Written evidence submitted by Christian Aid
1. Introduction
1.1 Christian Aid welcomes this opportunity to provide evidence to the International Development Committee on DFID's programme in Zimbabwe. Christian Aid has a long history of working through partners in Zimbabwe to tackle the symptoms of poverty and the structures that keep people poor. We have supported partners in-country for over forty years and maintained an office in Harare since 1996. This work focused mainly on emergency relief in the first half of the last decade. Over the last five years, our work in Zimbabwe has developed into a programme promoting good governance, HIV prevention and treatment, and addressing secure livelihoods through improved agricultural practice and land management. We have focused this submission on issues where we and our partners have expertise and have provided specific ideas and recommendations for action for DFID's programme in Zimbabwe.
2.
Supporting
2.1
In general, DFID's role in
3. Protracted Relief Programme
3.1
Perhaps the best example of DFID's strategic humanitarian support which has
positively influenced other donors is the flagship Protracted Relief Programme
(PRP), which focuses on livelihoods, food security and social protection. It is
arguably the pre-eminent large-scale institutional donor-funded humanitarian
programme in
3.2 DFID's consistent support to conservation agriculture, including to the Food and Agricultural Organisation, Christian Aid and River of Life Church and Training Centre has been particularly beneficial to vulnerable communities. River of Life promotes and trains communities, churches and NGOs in conservation agriculture. Initially met by a degree of opposition from agricultural academics in-country, conservation agriculture has been proven to lift households out of subsistence poverty and its methods the most suitable cropping practice.
3.3 Christian Aid recognises DFID's consistent support to this area despite initial reluctance by other key stakeholders. A family of six needs roughly 1.2 metric tonnes (MT) of grain per annum to be subsistence. The national average in Zimbabwe is 0.2MT of grain per hectare per annum. Households need to be able to obtain better harvests to break out of poverty and into profit. Communal farmers trained by DFID implementing partners, including Christian Aid, who practice conservation agriculture are achieving two, three, five and some even more MT per hectare. DFID will do well to ensure this particular success of the PRP is widely communicated and actively promoted in its programmes elsewhere in Africa. Support provided to River of Life in this regard would be welcome.
3.4
The decision to outsource the management
of the PRP to a managing agent needs to be supported by more accessible evidence
of cost-effectiveness and efficiency. The managing agent GRM and its
Technical, Learning and Coordination (TLC) team is performing well, and
Christian Aid has been impressed with the professionalism and ability of TLC to
both monitor and support implementing NGOs. The managing agent closely monitors
NGOs implementing the PRP, and rightly so.
It would be beneficial to NGOs and
4. Working with the United Nations
4.1
For short term emergency support DFID has appeared to channel a large
proportion of financial aid through the UN agencies. This has occasionally been
at the expense of NGOs due to the UN administration fee when contracting
implementing NGOs and the seemingly bureaucratic nature of grant disbursement
for relief activities, which can take many months. This has the potential to
render DFID's response to rapid onset emergencies, such as health epidemics,
less effective. For example, during the 2008/09
cholera crisis in
5. Supporting the Inclusive Government
5.1 Although DFID's website states that 'no funds will go to or through the Government of Zimbabwe', we are of the opinion that some funds were provided to core Ministries requiring civil servant salary support. Following the signing of the Global Political Agreement in September 2008, DFID may have supported Government Ministries with salary support, even before the Inclusive Government was sworn in in February 2009. Progressive as this decision was, it was arguably too fast in the circumstances when allegations of corruption and fraud were quick to surface. Alleged salary support payments for Ministry of Health personnel in December 2008 were particularly questionable, given the high probability of corruption within Ministries badly affected by rampant inflation. Christian Aid believes that DFID should not channel funds through the Government of Zimbabwe until it has demonstrated an ability and willingness to tackle corruption and strengthen accountability, as well as fulfil the Hague Principles. Until then, DFID should continue to channel funds through NGOs and the UN.
6. Supporting civil society and churches
6.1
We appreciate the significant support provided by DFID to civil society in
6.2 People living in extreme poverty are vulnerable to manipulation in their approach and actions. In 2008, during the period of politically motivated violence following the elections in March, many ordinary people became caught up and incited as perpetrators of violence against their fellow community members. Christian Aid supports Zimbabwean church groups working to reconcile people in communities who remain deeply scarred; bringing together perpetrators and victims of the violence and encouraging them to choose alternative, constructive and peaceful means to have their voices and opinions heard, in anticipation of another round of elections by 2013.
6.3
We also support local partners to identify and train local people in their entitlements
and responsibilities. Local communities have an important role to play in taking
collective action to improve their own lives and situation in the meantime by
working collectively and using the skills they already possess. For corruption
and resource mismanagement to lessen, and for good leadership to grow in
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