The ManicaPost
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa made a compelling speech during his inauguration in November 2017 and ever since then, he has walked the talk and transformed his word into deeds.
For the past few years, Zimbabwe has continued to renew itself under the sagacious stewardship of President Mnangagwa.
The agenda for social transformation and economic growth has been nothing short of remarkable.
Major projects with far-reaching and high impact outcomes are taking shape across the country, premised on the principle of leaving no one and no place behind.
In pursuit of Vision 2030, the country is aiming to attain a prosperous and empowered upper middle income economy by 2030.
Vision 2030 is underpinned by the National Development Strategy (NDS1) of 2021-2025, which was preceded by the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (October 2018-December 2020).
NDS1 is the first five-year medium term plan being currently implemented until 2025 through 14 national priority areas that include, among others, economic stability and growth; food security and nutrition; climate resilience and natural resources management; human capital development; ICT and digital economy; health and wellbeing; transport, infrastructure and utilities as well as social protection, to drive the national vision.
NDS1 shall be succeeded by the second National Development Strategy – NDS2 – from 2026-2030, for continuity and to ensure that the country achieves the desired state by 2030.
NDS1 clearly spells out the targets of the priority areas or key pillars, the strategies of achieving them and the desired outcomes.
Under the food and nutrition security cluster, the strategies are to promote resilience and sustainable agriculture; increase access to affordable agriculture financing; agriculture infrastructure development; access to land and security of tenure as well as agriculture research and technology development.
The expected outcomes are to increase food self-sufficiency from the current level of 45 percent to 100 percent.
Huge strides have thus far been made, with remarkable progress on the ground.
The Second Republic is spearheading various game-changing socio-economic programmes and projects aimed at spurring the national economy’s growth. Manicaland is also in the mix of this new lease of life as the devolution agenda has been spurring development.
By the end of last year, over 120 projects had been concluded, while several others were at various stages of completion as local authorities in the province utilised the $220 million devolution funds disbursed by Government.
Roads, schools, clinics, dams, plant equipment, as well as water and sanitation projects were some of the projects undertaken to improve the people’s standards of living.
Roads, which were dilapidated and declared a state of national disaster, are being rehabilitated under the Emergency Roads Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP), which is now in the second phase.
The transport network has greatly improved, ensuring better service delivery and distribution of goods after re-establishment of the direct link between farms and markets for the transportation of fresh farm produce.
This thrust of infrastructure development is hinged in the build-back-better principle to ensure resilience during disaster events.
To boost Manicaland’s agricultural outlook, key investments have been made in the sector.
Muchekeranwa and Marovanyati Dams in Makoni and Buhera districts respectively were built, with capacity to irrigate a combined 3 500 hectares of arable land.
This is expected to take sustainable agricultural projects a gear up as it will benefit small-holder and commercial farmers, thereby increasing the villagers’ food and nutrition security while also enhancing their livelihoods.
A fishery project targeting youths, women and other vulnerable groups will contribute immensely to food security and nutrition of the surrounding communities to push up the districts’ and province’s GDP.
To make the 20220-23 cropping season bigger and better, almost half-a-million small-holders farmers in Manicaland’s A1, old resettlement and small-scale commercial farming areas will receive support from Government through the Presidential Inputs Programme (PIPs) for cereals, horticulture, livestock and fruit production.
The programme is targeting increased production.
On the other hand, operations at the Verify Engineering medical oxygen and nitrogen plant as well as those at Allied Timbers are flourishing.
The engineering brains behind these two plants are a local human resources force, which is a result of Government’s efforts on human capital development.
As Jim Rohn puts it, “Whatever good things we build end up building us”.
