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This article provides information about the political and economic development of Zimbabwe:
Thus at Independence the Government of Zimbabwe gave social policy priority as a matter of concern to correct the imbalances inherited from colonialism. As a result of that thrust remarkable progress was scored especially in the areas of education, health, water supply and sanitation and in mitigating the effects of the recurrent drought. These successes were achieved because of:
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i. The political and philosophical objectives of social justice; and
ii. The need to dismantle the unequal, discriminatory practices and structures inherited from the colonial past.
The period 1980-1990 was characterised by significant progress in human resource and infrastructural development. Quality of life indices improved. Primary school enrolments rose by 83% and Child Immunisation expanded by 61%. Infant mortality declined by 29% and life expectancy increased from 55 to 59 years. The commendable expansion of social sectors between 1980 and 1990 was however made within the context pressing policy challenges. The social gains were not accompanied by economic growth and rising per capita income.
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During the period 1980 to 1989 the population, at 3 per cent per annum, grew at a faster rate than gross domestic product (GDP), at 2%. In the meantime, Private Sector investment fell as a share of GDP from 12% in 1985 to 8% in 1987. There was no foreign investment while declining primary commodity prices exacerbated a foreign exchange shortage. Various imbalances emerged in the financial, monetary, capital, and labour markets.
In 1990 the economy was threatened by deepening cycles of low investment, low growth, a growing budget deficit, rising unemployment, inflation, and general economic decline. Economic Structural Adjustment was introduced by the Government of Zimbabwe in October 1990 as a five-sector programme encompassing Trade, Monetary, Fiscal and Investment Policy Reforms, Deregulation and the Social Dimensions of Adjustment.
The rationale for economic structural adjustment as a key component of economic policy was the perceived need to develop a policy framework for long-term economic development to be reflected through an expansion of the economy leading, through multiplier effect, to increases in employment and incomes, and thereby improving the standard of living and quality of the people.
In general, the government of Zimbabwe has been successful in redirecting public resources towards areas which are fundamental to long-term broad-based sustainable growth: human development; infrastructure serving the poor; public sector which is reasonably efficient and seen to act in the interest of the majority.
There clearly are possibilities for improving both the efficacy – an ever more pertinent question in the light of the rapidly changing boundaries between the public and private sectors – and the efficiency of public sector resource use, and of improving the monitoring and adjustment of public sector interventions. Overall, however, Zimbabwe has made impressive strides in the direction of more equitable socio-economic growth and development. The country’s fundamental investment pattern provides the country with a good balance between the various forms of social capital for long-term sustainable growth.