Community policing is a strategic consideration for contemporary policing, especially when police organisations worldwide increasingly seek cost-effective and sustainable methods of combating crime. The principle of community policing recognises the community and its leaders as equal partners in the prevention and reduction of crime. Hence, there is a need for research to interrogate how different police organisations have considered community policing as a panacea to their policing challenges. This study sought to evaluate the role of traditional leaders in community policing and crime prevention in the community of Chief Madliwa, Nkayi District in Matabeleland North Province of Zimbabwe. Interviews were carried out with eight village heads, four headmen and three key informants. Four focus group discussions were conducted to collect the villagers' insight on the role of traditional leaders in community policing and crime prevention. Participants were identified using purposive and convenience sampling. The findings revealed that community policing is an effective strategy for crime prevention and that traditional leaders play a pivotal role in the success of community policing and crime prevention. Traditional leaders play an integral role in the recruitment of members of the Neighbourhood Watch Committee, assist with organising the business community to cooperate with the police in the fight against crime and play an important role in organising the community to attend crime awareness campaigns arranged by the police.
Physical displacement and natural disasters have occurred in Zimbabwe since preindependence times, always posing a threat to human life and developmental gains. Disasters in the form of flooding continuously contribute to loss in human lives, destruction of shelter, damage to household assets and in internal displacement. In 2014, a combination of high rainfall and damages on the Tokwe-Mukosi dam wall contributed to flooding of communities in close proximity to the dam. The disastrous outcome was the flooding of the immediate catchment area which communities were unable to cope with. The government sought for assistance from disaster management actors during and after the flood with mixed response. This paper explores roles played by stakeholders in responding to flooding of Tokwe-Mukosi dam in Masvingo Province. Data for this paper was collected through structured interviews, observations and focus group discussions. Relying on 'habitus' and 'pastoral power' as conceptual tools, the paper broadly found out that communities resorted to various reservoirs of knowledge and experience to limit their post-disaster vulnerabilities while also demonstrating abilities to negotiate various power structures. Finally, the paper recommends that the interventions from various agencies recognise the agency of displaced actors in attempting to alleviate challenges. In addition, researchers ought to equally embrace more innovative methods and conceptual lens when exploring social phenomena in order to go beyond narrow narrative approaches and developmentalist discourses.
Development theory has mutated over time all to explain the realities of various people in the developing world. Such realities have been discussed through dependency theories, world systems theories, modernization among others. Also used in consistency with the theoretical frames have been notions of localised development which in the main have been influenced by research in select parts of the globe. In this bracket lie such approaches as the sustainable livelihoods framework and more recently, conservation agriculture. What emerges from the various perspectives proffered is a litany of solutions which have mainly proven unsuccessful for many reasons. This paper is embedded within this broad history of development thinking. It observes the broad theoretical perspectives but does not necessarily find a perfect home in any of them. Instead, it resonates more with the nuanced approach of social anthropologists whose term, glocal, captures the globally influenced, localised forms of change. Such an approach would mean that concepts of development as a purely economic endeavour are inadequate. While economics is indeed important, metrics such as GDP/capita or income alone are insufficient in capturing people's aspirations. It is for this reason that the paper deploys the term economies not in an economics sense but to depict various modes of production which people rely upon for their livelihoods. Such modes include social networks, labour resources and financial resources.The paper discusses local development in Nkayi, a district in Zimbabwe comprised of largely rural households. It observes various livelihood portfolios which inhabitants of the district possess and what such portfolios mean for human development. The question then is, 'why conduct such a study? In addition, why Nkayi?' to start off, Zimbabwe has endured a very dark economic and political period since the year 2000 which has been exacerbated by intermittent droughts. As a result, rampant unemployment, hunger and disease have swept over many sections of the population. Yet, the population has proved resilient in the times of difficulty. While numerous fields have considered the strategies which citizens have employed to survive, to the best of the author's knowledge, there is no consolidated piece of work, which encapsulates all experiences into a uniform narrative.The research was conducted in Nkayi for two main reasons. The first reason is that Nkayi comprise of people who have traditionally comprised part of the migrant stream to destinations such as Bulawayo, a major city in Zimbabwe and South Africa, the country's neighbour to the south. This means that agro-based livelihoods are not the only source of income for local communities. The second reason is that poverty levels in Matabeleland North -in which Nkayi is situated-remain high even by national standards with poor showings in child welfare indicators, dependency ratios as well as high dependence on food support (ZimVac, 2016). The paper is laid out as follows: the section after the introdu...
Although the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was instituted about three decades ago, the quest for equality of genders persists across the globe. The disparities prevail across various spheres of life and at different levels of the socioeconomic and political strata. The irony is that such conditions prevail in a time where political consciousness and rhetoric are heightened. The explanation lies in structural impediments which continue to be snags on progress particularly in societies rooted in patriarchal cultures. In addition, character misrepresentations and sexualisation of female political figures persist. This paper presents an elaborate survey of the progress made in Zimbabwe since CEDAW and the Beijing Declaration. It draws from an extensive review of existing published research to summarize what has been studied and is currently known about the status of women in politics and the influence of gender on their experiences as participants within the realm of formal politics. The paper recommends increased emphasis on such policies as quota systems and affirmative action in favour of women's representation.
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