EU backs Zimbabwe

11 Nov, 2022 - 00:11 0 Views
EU backs Zimbabwe Ambassador Kirchmann

The ManicaPost

 

Tendai Gukutikwa
Post Reporter

In a move that demonstrates the thawing of formerly hostile nations as President Mnangagwa forges ahead with his re-engagement drive, the European Union (EU) has pledged improved relations between the bloc and Zimbabwe.

The bloc has also vowed to support the country’s quest to attain Vision 2030 and has since rolled out a number of programmes that are benefiting the citizenry.

Among the game-changing and successful projects implemented by the EU is the digitalisation of administrative services at Mutare City Council.

The project was funded to the tune of 2,5 million Euros.

This was a pilot project that is now expected to be rolled out to other cities and urban councils.

This week, ambassadors from the EU, led by the bloc’s Ambassador Jobst von Kirchmann, toured some of the projects that are receiving financial support from the EU, among them Africa University’s Law School and Mutare City Council’s digitalisation programme.

The tour also took the delegation to Tanganda Tea Processing Plant.

 

The company is exporting some of its products to European countries.

Other members of the high-powered delegation included EU Deputy Ambassador Lourdes Chandra; the Netherlands Ambassador Margret Verwijk; Swedish Ambassador Asa Pemrson; Greece Ambassador Lookas Karasohs; France Ambassador Laurent Chevalier and Germany Ambassador Udo Volz.

Speaking during a tour of Mutare City Council on Tuesday, Ambassador Kirchmann said EU contributed over 2,5 million Euros towards the local authority’s digitalisation project which is benefitting residents who have for years been suffering due to inefficient service delivery.

“I am glad that the immediate beneficiaries of the digitalisation projects are ordinary Mutare residents and not the executives in offices. How the project was implemented is very impressive and we hope this will continue into the future.

“What has impressed me most is the fact that council’s revenue collection efficiency has improved from between 33 percent and 35 percent to between 65 percent and 75 percent.

“The good relations between Zimbabwe and EU will continue into the future as evidenced by the EU’s support of the National Development Strategy (NDS1).

“We see that we can work together in many areas. I recently launched other projects which include one on Gender Based Violence and another one on Climate Smart Agriculture where the EU is supporting the NDS1.

“As EU, we will support Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030 for it to become a prosperous middle income country. Currently we are identifying all the areas in which we can work together,” he said.

The Local Authorities Digitalisation Project was introduced by the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) to digitalise local authorities’ services as they were facing a lot of challenges in terms of revenue collection.

On the success of the digitalisation pilot project in Mutare, Ambassador Kirchmann said: “I am not only impressed, but very glad that as the EU, we could contribute to such a pilot project for Zimbabwe’s local authorities.

“This success creates an appetite to do more and for 2023, we should start discussing how we can further support each other,” he said.

In an interview, CLGF project manager, Mr Leopold Bhoroma said the project is delivering success stories, with Mutare being the flagship in the country.

He said the project has seen a huge reduction in corruption and management of procurement services.

“Most of these local authorities were collecting less than 30 percent in revenue because they did not have a sound database for their sources of revenue. They were also facing challenges in that they did not know the numbers and values of their properties, which meant that the management was very difficult,” he said.

Acting Town Clerk, Mr Blessing Chafesuka said the digitalisation project was rolled out in 2019 when the local authority was facing challenges that included poor revenue collection, serious audit backlogs and poor corporate governance.

He said as a result, there has been improved planning and decision making at the local authority.

“We have brought back confidence in our residents as well as our staff through the digitalisation project. They can easily register their queries or complaints through online platforms because of the improved customer care service.

“The project has also helped to easily track debtors, while also making the city self-sufficient. Since we started implementing the project, the city has acquired six refuse trucks from its own funds,” he said.

“We have registered significant progress around revenue collection which obviously speaks to improved service delivery. The ambassadors were able to see for themselves the system in action and we hope this will result in the city getting more funding to roll out other life changing projects,” he said.

The digitalisation project has seen Mutare City Council teaming up with Harare Institute of Technology to create a research laboratory which is being used to digitalise all the council’s departments.

 

Share This:

Sponsored Links

We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey

This will close in 20 seconds