Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is one of the most popular countries the world over- but popular for the wrong reasons- hyper inflation, political turmoil, poverty, land reform, operation muramatsvina, unfair elections, to mention just a few.

The country is classified as a poor country according to the World Bank classification. Although the country is relatively well developed the economy has been rapidly declining since the year 2000 when the government embarked on the controversial land reform exercise. At present over 70% of Zimbabwe’s population is unemployed and almost an equal percentage is classified as poor. Since SCC’s work is targeted at poverty this makes Zimbabwe one of the countries in which SCC can make a difference. The situation in Zimbabwe, like in other countries in Sub Saharan Africa is worsened by the high prevalence of HIV/AIDS which has significantly contributed to increased poverty levels.

 
SCC has been in Zimbabwe since 1984 and the single biggest area of support has been agriculture. In the 80’s support was mainly to mobilise farmers into groups and associations through the National Farmers Association of Zimbabwe. During this phase SCC also supported organisational development training in these newly formed farmers associations. With the advent of the Structural Adjustment programmes in the 90’s support shifted to market facilitation and promotion of youth and women participation in Agriculture through the Zimbabwe Farmers Union and Rusape Cooperative Union. Since 2000 support to Agriculture has focussed on increased production, market facilitation as well as access to trade information.
 

The Agriculture sector receives the major share of SCC support with 83 % of programme resources targeted for this sector for the current 3 year programme period. The allocation to the sector includes trade and marketing development, gender, HIV/AIDS and study circle programmes for farmers.

The support to agriculture has helped farmers