
EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF THE DEVOLUTION POLICY ON STRENGTHENING COMMUNITY-BASED DISASTER RISK REDUCTION (CBDRR) IN ZIMBABWE: THE CASE OF SANYATI DISTRICT
Author:
Muringani Jabson*, Alice Ncube and Olivia Kunguma
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
Zimbabwe adopted the devolution policy of governance since 2013. Implementation of the devolution policy, nevertheless, as is the case with all public policies, brought with it both positive and negative impacts. To establish those impacts, a case study to explore implications of the devolution policy on CBDRR interventions in Sanyati District was conducted. The Social Constructionist Theory, the CLEAR framework, the Social Capital Theory and the Total Disaster Risk Management (TDRM) approach were adopted to theoretically guide the study. With the use of inclusion and exclusion criteria in the systematic review of the literature, the data were collected in a secondary manner. The data was analysed using content and thematic analysis approaches and predominantly presented textually. The study established that to a larger extent, the implementation of the devolution policy strengthened the CBDRR and resilience building in Sanyati District. Nonetheless, key challenges were also observed. These include the over-centralization of disaster risk reduction (DRR) resources, capacity gaps at lower levels of government, low levels of central government compliance with the constitution, unclear guide lines and undue political interference. The study recommends that the Civil Protection Directorate should be strengthened to lead in CBDRR and climate change resilience-building coordination while advocacy for relevant policy alignment commensurate with the national devolution policy should be escalated. Sustainable local-level multi-stakeholder platforms that include effective participation of civil society organisations should further be established and strengthened where they already exist, in order to close the CBDRR capacity gaps in the district.
Pages | 117-126 |
Year | 2024 |
Issue | 2 |
Volume | 3 |