)
……………………………………………… …/…………/…………/
(Signature of Student) Date
........................................................................ …/…………/…………/
(Signature of Supervisor) Date
……………………………………………… ……/…………/…………/
(Signature of the Chairperson) Date
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BINDURA UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE EDUCATION
RELEASE FORM
NAME OF AUTHOR : MAZHAMBE BEAUTY RUTENDO
REG NUMBER : B1232020
PROJECT TITLE : An investigation on the impact of aid donations
extendedto mbire district by NGOs in Zimbabwe with
special focus on LGDA (Mushumbi) from 2010-2015
PROGRAM : HBSC HONOURS IN PEACE AND GOVERNANCE
YEAR GRANTED : 2015
SIGNED : ..................................................................
I Beauty R Mazhambe l grant the permission to Bindura University of Science Education
Library to produce single copies of this research project and sell such copies for private,
scholarly or scientific research purposes only. The author does not holdback other publications
rights and the research project may not print or reproduce without the author’s written
permission.
Student Signature………………… Date…………………………
Permanent address St Francis High School Box 119 Guruve
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DECLARATION FORM
I Beauty R Mazhambe hereby declare that this dissertation submitted to Bindura University of
Science Education in fulfilment of Degree in HBSc Peace and Governance has never been
presented in other institution I also declare that any secondary information has been
acknowledged.
……………………………………………… …/…………/…………/
(Signature of Student) Date
........................................................................ …/…………/…………/
(Signature of Supervisor) Date
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DEDICATION
This research is specifically dedicated to Ms Mazhambe for making my dream come true by
sending me to school even after my father’s death. These are the fruits of her unfailing love she
showed to me. Thank you for raising me, you are the best mom. Without the above mentioned
lady, it would not have been possible for me to be the person I am today. The dedication also
extends to my only brother Batsirai for giving me the courage to continue with my studies. I
say, thank you for looking after our beloved mom during my study period in Bindura and please
never lose hope in your own studies till the battle is won and always remember no goal is too
high if you climb with care. I have set the standard for you and I expect more from you,
remember the sky is the limit.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First I would like to thank the Almighty God for giving me the strength to carry on. My sincere
gratitude goes to all the staff members of the Peace and Governance Department and Bindura
University for all the support and assistance. My appreciation also goes to the LGDA research
program co-odinator, the district social welfare officer, the District Agritex officer, the
councilor and district headmans as well as people in Mbire District for sharing the information
about poverty in Mbire.
My greatest appreciation goes to Mrs Zembere my supervisor, for accommodating my mistakes
and being supportive. Many thanks for her guidance and encouragement that stirred up the
success of this research. l also thank my colleagues and classmates in Peace and Governance
group (2012-2016) for their unwavering commitment, love and support for me to successfully
carry out my research to come out with this dissertation.
Finally great thanks goes to my mother and my other relatives to whom I owe my profound
indebtedness for financial and moral support, courage and patience, may the Lord be with you.
I also give glory to God for all the opportunities he has created for me, without him and the
mentioned people, this study will not have been a success. God bless you all.
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ABSTRACT
The problem this research sought to address is on the effectiveness of NGOs’ strategies
implemented in the rural areas of Mbire District in Zimbabwe. The research used qualitative
research paradigm, a case study design and data was gathered from a sample of one hundred
and twenty eight both adults and children who were beneficiaries of Lower Guruve
Development Association poverty alleviation strategies. Data was collected using simple
random sampling. Focus group discussions and interviews were used as instruments.The
research has been basically influenced by personal concerns which I believe have influenced
the selection of the research problem.Lack of infrastructure like roads, shortage of schools
leading to high illiteracy levels, shortage of clinics and hospitals, lack of clean water, high
unemployment levels are the indicators of poverty in Mbire. The purpose of this study was to
evaluate the effectiveness of the poverty alleviation strategies implemented by NGOs in the
rural areas of Zimbabwe specifically Lower Guruve Development Associationin Mbire. What
matters most is that, despite the number of NGOs operating in Mbire, poverty is still
intensifying and widening. Through the research, it was found that most NGOs’ strategies in
Mbire focus on relief than developmental aid. Also when addressing poverty, NGOs use the
trickle down approach than the bottom up approach at times implementing strategies which
are not suitable for addressing the poverty situation hence there is need for assessment to avoid
duplication. Finally, basing on the research findings, the research recommends that Lower
Guruve Development Association must avoid being too selective and after implementing their
projects they must monitor and evaluate so as to identify areas that need attention. The
research also recommends NGOs to use the participatory approach as well as the sustainable
livelihoods approach in dealing with poverty. Above all the NGOs’ strategies for alleviating
poverty need to be reviewed.
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LIST OF ABREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
AGRITEX - Agricultural Extension Officer
UNAIDS- United Nations Aids Services
USAID- United States Aid
AIDS- Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
ESAP- Economic Structural Adjustment Program
SAPS- Structural Adjustment Programs
IMF- International Monetary Fund
NANGO- National Association of Non-Governmental Organizations
HOSPAZ- Hospice Zimbabwe
L.G.D.A- Lower Guruve Development Association
MRDC- Mbire Rural District Council
IGP- Income Generating Projects
OVC-Orphan and Vulnerable Children
SAFAIDS- Southern Africa Information Dissemination Service
UNICEF- United Nations Children Education Fund
OXFAM- Oxford Committee for Famine Relief
PAAP- Poverty Alleviation Action Plan
SLA- Sustainable Livelihood Approach
ZANU-PF- Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front
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LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
TABLES
Table 4.1The extent to which donations alleviate suffering...................................................34
Table 4.2 People benefiting from donations.......................................................................35
Table 4.3 Donations should never be stopped..........................................................................37
Table 4.4 Social services improvement from donations......................................................29
FIGURES
Fig 4.1 Gender..........................................................................................................................29
Fig 4.2 Age...............................................................................................................................30
Fig 4.3Educational levels.........................................................................................................31
Fig 4.4 Employment levels................................................................................................32
Fig 4.5 Sources of Income levels..........................................................................................33
Fig 4.6 Donations promoting growth................................................................................36
Fig 4.7 Donations influence on decisions........................................................................38
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
APPROVAL FORM..............................................................................................................i
RELEASE FORM................................................................................................................ii
DECLARATION……………………………………………………………………………..iii
DEDICATION………………………………………………………………………………..iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT…………………………………………………………………….v
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………..vi
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS…………………………………………vii
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES…………………………………………………………vii
Contents Page
CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................. 1
1.0 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY ............................................................... 3
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM .............................................................. 5
1.3 AIM OF THE STUDY .................................................................................... 6
1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY .................................................................... 6
1.5 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ............................................................................ 6
1.6 RESEARCH ASSUMPTIONS ....................................................................... 7
1.7 JUSTIFICATION............................................................................................ 7
1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ............................................................... 7
1.9 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ................................................................. 8
1.10 DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY ............................................................ 8
1.11 ETHICAL ISSUES ....................................................................................... 9
1.12 DEFINITION OF TERMS ........................................................................... 9
1.13 TIME FRAME .............................................................................................. 9
1.14 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY ......................................................... 10
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1.15 SUMMARY ................................................................................................ 10
CHAPTER 2 ................................................................................................ 10
LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................ 10
2.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 10
2.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................ 11
2.2 Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA) ..................................................... 11
2.3 Principles of sustainable livelihoods approach ............................................. 14
2.4 RELATED LITERATURE ........................................................................... 15
2.5 NGOs IN ZIMBABWE ................................................................................ 18
2.6 ROLE OF NGOs IN ZIMBABWE ............................................................... 18
2.7 NGOs’ PERCEPTION OF POVERTY IN ZIMBABWE ............................ 19
2.8 CONSEQUENCES/THREATS FROM N.G.Os ASSISTANT AID ........... 19
2.9 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ............................................................. 20
SUMMARY ........................................................................................................ 21
CHAPTER THREE ................................................................................ 21
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .................................................................... 21
3.0Introduction .................................................................................................... 21
3.1 Research design ............................................................................................. 22
3.2 Qualitative research design ........................................................................... 22
3.3 Population ..................................................................................................... 23
3.4 The Sampling procedure ............................................................................... 23
3.5 Research Instruments .................................................................................... 24
3.6 Surveys .......................................................................................................... 24
3.7 Focus Groups ................................................................................................ 24
3.8 Interviews ...................................................................................................... 25
3.9 Data Collection Procedures ........................................................................... 25
3.10 Data Presentation and analysis.................................................................... 26
3.11 Data analysis ............................................................................................... 26
3.12 Summary ..................................................................................................... 27
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CHAPTER FOUR .................................................................................... 27
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION ....................... 27
4.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 27
4.1 PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS ............................................................... 28
4.2 Respondents by gender ................................................................................ 28
4.3 Respondents by age ....................................................................................... 29
4.4 Educational levels of respondents ................................................................. 30
4.5 Employment Status ....................................................................................... 32
4.6 Sources of Income ......................................................................................... 33
4.7 NGOs AND Addressing Poverty in Mbire ................................................... 34
4.8 Benefit Accrued from NGO Strategies in Mushumbi (Mbire district) ......... 35
4.9 Donations promoted growth in Mushumbi(Mbire district) .......................... 36
4.10 Donations should never be stopped ............................................................ 37
4.11 Satisfaction by NGO Strategies .................................................................. 38
4.12 Donations helped in improving Social services in Mushumbi ................... 40
4.13The Extent to which NGOs have Achieved their Goals .............................. 41
4.14 NGOs’ Strategies and their Problems ......................................................... 41
4.15 Suggested impacts and recommendations of donations in Mushumbi in the
period 2010-2015. ............................................................................................... 42
4.16 Summary ..................................................................................................... 43
CHAPTER FIVE ...................................................................................... 44
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .................. 44
5.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 44
5.1 SUMMARY OF THE STUDY ..................................................................... 44
5.2 CONCLUSIONS ........................................................................................... 45
5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................................................. 46
5.4 REFERENCES.............................................................................................. 48
APPENDIX : RESEARCH QUESTION GUIDE .............................................. 51
1
CHAPTER 1
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The donor community is increasingly regarding N.G.Os as an important agency of empowering
people thereby leading to more effective and sustainable local development services than those
promoted by the government (Bassey 2008). This stems from the fact that, the state has failed
to cater for the welfare of its people (Matenga 2001). The issue of poverty in Zimbabwe is
being closely tied to the poor performance of the economy and economic restructuring that
characterized the 1990s (Alwang et.al 2002). After the accomplishment of independence in
1980, the Zimbabwean government was faced with a numerous of challenges amongst them to
restore the issue of poverty. Many developing countries have embraced the interference of
N.G.Os as alternatives for poverty mitigation (Bassey, 2008). In quest of solutions to
developmental tribulations besetting the African continent, the donor community is gradually
more concerned with Non-Governmental Organizations (N.G.Os) as an important charity for
empowering people thereby leading to more efficient and sustainable local growth services
than those promoted by the government (Bassey 2008). The government of Zimbabwe adopted
a number of policies to fight poverty within the field of development in 1980.
The deepening of poverty in Zimbabwe after the adoption of ESAP in 1991 greatly invited
N.G.Os to supplement the role of the state in poverty alleviation. N.G.Os as gap fillers assisted
in the sectors that were no longer subsidized by the government, that is, health, education and
agriculture. N.G.Os efforts were directed towards the wider problems of rural areas (Muir
1992). The Zimbabwean government adopted a variety of poverty alleviation strategies in an
attempt to address poverty. Strategies includes Communal area management programmes for
indigenous resources (CAMPFIRE) of 1987, the ESAP of 991-1995, the Social development
fund (SDF) 1992-1993, The Poverty alleviation action plan (PAAP) of 1994 and the fast track
land reform programme of 2000. Reasons associated with the failure of these strategies include
corruption, mismanagement of gains, lack of funding, over-politicization and lack of planning
(UNESCO 2001). This greatly invites N.G, Os in Zimbabwe the likes of Lower Guruve
Development Association (L.G.D.A).
Therefore this study seeks to assess the poverty mitigation strategies implemented by N.G.Os
(their impact to sustainable development) in the rural areas is giving special focus on Mbire
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rural district council. This chapter will cover the background of the study giving an overview
of Mbire District in Mashonaland central of Zimbabwe to suit this study. The same chapter will
also give the problem statement of the study, aim of the study, objectives, research questions,
research assumptions as well as justifications followed by the significance and organization of
the study and a conclusion at last.
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION OF THE PLACE/AREA
Mbire rural district is some 234 kilometers from Harare. It lies in Mashonaland central in the
Zambezi Valley and was formed after Guruve District split into two districts which are lower
(Mbire District) and upper Guruve. The area receives low rainfall due to high temperatures.
Mushumbi is located in Mbire in the Mid-Zambezi Valley about 270km north-west of Harare.
Its southern border is formed by the base of the Zambezi escarpment. It is bordered by
Mozambique and Zambia in the north, mashonaland west province in the west and on the
southern side of Guruve. The northern part of the study is surrounded by the confluence of the
Manyame and Dande Rivers.
3
Map of Zimbabwe showing the location of Guruve District where Mbire District is
located.
1.1BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
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Mbire rural district, formerly Guruve North Constituency is located in the mid Zambezi Valley
(Dande Valley) north of Harare (Mbire Baseline Survey Report 2009). Rainfall is little and
unreliable, mean annual rainfall ranges from 620-650mm and the people in Mbire are
susceptible to recurrent drought and the majority depends on aid donations. The climate
supports dry land cultivation of drought resistant crops (Le Bel etal 2004) however is not
appropriate for the production of maize, vegetables and fruits. Maize is the staple food in the
district though. Under the climatic regions of Africa, Mbire falls in the hot semi-arid region
(Practical Action End of Pilot Project 2009). The area is prone to floods during the rainy season
and is also a malaria prone area. Temperatures can sour up to 40 degrees celcius (The
Zimbabwe Herald 26 October 2004). Climatic changes continue to have a negative impact on
agriculture and food security in Zimbabwe (ZELA Report 2009:15).
Mbire is one of the mostly affected districts. It is targeted as a region vulnerable to food
shortages hence qualifying for the World Food Programs (WFP), Funded Vulnerable Group
(FVG), programs based on the results of the ZIMVAC REPORT (2010) Zimbabwe Community
Household Surveillance 2010 (CHS) and the 2010 FAO/WFP, Crop and Food Security
Assessment Mission (CFSAM) to Zimbabwe. The surveys were used to resolve rural residents
that were likely to be food insecure. Food security ranking in Mbire for the years 2010/2011
was carried out at ward level to determine areas with most susceptible populations and the
most food insecure were Mushumbi (ward 9), Masoka (ward 11), Angwa (ward 12) and
Chapoto (ward 1) out of the 17 wards (ZIMVAC 2010). Mushumbi ward was sampled for this
study.
The L.G.D.A is a membership Community Based Organization which originates in 1984 as a
donor funded program. It was registered in 1991 under the private voluntary organization act.
The L.G.D.A’s vision is the accomplishment of sustainable livelihoods through-out the entire
Mbire Community. L.G.D.A aims to ensure that all vulnerable communities in Mbire District
achieve sustainable livelihoods through the exercise of participatory development
methodologies in partnership with all applicable stakeholders. The core principles for L.G.D.A
are selfless leadership, equality and fairness, respect for indigenous, knowledge, accountability
and transparency and respect for diverse opinions and views. The L.G.D.A has a livelihood
emergency program, a public health program and an orphans and exposed children program.
The L.G.D.A sturdily believes in home grown programs. This empowers the society and it
increases possession by the community. All programs are delivered from the community
through participatory rural appraisals (PRA) and livelihoods assessment programs that come
5
as a result of community demand or request have a high chance and sense of community
ownership hence is sustainable.
L.G.D.A approaches development in a number of different ways for example Mbire which is
prone to food insecurity, L.G.D.A has designed crop diversification where short season and
drought resistant crops are grown (sorghum, cow peas and cassava) livestock production and
income generating projects as suitable approaches for sustainable development since
communities have options to fall back on, should there be disasters. It also promotes the use of
simple and suitable technologies. The program designs for L.G.D.A rely on accessible and
reasonable technology to both livestock feed and recipes from crops.
In terms of sustainable development, the organisation has initiated income generating projects
(IGP’s) for the affected and infected families both at community and household level, for
instance, nutritional gardens are both at community and household level. The organisation, chip
in with, agricultural inputs, equipments and knowledge dissemination through an agricultural
officer. The advantage of this IGP and nutritional gardens over other interventions is that it
eliminates donor dependency and encourages people to be hard working and remain sustainable
even after donations are out of picture.
In addition, LGDA has embarked on sanitary work in which it built toilets ,boreholes, washing
sinks and it donated soaps ,water purifying tablets and buckets to Mbire district. Other
donations come in form of food, psychosocial support, school fees, and agricultural inputs.
This has been provided through partnerships with SAfAIDS, Oxfam Australia, Children First,
Island Hospice, Hospaz, Zimbabwe Aids Network, Arkansas Hospice, Huairou Commission,
Cafod and UNICEF. Despite all these donations in kind and services, the socio economic lives
of the people of Mbire district have not changed significantly. According to SAFAIDS (2009),
the HIV prevalence rate still stood at 22.7% during 2009.Hence, it becomes imperative to
investigate the impact of donations on people’s socio economic lives focusing on donations
extended by LGDA to Mbire district.
1.2STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
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The study seeks to address the challenges related with the effectiveness of N.G.Os strategies
which are disturbing sustainable rural developments in Zimbabwe special focus on Mbire
District. Different donations have been extended to Mbire District that is, advocating and
empowerment of the poor, response to community disasters (protecting the environment) as
well as providing basic social services and community development however the
unemployment, absolute poverty, hunger, illiteracy rate remain the same despite several
interventions through different donations (SAFAIDS 2009). Assessing the extent to which the
objectives of N.G.Os are achieved in rural areas both theoretically and empirically has been
inadequately addressed through research programs carried out by many scholars and therefore
that is the research gap which this study seeks to investigate. In most of the research studies
carried out, the focus on N.G.Os often overshadows the subject of effectiveness and
sustainability.
1.3AIM OF THE STUDY
The research seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of aid distribution strategies used by N.G.Os
in alleviating poverty in Mbire. That is, the study seeks to come up with the outcome which
shows that N.G.Os aid distribution strategies have failed to alleviate poverty neither sustainable
development. It is hoped that, the changes in strategies towards sustainability will provide a
lasting solution to the problem of poverty in Mbire District.
1.4OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
1. To evaluate the effectiveness of NGOs poverty alleviation strategies implemented in
rural areas.
2. To assess the major challenges facing sustainability of the operations of Zimbabwean
N.G.Os and investigate whether L.G.D.A has sustainable social activities in Mbire.
3. To evaluate the benefits and the extent to which the objectives of N.G.Os are achieved
in rural areas and study the various methods used for community development.
4. To assess other strategies the government of Zimbabwe have implemented towards the
poverty in Mbire.
1.5RESEARCH QUESTIONS
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1. What makes NGOs strategies to be effective (Is it the environment they operate in, is it
their clients who are resistant to change or their problem lies with their strategies?
2. How does Mbire District benefit from aid donation?
3. Which other strategies the government of Zimbabwe has implemented towards the
poverty alleviation in Mbire?
4. How does N.G.Os achieve their objectives in rural areas and what challenges are they
facing?
1.6RESEARCH ASSUMPTIONS
The researcher assumes that:
1. The chosen population will comply and willingly share information.
2. The information from Mbire will be accurate to give a true reflection of how N.G.Os
are operating in rural areas.
3. The redirecting of the N.G.Os towards improving and identifying the possibilities of
sustainable community development in Mbire is assisting to achieve sustainable
development.
4. The sustainability of national N.G.Os in Zimbabwe is due to lack of the means to deliver
services effectively or to carry out activities on their own.
1.7 JUSTIFICATION
The recognition of this study by the officials in Mbire will serve as a tool for N.G.Os and other
stakeholders in Mbire to re-orient their aid distribution strategies to sustainable development
rather than relief. The study hopes to bring poverty alleviation strategies that are suitable not
only for Mbire District but also in other rural areas of Zimbabwe where N.G.Os are operating.
The study will inform the government policy makers on suitable sustainable aid distribution
strategies that can be replicated to address the problem of poverty in the rural areas.
1.8 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study will clearly explore on the donations extended to Mbire District and give appropriate
recommendations to the community basing on findings. The study will also explore issues of
8
concern and areas that need immediate attention. The organizations L.G.D.A will learn from
problems put forward by the community and identify the corrective way to solve the problem.
The research will clearly provide in-depth information on donations and the extent they are
playing in helping recipient community. This will benefit other university students who have
interest in the same area. The research will also enlighten the donor community on the extent
to which their donations impacted on Mbire district. It will also help them evaluate their
programs and come up with new strategies for future use (sustainable development). They can
do this through recommendations provided by the research. Through this research, the
government would get recommendations that would help it in its future planning’s for the
development programs and see how it would incorporate the donor community in ensuring its
people benefit from these donor aid programs in sustainable manner. Finally the country will
benefit when N.G.Os carry-out their activities more effectively by influencing people tangible
social development.
1.9LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The anticipated constrains include that, due to lack of education some households may not give
accurate information and that lack of funds on the part of the researcher may hinder collection
of information on time. The respondents might also provide false information just to please the
researcher affecting the outcome of the research. Therefore as a researcher to get full correct
information, I will try get information from trusted sources like the district extension officer,
social welfare office and L.G.D.A officer.
1.10DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
The research is going to be done in Mbire District. The district is some forty-kilometers north
of Guruve District. The research is specifically going to be done in Mushumbi area (Mbire
District) covering three wards namely Mwanza, Musauki, and Sabao and Mabrosi all in
Mushumbi area. The researcher will specifically focus on donations extended to Mushumbi by
Lower Guruve Development Association (L.G.D.A) and come up with an evaluation of the
impact of donations to Mbire District. It therefore means the study will be delimitated at
poverty aid beneficiaries alone. The donor community is an area of interest and this forms part
of the delimitation of the study. The study will also concentrate on community development
and factors affecting sustainability in the operation of Zimbabwe N.G.O system.
9
1.11ETHICAL ISSUES
The researcher will obtain a letter of confirmation from Bindura University of Science
Education that the researcher is a student and the research will be purely academic and no harm
is caused to participants. The researcher will give the participants the nature of the study. This
will help respondents to give the researcher enough information. The researcher will encourage
the respondents to participate freely without any fear since she will respect confidentiality of
inform.
1.12DEFINITION OF TERMS
AID- covers a multitude of things. It involves a huge variety of organizations,
structures and activities which are engaged in aid work such as governments,
voluntary organizations and community groups, the United Nations, political
parties and trade unions as well as religious, orders or churches and individuals. It
includes humanitarian assistance relief technical assistance and grants for every
type of project from massive international projects to tiny small-scale grants.
DONATIONS- is a voluntary transfer of resources from one country to another or
one place to the other, given at least partly with the objective of benefiting the
recipient country.
NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS- are organizations that attempts
to fill gaps left by governments in promoting participation in development through
resource mobilization, community education and training, attitude and behavior
change. Community mobilization and sensitization and networking and lobbying
and advocacy.
IMPACT- is the effect or result of food aid donations given to a nation or society
by the donor community.
MBIRE- is a district of Mashonalsnd central provincewhich borders Centenary and
Guruve districts in that province as well.
1.13TIME FRAME
This research is going to focus from 2010-2015
10
1.14ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY
The research is designed in 5 chapters. Chapter 1 focused on the background of the study,
statement of the problem, research objectives, research questions, research assumptions,
significance of the study, scope of the study, limitations, delimitations, list of acronyms and
abbreviations used in the research while, Chapter 2 will review related literature, Chapter 3
will outline the methods employed in the study, Chapter 4 will focus on data presentation and
analysis. The last chapter 5 will give recommendations and conclusion of the study.
1.15SUMMARY
Therefore this chapter highlighted the background of the study were it looked on the impacts
of aid donations extended to Mbire District and its implications in transforming rural
communities in Zimbabwe for their sustenance. This chapter also looked at the benefits of the
study and sub-problems. It also looks at factors that could limit the full scope of the study and
why it is important to carry-out the study. Poverty within the entire continent is strongly tied
to its history that was characterised by unequal relationships between Africa and other
continents. Efforts by the post colonial governments in Africa mainly directed towards
addressing colonialism legacy injustices got eroded by the SAPs of IMF and the World Bank.
NGOs in the post SAPs era manifested to supplement the role of African state in order to
address poverty within the rural areas and other marginalised areas, but the battle is not yielding
much. With the swelling up of poverty in the rural areas of Africa, their future becomes blurred
and this makes NGOs’ poverty alleviation strategies to be questionable. The following chapters
try to give an in-depth meaning of the research, explain the theoretical framework of the study
as well as giving a broader view about the NGOs strategies, their criticism and rural poverty.
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0INTRODUCTION
11
This chapter examines and put forward major factors affecting the provision of N.G.Os
sustainability the world over. This chapter also presents the different conceptualization theories
and review of related literature, trying to find the most relevant and important literature on this
topic. This chapter ended with a brief summary..
2.1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The theoretical framework part gives a comprehensive background and origin of the
Sustainable Livelihood Approach which is the theory behind the study.
2.2 Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA)
This study is underpinned by the sustainable livelihoods approach to rural development.
Sustainable livelihoods relate to a broad set of issues which cover much of the broader debate
on the relationship between poverty and environment (Scoones, 1998). The concept of
sustainable livelihoods approach (SLA) is an attempt to go beyond the conventional definitions
and approaches to poverty alleviation (Krantz, 2001). The livelihood thinking dates back to the
work of Robert Chambers in the mid-1980s. Chambers developed the idea of “Sustainable
Livelihoods” with the intention to enhance the efficiency of development cooperation (Kollmar
and Gamper, 2002). His concepts constitute the basics for the sustainable livelihoods approach
and were further developed by the British Development for International Development (DFID).
Since 1997, the DFID integrated the approach in its programme for development cooperation
(Kollmar and Gamper, 2002). The concept was later adopted by the Brutland Commission on
Environment and Development. The 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development
expanded the notion, advocating for the attainment of sustainable livelihoods as a broad goal
for poverty alleviation (Balgis.et. al, 2005). The term “sustainable livelihood” came to
prominence as a development concept in the early 1990s, drawing advances in understanding
of famine and food insecurity during the 1980s (Haida, 2009).
“Livelihoods” means activities, entitlements and assets by which people make a living. In other
words a “livelihood” is a source of revenue or income or a source of living. A “livelihood”
constitutes assets, activities and capabilities (Krantz, 2001). Assets therefore, are defined as
not merely natural or biological (land, water, common property resources, flora, fauna), but
also social (networks, participation, empowerment) and human (knowledge, creation by skills
12
and physical roads, markets, clinics, schools, bridges) (Haida, 2009). The International Institute
of Sustainable Development defines Sustainable Livelihoods (SL) as being concerned with
people’s capacities to generate and maintain their means of living, enhance their wellbeing,
and that of future generations (Balgis.et.al, 2005).
Sporton and Thomas (2002) identify five elements of this framework. The first link is based
on the rural productivity. Livelihoods become sustainable if they can generate employment
either through subsistence production or waged labour in activities that enhance self-worthy of
rural populations. The second link is based on poverty reduction. For the livelihoods to be
sustainable, they must address the causes of poverty (both qualitative and quantitative) thereby
promoting greater equity access of capital assets. The third element constitutes of enhanced
capabilities and wellbeing,abilities to access and mobilise assets with more subjective
experiences of wellbeing (feeling of self-esteem, security and happiness). The fourth element
is based on the resilience of the livelihoods to short term stresses and the ability to recover from
long term shocks. The fifth element is the sustainability of natural resource base which is the
long term resilience of the natural environment to stresses and shocks. The depletion of natural
resources beyond the capacity of a system to maintain the productivity may result in the long
term depletion of stocks to the detriment of livelihoods (Sporton and Thomas, 2002).
In this research sustainable livelihood approach has been used to find out what projects are
implemented by NGOs in the rural areas and to find out if they are improving the livelihoods
in Mbire. Implementation of strategies within the ambit of sustainable livelihoods framework
could be beneficial in poverty alleviation. Problems like dependency syndrome, unsustainable
projects can be mitigated if NGOs can use the sustainable livelihoods approach, because they
will only focus on using the available resources to alleviate poverty. According to the principles
of the sustainable livelihood approach, any poverty alleviation strategy must be people
centered, participatory, and multilevel, conducted in partnership, sustainable, dynamic and
must be underpinned by a commitment to poverty alleviation (Sporton and Thomas, 2002). The
sustainable livelihood approach was developed to address the failure of previous approaches
to community development. Its principles are; holistic, people centered, dynamic and
sustainable development, working with people’s strengths and establishing macro-micro links
(Salvestrin, 2006). Macro-micro link is the relationship between income inequality and
mortality. Central to this approach is treating communities as subjects and objects of change
and has strength and much knowledge on their situation. Now recognised that the poor
themselves often know their situation and needs best and must therefore be involved in the
13
designing of projects intended for their betterment. Therefore, the poor need to participate when
dealing with their situation since they understand it better.
Generally, sustainable livelihoods approach provides a framework for addressing poverty and
vulnerability in both development and humanitarian contexts. The Sustainable Livelihood
Approach (SLA) has emerged from the growing realization of the need to put the poor and all
aspects of their lives and means of living at the centre of development and humanitarian work,
while maintaining the sustainability of natural resources for present and future generations
(Sporton and Thomas, 2002). The approach has been used to identify the livelihoods that
people of Mbire use in order to survive or earn a living. Furthermore, approach will make
people to realise and develop their coping strategies and effectively use them especially during
drought (food shortages), outbreak of diseases.
In this study the SLA is being adopted for its superiority in combining the above notions in
rural development as well as being sensitive to the multiple realities of rural poverty
(Chambers, 1983, cited in Ellis and Biggs, 2001). The SLA is also being used as a framework
for the study for it takes into consideration of assets and activities that people depend on to
produce a viable livelihood strategy for the rural family. If efforts of rural development policy
to reduce rural poverty are to be effective, then, the cross-sectorial and multi-occupational
diversity of rural livelihoods should be central to any livelihoods study (Ellis and Biggs, 2001).
The study looks at how people in Mbire organize and engage in activities which enable them
to survive since it is a district with high incidences of poverty. Persistent drought, malaria,
unemployment, high illiteracy levels and the current political instability are among the shocks
which affect the livelihoods of people in Mbire hence the sustainable livelihoods approach can
provide the guidance for the NGOs’s poverty alleviation strategies especially in the rural areas.
The livelihoods approach to rural development not only take into consideration issues of
entitlements and capabilities but also provide a valuable insight tool for understanding rural
households’ poverty and their subsequent processes and actions in pursuit of development
(Chambers and Conway 1992; Ellis 1998, 1999, 2000; Ellis and Biggs 2001; Carney 2002;
Rakodi and Loyd-Jones 2002; Scoones 1998; Bryceson 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001). The
livelihoods approach has also become a model of development policy for international
development agencies such as DFID, Overseas Development Institute, the United Nations,
CARE International and many others.
14
Scoones (1998) defines livelihood strategies as comprising of agriculture intensification,
livelihood diversification and migration. Thennakoon (2004) maintains that most livelihood
strategies are concentrated within central activities such as farming, labouring, selling of timber
and firewood, mining trading, livestock, and building work. In Mbire most of the livelihoods
mainly involve fishing, hunting, gathering of wild fruits and basket weaving. Such endeavor
of classifying strategies is laden with a number of issues particularly on how the ranking of
such activities has been realised in spite of inattention of the poor’s priorities.
2.3 Principles of sustainable livelihoods approach
The sustainable livelihoods approach is guided by some principles like the people centred
approach which believes that, communities are different and so are people (Goldman, 2001).
The approach recognizes that communities are not homogeneous and that, the external support
should differentiate between various groups of people (Goldman, 2001). On the other hand,
Krantz (2001) explains about the same principle that sustainable poverty elimination will be
achieved only if external support focuses on what matters to people, understands the difference
between groups of people, and works with them in a way that is congruent with their current
livelihood strategies, social environment, and ability to adapt.
Responsive and participatory is the other principle of sustainable livelihood approach which
argues that, poor people should not be treated like passive objects when dealing with their
poverty (Goldman, 2001). For any strategy to alleviate poverty, the poor need to be active and
need to participate fully. They need to be involved at all levels in managing their all
development because they understand their situation better than outsiders. Poor people
themselves must be key actors in identifying and addressing livelihood priorities. Outsiders
need processes that enable them to listen and respond to the poor (Krantz, 2001). For example,
through proper needs assessment and involving their clients in planning at all levels, NGOs
can know well the programmes that are needed by residents in Mbire District.
Furthermore, build on people’ strengths is also a principle of SLA which postulates that, every
person or society has strengths. As a result, poverty-focused development should recognize
and build on people’s strengths (Goldman, 2001).This can start by finding out what resources
are present at a particular place. When trying to find out people’ strengths one needs to focus
on the positive aspects than negative. Support should result in increased voice, opportunities
and well-being for people, including the poor (Krantz, 2001).
15
Micro-macro link also as a principle of SLA argues that, while people may act locally, their
access to resources and services is affected by policies and institutions at local, regional and
central levels (Goldman, 2001). The approach links the micro level with the macro level
emphasises that policy and institutional analysis should take place at all levels (Kranzt, 2001).
Local services should be accessible and effective and responsive. Regional levels must provide
coordination, supervision and support. The centre must provide holistic and strategic direction.
Poverty elimination is an enormous challenge that will only be overcome by working at
multiple levels, ensuring that micro-level activity informs the development of policy and an
effective enabling environment, and that macro-level structures and processes support people
to build upon their own strengths (Sporton and Thomas ,2002).
Moreover, conducted in Partnership is another principle of SLA which contends that, the
government or the public sector needs to work together with the private sector (Krantz, 2001).
If a proposed strategy is dependent on a range of elements working together, then a plan
drawing on the expertise of all relevant sectors has to be put in place (Goldman, 2001).
Implementation of development requires using the strengths of different organisations, public
and private, in the most effective way. Partnerships should include people and their
organisations, including those for poor people. Partnerships should be transparent agreements
based upon shared objectives. For example, NGOs in Mbire District can work in partnership
with government departments to deal with poverty.
2.4 RELATED LITERATURE
Now that the strategies implemented by the Zimbabwean government to address the issue of
rural poverty have failed because of various reasons, NGOs came to complement the
government in order to alleviate poverty in the most disadvantaged areas of Zimbabwe. For
that reason one need to understand how NGOs perceive rural poverty and later explain about
their main poverty alleviation strategies. The findings from Otto (2008) about the NGOs and
humanitarian reforms in Zimbabwe found that, accountability to beneficiaries is still seen as a
challenge. Good practice examples exist but in emergency programmes a pragmatic approach
often prevails.
16
A research by Chofi in central Africa has revealed that NGOs do not do needs assessment as a
result they implement project that do not benefit the poor and is seen as a waste of resources.
Chofi (2010:15). The findings revealed that NGO directors and other stakeholders involved
just draft projects and programmes so that they can get funding and later misuse these funds
for their own benefit Chofi (2010).
In the research about the NGOs’ poverty reduction strategies in Bangladesh Saifuddin (2006)
found that NGOs’ programmes meant to reduce poverty do not match with the reality, the
programmes selection is based on external and internal factors like the donor and resources in
the country respectively, selection of programme does not consider what really poverty is in a
given area and the NGOs meaning of poverty is not locally based.
Ahmed (2006) carried out a research about whether NGOs reached the poorest and vulnerable
in Bangladesh. The findings were disappointing as it was noted that, in Bangladesh there is a
serious consensus that even well respected programmes failed to reach the hard core. A
nationally representative survey found that 41 percent of eligible household in Bangladesh did
not have any contact with the NGOs operating in their localities (Ahmed, 2006). Again, the
same study found that Water Aid in Bangladesh’s programme experience also indicates that
most partner NGOs appreciate the need to target the poor, diversity among the poor make this
particularly elusive challenge (Ahmed, 2006). An underlying problem here was that Water Aid
Bangladesh and partners tended to view communities as homogenous settlements and applied
broad-brush approaches to project implementation rather than tailoring inputs to meet specific
needs and capacities (Ahmed, 2006). Findings by Fruttero and Guari (2005) about whether
NGOs in Bangladesh and Uganda reach the poor, it was found that NGOs in both Bangladesh
and Uganda appear not to locate in the needy communities hence they are not accessed by the
poor. Ahmed (2006) carried out a research in Bangladesh about the operation of NGOs; the
findings showed that NGOs viewed communities as uniform leading to the generalisability of
the problem of poverty.
Furthermore, in recipient countries as the detailed survey in Hansen and Tarp (2000) testifies,
first generation studies generally concluded that aid does tend to increase total savings, but not
by as much as the aid flow. Quite reasonably, this simply suggests a non-negligible proportion
of aid is consumed rather than invested 1990s. Hansen and Tarp (2000) conclude that the
findings from these studies consistently indicate a positive link between aid and investment.
17
While a majority of the aid-growth studies of this generation also suggested a positive impact,
the result that captured attention was Paul Mosley’s “micro-macro” paradox.
Hansen and Tarp (2001) found that a story of diminishing returns to aid, captured by a squared
aid term, best captures the non-linear relationship between aid and growth and is the empirical
specification with most support in the data. They concluded that aid has a positive impact on
growth but with diminishing returns. Alternatively, Dalgaard et al. (2004) found that variation
across countries in the returns to aid seems to be related to their geographical location.
Specifically, aid was found to be far less effective in tropical areas over the last 30 years. They
also stress, however, that it is hard to believe that aid should be inherently less potent in the
tropics. Thus, the real explanation for the aid-tropics link is likely to be elsewhere and the
authors call for further research to help disentangle the channels through which aid matters for.
Contrary to Maxwell (1991) study, Levine and Roodman (2003) conduct a new test on the
previous work of Burnside and Dollar (1997). With a larger sample size (1970 to 1997
compared to BD’s 1970-1993), they find that the result is not as robust as before and therefore
claim that the question of aid effectiveness is still inconclusive. Knack (2000) also noted in his
cross-country analysis of Swaziland, that higher donations levels erode the quality of
governance indexes, i.e. bureaucracy, corruption and the rule of law. He argues that “aid
dependence can potentially undermine institutional quality, encouraging rent seeking and
corruption, fermenting conflict over control of donation funds, siphoning off scarce talent from
bureaucracy, and alleviating pressures to reform inefficient policies and institutions”.
The OECD survey of (1997) about effectiveness of NGOs as cited in Werker.et.al,(2007) found
that there is still lack of firm and reliable evidence on the impact of NGO development projects
and programmes. Moreover, most publicly available programme evaluators by NGOs - like
case studies on website are descriptive, rarely contain rigorous statistical analysis, and most
never report strong negative outcomes (Werker.et.al, 2007).
Masud and Yontcheva (2005) came to the conclusion that, NGO donations significantly reduce
infant mortality while bilateral donations do not. A number of reasons could explain this result.
First, as their proponents claim, NGO donations may be more effective than government
actions in reducing out to the poor. Improving infant mortality may be more efficiently done at
the grassroots level. Second, NGOS donations are allocated more toward countries with high
infant mortality while bilateral donations favour countries with already lower infant mortality.
This demonstrates that, while official donors have adopted reaching Millennium Development
18
Goals (MDGs) as their official policy, their aid allocation pattern is not consistent with their
avowed objectives. Third, bilateral donations seem fungible and increases in donations don’t
seem to be reflected in health expenditures. The lack of additionality implies that bilateral
donations increases lead to declines in non-donations –financed expenditures, cancelling the
potentially positive effect of bilateral donations on infant mortality.
In similar sentiments Awokuse (2006), rounded up his study on the evaluation of the
effectiveness of donations as an instrument in fighting poverty and food insecurity by saying
that the effects cannot be measured directly. There is no one-to-one correspondence between
the funds generated from monetized donations and bilateral donations on the poorest
households. Since the budgetary allocations of funds from monetized donations are usually
spent at the discretion of the domestic governments, potentials for mismanagement exist. In
many cases, counterpart funds from donations seldom trickle down to the poorest and most
food insecure households.
2.5 NGOs IN ZIMBABWE
The failures of civic policies from the mid-90s, led to the emerging of N.G.Os that begins to
connect in policy advocacy activities (Takure, 2009). Zimbabwe today is likely to have in
excess of 2000 N.G.Os who are busy in a wide range of development work stretching from
children’s rights, succession of women, disabled persons, H.I.V/AIDS, environment
protection, democracy and governance, vocational skills training, poverty alleviation to human
rights, humanitarian aid to rural development (Mpofu 2011). In Zimbabwe N.G.Os are grouped
into two categories and these are international and local N.G.Os. The later ones they operate in
more than one country while the later means to those N.G.Os who operate in Zimbabwe only.
N.G.Os in Zimbabwe are also grouped according to the type of services they offer, that is,
Welfare, Development and Environmental N.G.Os.
2.6 ROLE OF NGOs IN ZIMBABWE
Though areas served by N.G.Os have not completely changed today in Zimbabwe, we cannot
completely dismiss their role in poverty alleviation. Surhako (2007) contends that N.G.Os
compared to the government have a comparative advantage in service provision. They seek to
improve the people’s access to services provided by the state (Surhako, 2007). In countries
19
where the government lacks public services, N.G.Os play an important role in the direct
provision of social and economic services thus helping the poor to move out of poverty as
pointed out by Surhako (2007).
N.G.Os is also creditable for long endurance and engagement with the rural poor. The long
engagement with the poor makes N.G.Os gain more experience and knowledge in dealing with
complex and structural harms of poverty. Such experience and knowledge gained lead to the
formulation and implementation of genuine and innovative strategies and approaches to
poverty reduction (Smillie 2003). With the appreciation of the complicated nature of poverty
and by large unsuccessful results of aid, multinational and bilateral agencies have lately given
renewed promises to N.G.Os whose existence is legitimized by the presence of poverty (Guler
2008). Therefore Michael (2002) argues that, there is no discussion in poverty, equality or
development is complete without considering the role of N.G.Os today.
Even though N.G.Os play this vital role within the rural areas, they operate in the increase in
the number of people living in poverty remain a challenge to their role and goal of alleviating
poverty. Therefore, as far as rural development is concerned, N.G.Os roles cannot be
exaggerated because their activities for rural development are more inclined to provision of
relief in the rural areas hence the need to carry-out this study.
2.7 NGOs’ PERCEPTION OF POVERTY IN ZIMBABWE
Now that the strategies implemented by the government of Zimbabwe to address issues of rural
poverty have failed because of various reasons, N.G.Os came to complement the government
in order to alleviate poverty in the most disadvantaged areas of Zimbabwe. For that reason one
need to understand how N.G.Os perceive rural poverty and later explain about their main
poverty alleviation strategies. In Bangladesh according to Hossani (1999) historical scholarship
tells that understanding of poverty have often affected the degree of priority that elites have
been willing to accord to poverty alleviation and the nature of anti-poverty policies they are
willing to support.
2.8 CONSEQUENCES/THREATS FROM N.G.Os ASSISTANT AID
According to Lord Bauer aid actually hinders development because it increases laziness,
dependency, clinging on power by the authority holders, corruption, misappropriation of
20
resources, and erosion of envisaged civilization and civil society formations. Various
contagious views came into play with majority underscoring the need to stop of massive and
continuous aid for it has created a culture of dependence and therefore constitutes an obstacle
for introducing structural changes that would benefit the continent. Further, Africa is a great
mess because of the impact of aid and all its associated conditions. Generally, African
government consider foreign aid as a permanent developmental instruments, reliable and
consistent source of income, hence they find on reason to adopt alternative policies to foster
and finance the economic development of their countries or as the case may be, incites
governments to create a large and inefficient public sector. This has a potential of warding off
possible effectiveness and competiveness of the market. Of majority, they hold the view that,
this becomes an automatic cricket to corruption, favoritism and nepotism. Aid also instigates
inferiority and loss for both socio and legal identity of the African people.
2.9 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
The N.G.Os in the long-run desire to bring sustainable development in any area they operate
in. Wong (2006) identifies sustainable development as growth of gross national product, or the
rise in personal incomes, or with industrialization, or with technological advance, or with social
modernization. The Brutland Report on sustainable development released by the United
Nations (1987:7) defines sustainable development as development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It
contains within its two key concepts. According to (Kates.et.al 2005), sustainability should
takes in consideration the preservation of nature, environment, earth, ecology, livelihoods,
culture and communities. With development, there is need to develop the people by focusing
on human development like developing the values and goes, increased life expectancy,
improved education, equity and opportunity. The development of communities by emphasizing
values of security and well-being of nation states, regions, institutions as well as the social
capital of relationships and community ties (Kates.et.al, 2005). Sustainable development
therefore in other words means linking what is to be sustained and developed (Kate.et.al, 2005).
According to the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development today there are three pillars
of sustainable development and these are: economic, social and environmental sustainable
development (United Nations 1987).
21
SUMMARY
This chapter has discussed the review of related literature on NGOs’ sustainability through the
sustainable livelihood approach in Mbire District, Mushumbi area. The chapter has highlighted
the impediments faced by NGOs in the performance of their duties. NGOs face numerous
challenges in the execution of their duties in Mbire District, Mushumbi area such as
government structural issues, civil society organizations issues i.e. individualism, lack of
cooperation and financial management. Community capacity building of NGOs is recognized
as an essential strategy to strengthen the wellbeing of individuals, families and communities
and underpins much of the work of government and other non-governmental agencies. The
next chapter, which is the research methodology, contributed to a better understanding of the
topic, defining the terms that composed the concept of methodological presentations.
Finally, nearly all participants in the aid-growth debate recognize the potential for aid to do
better, particularly in fostering productivity growth. The evidence indicates that sustaining
foreign assistance programs at reasonable levels can be expected to enhance the living
standards of the world’s poorest people. Abolishing foreign aid, or drastically cutting it back,
would be a mistake and is not warranted by any easonable interpretation of the evidence. The
challenge is to improve foreign assistance effectiveness so that living standards in poor
countries are substantially advanced over the next three decades. And that it can be done is
evident from historical examples such as Taiwan, Korea and Mozambique where aid has made
major contributions to growth and development.
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This chapter focuses on the research method used in carrying out research. It focuses on the
research design, research subjects, and sampling method, research instruments used, and data
analysis and presentation. The research gives a conclusion on the information that was
22
observed from both the wards as well as the respondents especially about the applicability of
the NGOs strategies.
3.1 Research design
This study adopted the explanatory research design. Since this study seeks to dig deeper into
people’s attitudes, feelings and views about the implemented poverty alleviation strategies by
N.G.Os. The explanatory research design was the most appropriate since the research seeks to
explain and answer questions like why poverty is deepening in Mbire/ Mushumbi area.
Research design is a systematic and orderly approach taken towards the collection of data so
that information can be obtained from these data (Jankomicz :1995).With the same token,
Parting (2001) defined research design as a framework or plan for a study that guides the
collection and analysis of data. Simply put, it is a plan to be followed to answer the research
questions and achieve the objectives. For this research qualitative research design is going to
be used.
3.2 Qualitative research design
Qualitative research was chosen because it seeks to understand human experiences and their
behaviours. Again, qualitative research has been adopted because this research is exploratory
and inductive in nature hence its findings are beyond anticipation of the researcher. The aims
of qualitative research are to establish the socially constructed nature of reality, to stress the
relationship between the researcher and the object of the study, as well as to emphasise the
value laden nature of the inquiry (Wellman.et. al, 2005). It uses methods adopted from the
physical sciences that are designed to ensure objectivity and reliability. The major advantage
of qualitative design is to provide the researcher with the perspective of target audience
members through interest in a culture or situation that direct interaction with people
understudy. Its methods include observations and in depth interviews which help researchers
understand the meanings people assign to social phenomenon. As an advantage qualitative
techniques are extremely useful when a subject is too complex to be answered by a simple ‘yes’
or ‘no’ hypothesis and these types of design are much easier to be taken into account (Gilton
:2006). Also, qualitative methods ask mostly “open-ended” questions that are not necessarily
worded in exactly the same way with each participant. Therefore, with open-ended questions,
participants are free to respond in their own words, and these responses tend to be more
23
complex than simply “yes “or “no”. In addition, with qualitative methods, the relationship
between the researcher and the participants is often less formal than in quantitative research.
Participants have the opportunity to respond more elaborately and in greater detail. Qualitative
research according to Patton (2001), is a generic term for investigative methodologies
described as ethnographic, naturalistic, anthropological, field or participant observer research.
It emphasizes the importance of looking at critical issues and opinions in the natural setting in
which they were found.
3.3 Population
The target population is the actual population to which the research would be conducted. The
population of this study is approximately 1280 households, 442 in Mwanza, 342 in Musauki,
496 in Sabao and 392 in Mabrosi villages, all in ward 9 of Mbire district (Mbire Rural District
Council Base Line Survey Statistics January 2010). Population is all possible observations of
the random variable understudy. It is upon this group that the research would generalise the
results of the study (Franked and Wallen: 1996).
3.4The Sampling procedure
A sample is part of the population from which the sample was obtained (Chimedza: 2001) A
sample size of 128 households was chosen as it is a fair representation of the population for the
four villages .The sample is approximately 10% of the whole population and as noted by Gay
and Diehl (1992) a sample above 10% is valid to generalise results of the whole population.
Mbire district has 17 wards from which ward 9 and its four villages were selected to the
convenience of the study. Mwanza, Musauki, Sabao and Mabrosi villages are the villages
selected. The villages were chosen on the basis that they are close to each other and this cut
costs of the research. The simple random sampling method was used. Interviews and focus
groups discussions were conducted in the four above named villages. Focus group discussions
were used for easy management and engagement with the respondents. A small sample was
chosen because including all the people in the research was going to be time consuming.
After the sample size of each village had been determined, Simple random sampling method
was used in which each member of the population has the same chance of being included in
the sample and each sample of a particular size has the same probability of being chosen
24
(Welman.et. al, 2005). In each village a meeting was conducted at a central point. The
researcher invited people by making announcements through village heads. The main purpose
of the meetings was to inform people about the research and to choose a central venue and
agree on possible time where they were going to meet. Random sampling was used to select
the sample members from each village. A household register obtained from ward councillor
was used. All the households from the same village were assigned numbers and placed in hat.
A random pick was done, so that each household had an equal chance of being selected. To
avoid duplication a picked name will not be returned in the hat. The most basic consideration
when selecting a sample are its size and its representativeness. The selection of a sample is a
very crucial stage. In qualitative design there are no rules for sample. Sample size depends on
what the researcher want to know, the purpose of the inquiry, what the stake is, what will be
useful, what will have credibility, and what can be done with the remaining time and resources
(Patton, 2002).
3.5 Research Instruments
These are tools for collecting information and data needed to find solutions to a problem under
investigation (Edward: 2003). The instruments to be used in this research are interviews and
focus group discussions. For reliability and validity, interviews and focus group discussions
were carried out to prove how effective the instruments are in data collection. As a fact, the
reliability and validity of the instrument together with the overall objectivity are crucial in the
gathering of relevant data.
3.6 Surveys
Surveys usually focus on information about individuals or it might aim to collect the opinions
of the survey takers (Creswell 1994). The reason why the researcher decides to use surveys
was that, surveys can be administered in a couple of ways. It can be a structured interview
where the researcher asks each participant the questions. It can also be a focus group where
the participants can express their feelings freely
3.7 Focus Groups
25
Focus groups were selected to be used in the research because they can make some respondents
to express their feelings freely .The purpose of focus group is to produce qualitative data and
to provide insights into the attitudes, perceptions and opinions of participants. The focus group
is suitable for people with low literacy level. Most of old people in Mbire do not read or write
but they can be engaged in a discussion. The focus group also provides rich data through direct
interaction between the researcher and the respondents. Also spontaneous, participants were
not required to answer every question, able to build on one another’s response. Apart from that,
open recording allows participants to confirm their contribution. The focus groups are
relatively easy to assemble, inexpensive and flexible in terms of format, types of questions and
desired outcomes (Welman.et.al, 2005 and de Vos.et. al, (2007). The limitations of the
interview focus group require good facilitation skills that include Patton (2002) defines a focus
group as an interview with a small group of people on a specific topic. Focus groups has also
been defined by Fern (1982), Morgan and Spanish (1998) as small discussions addressing a
specific topic, which usually involve 6 to 12 participants, either matched or varied on specific
characteristics of interest to the researcher. These discussions help have different views and
opinions as different people will be gathered though challenges of false information are bound
to be come across.
3.8 Interviews
The researcher conducts personal interviews with the respondent since qualitative approach
utilizes interviews with each participant in order to create a natural atmosphere that elicits more
information. Thus, semi-structured, in-depth interviews with respondents were employed in
this study. One on one interview was used in order to ensure participants’ privacy. The
interviews were conducted by arrangement and privacy and confidentiality was assured.
Interviews give the interviewer room to adapt questions as necessary ,clarify, doubt and ensure
that the responses are properly understood by repeating or rephrasing the questions
(Monton:1996).
3.9 Data Collection Procedures
The research used random sampling. Thus, a random sample allows each element under study
has an equal chance of being chosen in the sample. The random sampling design used in this
research was systematic sampling in which 10% sample is desired. The first respondent was
26
selected randomly from the first 10 and thereafter the 10th respondent was automatically
included in the sample. In this case, the only fist item was selected randomly and the remaining
units were selected at fixed intervals. First the researcher had to seek permission from the Mbire
rural district council to carry out the survey. The researcher used a random sampling strategy
to select participants to the research questions. The study uses data collection methods such as
interviews and focus groups. The researcher had then to compare the findings from both
methods to clarify the key findings of the study.
3.10 Data Presentation and analysis
After collection of the data, the researcher has processes and analyse it. This is essential for a
scientific study and for ensuring that we have all relevant data for making contemplated
comparisons and analysis. Technically, processing of data implies editing, coding,
classification and tabulation of collected data.
Editing: editing of data is a process of examining the collected raw data to detect errors
and omissions and to correct these when possible. Editing involves a careful scrutiny
of the completed questionnaires. Editing is done to assure that the data is accurate,
consistent with other facts gathered, uniformly entered, as completed as possible and
have been well arranged to facilitate coding and tabulation.
Tabulation: tabulation is the process of summarising raw data and displaying the same
in compact form for further analysis. In a broader sense, tabulation is an orderly
arrangement of data in columns and rows.
Classification: the research will result in a large volume of raw data which the
researcher must reduce into homogeneous groups if the researcher is to get meaningful
relationships. This fact necessitates classification of data, which happens to be the
process of arranging data in groups or classes based on Common characteristics. Data
with the same common characteristic are placed in one class and in this way the entire
data get divided into a number of groups or classes.
3.11 Data analysis
27
According to Wellman (2005), data analysis is a process of gathering data with the aim of
highlighting useful information, suggesting conclusions and supporting decision making. Data
analysis is a process of bringing order, structure and meaning to the mass of collected data
Wellman (2005). Qualitative data analysis is a search for general statements about
relationships amongst categories of data. In this research, the researcher used the thematic
approach in presenting and analyzing data. Thematic analysis is a form of analysis that counts
and reports the frequency of concepts/ words/ behaviours’ held within the data (Cresswell,
2009).The researcher uses tables, bar graphs and pie charts to present data. Tables are easy to
interpret. Data that the researcher collected from interviews and focus groups was transcribed
and translated in a way that which could not violate the confidentiality and anonymity of the
respondents.
3.12 Summary
The chapter focused on the research methodology used on the research. It focused on the
research design, research subjects, sampling method, research instruments used, and data
presentation and analysis. The chapter paves way for chapter 4 as this very methodology is the
one used for data presentation and analysis. Chapter 4 makes an analysis of the data and the
data will be presented in the form of tables and figures.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
4.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter four of the research deals with the presentation and analysis of data that was
collected from the field. Data was collected from Mbire ward 9 (Mushumbi area), Department
of Social Welfare, Agritex (Extension Officers), L.G.D.A officer(NGO), Ward councilor and
Headmans from Mwanza, Musauki, Mabrosi and Sabao villages. Focus Group discussions and
interviews were conducted .The researcher spent two days in ward 9. Data is presented in tables
and figures while analysis and discussion is done under each presentation.
28
4.1 PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS
The information included findings from interviews and focus groups discussions. The findings
are thus presented and discussed in relation to research questions which guided the study. In
selecting the participants for the study, a conscious strategy was employed to ensure maximum
variation of participants and also ensuring the representation of all those involved in
community and public service delivery processes. The need for maximum variation in the
selection of participants was a crucial characteristic of qualitative research designs. The
researcher identified participants that fitted the identified characteristics. Participants differed
in terms of sex, education, socio-economic background and other identified characteristics. The
respondents interviewed consisted of the youth and adults, youths aged 20 to 39 and elderly
people ranging from the age of 40 to 60. The reason for selecting this group of respondents was
that NGOs have programmes that target youth and the elderly of the society. There was a 100%
total response rate. Instructional Assessment Resources (2010) postulates that a high survey
response rate helps to ensure that survey results are representative of the target population.
Thus the high response rate authenticates this research and justifies the use of the findings as a
basis for producing accurate and useful results and recommendations.
4.2 Respondents by gender
Figure 4.1Respondent by gender (n=128)
29
Source: Primary Data
The average 53%(68) of the respondents were male while 47%(60) of the total population was
female. This distribution is fairly even making the responses representative of both sexes’ view.
4.3 Respondents by age
Figure 4.2 Age of Respondents (n=128)
53%
47%
Male
Females
30
Source: Primary Data
The highest frequency 36%(46) of the respondents was aged 18-30 years while
24%(31) was aged above 45 years. This implies that views of young people and old
people are taken care of in the study.
4.4 Educational levels of respondents
Figure 4.3 Educational levels Respondence (n=128)
Series 1
Column2
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
Under 18 18-30 yrs 31-45 yrs Above 45
Ral
ativ
e F
req
ue
ncy
Age Group
31
Source: Primary data
Half 50%(64) of the respondents had only attended primary level and failed to proceed, while
20%(26) of the respondents had attained O’level and 30%(38) have gone beyond above O-
Level.. This implies that responses for the study cover people of all academic levels and that
the generality of the population has minimal educational qualifications. The low level of
literacy was attributed to factors like lack of money to go to secondary school. Women also
mentioned that most parents favor to send male children to school and they view sending a girl
child to school as a waste of money because girls become pregnant or get married and this
means that they do not plough back in their families. One of the respondents the AGRITEX
officer in the area said that:
We are holding field days, master farmer training programs and pre-planting meetings to
improve agricultural productivity though at times it proved to be more difficult since the
majority have not attended their school well thus made it difficult for them to understand.
Thus the researcher observed that education is very important for the farmers so as to alleviate
poverty.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Below O-Level O-Level Above O-Level
32
4.5 Employment Status
Figure 4.4 Employment levels of Respondents (n=128)
Source: Primary data
The large number of the respondents 87%(111) is not employed due to lack of skills, and old
age. On the other hand, the smaller percentage of the respondents 13 %(17) were attending
secondary level schooling and with others having their fees being paid by NGOs. The reason
for the high unemployment rate among the respondents is that they do not possess any skills
which can make them employable. Most of the respondents mentioned that because they do
not possess any skills, they find it better to stay at home looking after their families and
livestock.
87%
13%
Majority
Minority
33
4.6 Sources of Income
Figure 4.5 Sources of income levels of Respondents (n=128)
Source: Primary data
A smaller percentage of respondents 5.5%(8) indicated that they depend on fishing from the
Zambezi River, pottery and basket weaving for a livelihood. The majority of the respondents
80%(102) indicated that they depend on agriculture for a living. The respondents that do
farming mainly practice it at subsistence level and they mentioned that they need to be
empowered with agricultural skills, where as those who are fishing do not have licenses to do
so they also mentioned that they need to be assisted to get the licenses. One such respondent
commented that:
“It is better to do fishing than being seated doing nothing. When I catch more fish I
sell them and get school fees for my children”.
The remaining number of respondents 14.5%(19) relies on selling sculptures and basket
weaving. The respondents who depend on selling sculptures and baskets indicated that they
need help with marketing their products
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
agriculture fishing others
34
4.7 NGOs AND Addressing Poverty in Mbire
Table 4.1 The extent to which donations alleviate suffering in Mushumbi area (n=128)
Extent Frequency Percentage (%)
Not at all
Small extent
Large extent
13
69
46
10.2
53.9
35.9
Total
128
100
Source: Primary data
The average number of the respondents 53.9%(69) agrees that donations alleviate suffering for
a shorter period in Mbire district while 35.9%(46) of the total population believes that
donations alleviate suffering for longer periods. The findings go hand in hand with Ahmed
(2006)’s idea that donations alleviate suffering for shorter period. The findings were
disappointing as it was noted that, in Bangladesh there is a serious consensus that even well
respected programmes failed to reach the hard core. In the same vein, Jackson (1982) argues
that donations bring more harm than good. This suggests that problems such as poverty,
illiteracy rate, and HIV prevalence rate are only being alleviated for a shorter period while in
the long run they will haunt the community.
35
4.8 Benefit Accrued from NGO Strategies in Mushumbi (Mbire district)
Table 4.2 People benefiting from donations in Mbire district (n= 128)
Category Frequency Percentage (%)
Poorest
Poor
Neither poor nor
Rich
Rich
Richest
35
32
53
1
7
27.3
25
41.4
0.8
5.5
Total
128
100
Source: Primary data
Fifty two point three percent of the respondents identified those who are poor to be the main
beneficiaries of donations in Mbire district. Of the 52.3%(67) respondents, 27.3%(35) spot the
poorest to be beneficiaries and the rest 25%(32) indentify those who are poor. Interestingly,
less than 10% of the total respondents tend to recognise those who are rich as the beneficiaries
in Mbire. The findings contrast with Todaro’s(2003) idea, who believes that though donations
do indeed help some poor groups , they fail to assist the poorest groups in the society. In Mbire
the poorest have a greater share on donations.Furthermore, these findings also oppose Awokuse
(2006)’s findings who found that counterparts funds from donations seldom trickle down to
poorest and most insecure households. Manyena e.tal (2008) also contends that, NGOs
strategies are inappropriate and inadequate hence needs to be revisited.
36
4.9 Donations promoted growth in Mushumbi(Mbire district)
Figure 4.6 Donations promoted growth in Mushumbi (Mbire district )(n =128)
Source: Primary data
The smaller percentage of the respondents 14.8%(19) mentioned that they are not benefiting
from NGOs’ programmes because the same programmes are not addressing their needs. In
Sabao village they indicated that programme like food distribution are not benefiting them a
lot since they produce more food on their own. The majority 60.9%(78) of the respondents
agreed that they are benefiting from the NGOs’ programmes, and these were respondents in
Mwanza village. Most of them were elderly people who are no longer able to work on their
own. Even the respondents in Musauki village highlighted that even if they need relief aid
almost every year, they also need empowerment. The respondents pointed out that there was a
linkage between the NGOs’ strategies and dependency syndrome in the district. They
mentioned that continuous food distributions make them to be reluctant and wait for hand outs
from NGOs every time. However, my own observation showed that donations have played a
significant role in improving the quality of life in Mushumbi( Mbire district). The findings
however tend to contrast with Fruttero and Guari(2005)’s findings, in which they concluded
that NGOs are perceived to be the drivers of development but it is hard to prove since poverty
still persist in the same areas served by NGOs. Similarity is drawn with Suharko (2007)’s view
that donations indeed promote growth. Suharko contends that, NGOs compared to the
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
Stronglydisagree
Disagree Indiffent Agree Strongly agree
Rel
ati
ve
freq
uen
cy
Responses
37
government have a comparative advantage in service provision which at most improve people’s
access to services provided by the state therefore NGOs help the poor to move-out of poverty.
4.10 Donations should never be stopped
Table 4.3 Donations should never be stopped (n=128)
Responses
Frequency
Percentages (%)
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Indifferent
Agreee
Strongly agree
6
7
23
37
55
4.7
5.5
17.9
28.9
43
Total
128
100
Source: Primary data
The majority 71.9%(92) of the total responses in Mushumbi agrees that donations should not
be stopped while only 10.2% (13)of the total responses disagrees. The minority group shares
the same ideology with Tesoriero (2006) who argues that, people should adopt the concept of
self reliance to use local initiatives, their abilities and their own belongings to improve their
condition. Basing on the above results, the past findings from Levine and Roodman (2003)
seem to be valid as they concluded that the issue of donations’ effectiveness is still
inconclusive.
38
4.11Satisfaction by NGO Strategies
Figure 4.7 Donations influence on Mushumbi decisions (n=128)
Source: Primary data
The majority of the respondents 72%(92) pointed out that they were not satisfied by the
strategies implemented by NGOs whilst 28%(36) of the responds expressed their satisfaction
about the strategies implemented by NGOs. The main reason that was given by those who were
not satisfied by NGOs strategies was that NGOs’ strategies do not address their needs. They
mentioned that they need developmental strategies than relief ones. The respondents from
Musauki and Mabrosi villages mentioned that they do not understand clearly the criteria used
by NGOs to select their beneficiaries. They added on that NGOs only select few people as their
beneficiaries leaving the rest of the community members not helped. The findings go hand in
hand with Farrington and Bebbington,(2003) who contends that, the criteria used by some
NGOs for selecting clients specifically excludes the poor. Moreover, the respondents
mentioned that as a result of this, serious conflicts arise amongst community members
especially between those who get the aid and those who are not beneficiaries. This was well
explained by one respondent in Sabao village that:
“I am poor I have nothing. When NGOs officers came to our village they wrote other
people’s names they said am rich because my son leaves in Botswana. My name even
to date does not appear in their books, I nearly die of hunger. What then are they
doing while not helping the majority?”
28%
72%
satisfied
unsatisfied
39
Apart from that the majority of the respondents indicated that they are not happy by NGOs
strategies in Mbire (Mushumbi area) because they are not sustainable, they mentioned that
sometimes NGOs’ programmes are of great value to the community but they do not last for a
long time. The respondents in Mwanza village indicated that, the farm implements distribution
programmes of LGDA are very good though they don’t last for a long time, only a few benefits.
Similarity is drawn with Fruttero and Guari,(2005)’s view that, NGOs are concerned with
quantity than quality of the services rendered hence this makes them to be more concerned
about their objectives than putting the poor first.
40
4.12 Donations helped in improving Social services in Mushumbi
Table 4.4 Donations helped in improving Social services in Mushumbi (n=128)
Responses
Frequency
Percentage (%)
Strongly disagree
Disagree
Not sure
Agree
Strongly agree
9
9
21
55
34
7
7
16.4
43
26.6
Total
128
100
Source: Primary data
Sixty nine point six percent (89) of the total respondents agree that donations have improved
Social services in Mbire district. Todaro (2003) support this sight when he says that donations
on Social services improve the quality of life independent of income sources. A fact to note is
that donations to Mbire have made the district accessible to Social services such as schools and
clinics. The same findings were found by UNICEF (2008) in Tanzania when donations to
education sector showed a 37%(47) reduction in drop-out rate between 2005 and 2007. A mere
14%(19) of the respondents partially disagrees and strongly disagrees that donations have
anything to do with social services improvement in Mbire district. This implies that they might
be other forms of funding that have improved social services such as government funds in the
district. Thus, why Awokuse (2006) rounded his study that donations effects cannot be
41
measured directly. The findings oppose Fruttero and Guari (2005) who concluded that NGOs
are perceived to be the drivers of development but it is hard to prove since poverty still persist
in the same areas served by NGOs.
4.13The Extent to which NGOs have Achieved their Goals
All the respondents (100%) indicated that though NGOs are trying to intervene in Mbire with
their strategies; they are not achieving their goal of alleviating poverty. This is also supported
by the findings of the research done by Saifuddin (2006) in Bangladesh which indicated that
NGOs programmes do not match with the needs of the people, the programmes selection is
based on external and internal factors like the donor and resources in the country respectively,
selection of programme does not consider what really poverty is in a given area and the NGOs
meaning of poverty is not locally based.
4.14 NGOs’ Strategies and their Problems
NGOs’ strategies were blamed for the deepening of poverty in Mbire by respondents, the key
informants and the field officers. The field officers mentioned that sometimes these
programmes are determined by the funders. Most of the NGOs’ programmes or projects are
determined by the funders who rarely engage with the service users. This goes hand in hand
with the findings of a research done by Saifuddin (2006) in Bangladesh which indicated that
NGOs programmes do not match with the needs of the people. They highlighted that whenever
NGOs get funding the donor specifies what the NGO need to do with the funding since the
donors do not interact with the service users hence they do not understand what exactly are the
needs of the poor. They added on that the funders have a different understanding of poverty
they believe that poverty is the same across Zimbabwe. The field officers also indicated that
the problem of not interacting with the clients in most cases before implementing a programme
as a contributor to the issue of poverty in Mbire. In the research about the NGOs’ poverty
reduction strategies in Bangladesh Saifuddin (2006) found that NGOs’ programmes meant to
reduce poverty do not match with the reality, the programmes selection is based on external
and internal factors like the donor and resources in the country respectively, selection of
programme does not consider what really poverty is in a given area and the NGOs meaning of
poverty is not locally based. NGOs programmes sometimes tend not to be realistic because
42
mostly they are planned by the people who do not come into contact with NGOs’ clients
(Fruttero and Gauri, 2005).
4.15 Suggested impacts and recommendations of donations in Mushumbi in
the period 2010-2015.
The following impacts of donations were highly suggested by the respondents:
HIV awareness, reduction of bedridden people, hate rage among families, dependency
syndrome and creation of employment. On hat rage the community argued that the selection
criteria in Mbire have been weak and unfair to such an extent that it brought havoc among
families. The impacts coincide with Wrage’s (2007) view that donations bring hat rage among
families through nepotism or favouritism. These suggestions were in line with Todaro’s (2003)
idea that donations bring dependency syndrome on the recipient community and that there is
inequalities in the distribution of donated funds that might deprive those in need..
Major recommendations suggested were that donors should introduce Income Generating
Projects so that the community remains sustainable if the community is weaned off. The
community supposes that Mbire district’s problems will come to haunt the community when
donations are out of picture hence need for something sustainable. It was put forward that
NGO’s should do their own need assessments so as to be acquainted with areas that need
immediate attention. The community considers that is how the issue of hat rage can be dealt
with. Johnson-Lans (2005) clearly put it that, NGOs are criticized for lacking appropriate
evaluation strategies of their programmes, particularly when it is performed by donor agencies
that might not be sensitive to the needs of the locals. Monitoring is very important in the sense
that it makes an organization to see if they are still in line with their objectives, whilst
evaluation can help an organization to see how they can correct their mistakes in the future.
Lack of monitoring and evaluation of project by many NGOs means that there are high chances
of not noticing their mistakes and hence they remain uncorrected.
All the respondents (100%) indicated that NGOs need to focus on social amenities like building
hospitals, roads construction and schools. The reason being that most clinics in Mbire are in
accessible, that the roads in Mbire are very poor making it difficult for other places to be
accessible, again the available schools does not have classrooms, books, electricity and
43
laboratories. They all mentioned that shortage of hospitals and ambulances in the district pose
a serious threat to the people especially during out breaks of deadly diseases.
4.16Summary
The chapter looked at data presentation, analysis and discussion. Based on the above findings,
one may note that there is still a lot that needs to be done about the poverty alleviation strategies
implemented by NGOs. Poverty in Mbire is not mere lack of food as conceptualized by NGOs
but also involves lack of infrastructural development and social services development as
perceived by the people in Mbire. High illiteracy level in the district, lack of skills by the
majority of the people in Mbire and the NGOs’ strategies which seem not to be addressing the
needs of the people are some of the contributing factors to the deepening of poverty. This
shows that, more in terms of sustainable development needs to be done in Mbire district. This
chapter paves way to the next chapter which summaries the findings of the research, makes
conclusions and recommendations.
44
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter makes a summary, conclusions and recommendations of the whole study based
on findings from chapter 4. Based on the research findings, the researcher has come up with
some recommendations which might be of great value when addressing poverty by both NGOs
and government departments in Mbire District. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate
the effectiveness of the NGOs’ strategies implemented in Mbire, Mushumbi Rural District.
5.1 SUMMARY OF THE STUDY
The main purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of NGOs’ poverty mitigation
strategies implemented in the rural areas of Zimbabwe and Mbire District was the case study.
The vital questions that the study sought to answer included what makes NGOs’ strategies to
be ineffective, is it the environment they operate in, is it their clients who are resistant to change
or the problem lies with their strategies. The research findings clearly answer these questions.
The findings indicate that to a larger extent the problem lays with the NGOs’ strategies. Of
great importance, the findings mostly indicate that NGOs view poverty as consistent across
Mbire, as a result, they hardly ever connect with their clients when it comes to selection of their
programmes. The research was conducted to make an impact investigation of aid donations
extended to Mbire district special focus was on LGDA donations to Mushumbi area.
It was found out that the poorest are the main beneficiaries of donations in Mbire district.
Moreover, it came to the attention of the researcher that donations have played a significant
role in promoting economic growth in Mbire district and the major suggestion on donations
impact was that donations reduced the number of bedridden people in homes and by virtue
adding quality days to those ill.
The findings showed that Mbire community has a dependency syndrome as they do not want
donations to leave them. Despite the issue of dependency syndrome, it was found out that
donations are only alleviating suffering for shorter period hence living nothing sustainable for
45
the community when it is weaned off. This was one of the major complains by the community
as well.
Furthermore, hat rage was suggested as a major problem after dependency syndrome in Mbire.
This is attributed to favouritism in selection of beneficiaries. Some of the suggestions made by
households were that SRHBC and other NGO’s need to do their own needs assessment and
drift their attention on sustainable Income Generating Projects.
5.2 CONCLUSIONS
The findings indicate that, most of the NGOs’ strategies implemented are not suitable for
addressing the poverty situation in Mbire hence; they need to be revisited since implementation
of wrong poverty alleviation strategies means that the needs of the poor are missed. NGOs’
strategies are not fully addressing poverty in the rural areas because of various reasons which
includes, failure to do proper needs assessment, lack of monitoring of their projects,
generalizing the issue of poverty, the strategies lack sustainability because by nature most of
NGOs’ strategies are more of relief.
From the findings of chapter four, the following conclusions were drawn:
Economically, Mbire district have benefited from donations.
Donations inculcate dependency syndrome on recipient community.
The donations have brought a marked improvement on Social services in Mbire district
as indicated by accessibility to hospitals, schools and clean water.
The donations are failing to impact positively on the livelihood of households. The
assistance is mainly food relief through direct food hand outs and food for work
programs. Food relief is short lived, only benefit a few individuals, encourages donor
dependency and does not generate sustainable income for the household.
46
5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS
With the explained findings in the former chapter, the following are some of the
recommendations that are given by the researcher which may be useful in tackling poverty in
Mbire and some other parts of Zimbabwe. The following recommendations therefore are based
on the research findings.
LGDA and other NGO’s should do their need assessment so as to identify areas that
need immediate attention and make sure resources are well targeted that is they help
those who are in need. Assessments also help NGO’s to avoid duplication of efforts as
they do not carry same projects already being executed at a particular time. Need
assessments do away with favouritism or nepotism in the sense that NGO’s identifies
the most vulnerable groups within the community?
LGDA and other NGO’s should start Income Generating Projects which are viable so
as to supplement food relief. This implies that the Mushumbi community will remain
viable even when the donations are out of picture. IGP’s help the community problems
to be alleviated for longer periods and are sustainable enough to eliminate dependency
syndrome.
NGOs are also recommended to avoid being too selective. The problem of NGOs of
being selective was mentioned in all villages. Most NGOs only focus on the vulnerable
and ultra-poor of the society leaving the better offs not helped. Therefore, NGOs need
to develop Mbire by implementing programmes that will benefit all community
members as it was argued by the respondents. This means that, NGOs should also help
the better offs according to their needs. When NGOs concentrate on one part of the
community this raises conflict among community members.
After implementing their projects, NGOs need to make sure that they thoroughly
monitor and evaluate these projects. Most projects fail because they are not monitored.
Again the same projects lack sustainability because they are not evaluated. Most NGOs
need Monitoring and Evaluation Officers who can do the monitoring of their projects.
Carrying out proper monitoring and evaluation will make them to realize what need to
be added or changed on their strategies.
The Government should find ways of improving the lives of the people leaving with
poverty in remote areas and should also monitor NGOs operations. Mushumbi
community should seek for other viable means of survival besides donations. This relief
47
pressure on donations as well as help to combat the issue of hat rage brought by
donations. Other viable means of survival include green market gardening.
For future researchers and scholars the issue of donations impact is inconclusive and varies
from one community to another hence need for further research. This brings diversity on the
outcomes of the impact of donations on recipient community as well as enabling sound
conclusions on the topic to be reached.
48
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APPENDIX : RESEARCH QUESTION GUIDE
INTERVIEW GUIDE FOR LGDA OFFICER, SOCIAL WELFARE OFFICER,
AGRITEX OFFICER, COUNCILLOR, HEADMAN
NAME …………………………………………………..
52
SURNAME ……………………………………………………
SEX ……………………………………………………
INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What are the causes of poverty in this area?
2. What makes NGOs strategies to be ineffective?
3. Who are the main players in addressing poverty in this area?
4. What kind of support or assistance do you get from the non-governmental organizations
in helping people living with poverty, and does it address the challenges being faced by
those poor.
5. Do you think services being offered by L.G.D.A to people living with poverty are fully
accommodating the needs of the poor?
6. What do you think should be done to strengthen the social services from L.G.D.A in
your community for the benefit of the people living with poverty in this area?
7. Do you think poverty issues are being addressed in this area and if not why are they not
being addressed
8. What have the government do towards the poverty and what do you think should also
be done to mitigate the poverty?
9. Which other social services despite NGOs are being provided to the poor living with
poverty in this community?
10. What do you think should be done to strengthen the social services being given to
remote rural areas in Zimbabwe for the benefit of the poor living with poverty?
11. Who are the main players in addressing this poverty and what are they doing?
12. Who is benefiting from the aid from those actors and how?
13. Can you state the main challenges in fighting poverty in this area?
14. What have the government do towards these poverty problems in this area?
15. What do you think should be done to mitigate the challenges of poverty in the area and
by whom?
FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION GUIDE
53
NAME OF FACILITATOR ...………………………………………
ATTENDANCE REGISTER ……………………………………….
START TIME .............................................................
END TIME .............................................................
1. What is your understanding of the causes of poverty in this Mushumbi area?
2. During the last five years, has the poverty in this community diminished, stabilized or
aggravated? What have been the factors?
3. What strategies have been used by L.G.D.A against poverty in this area?
4. What have you done as a community to improve your poverty life?
5. Which other organizations are working towards poverty in this community and their
roles so far?
6. Who benefits most from the policies, programs and projects from both organizations
and the government towards poverty in this area?
7. Why have the situation not changed? Were the policies, programs and projects effective
or not?
8. What do you think are the challenges being faced by L.G.D.A on its way of the
provision of aid towards poverty in this community?
9. What solutions do you recommend as a community to fight the poverty and from
whom?
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