Foreign aid versus support to social entrepreneurs: Reviewing the way of fighting poverty in Zimbabwe

Figures & data

Table 1. World Development Indicators of Zimbabwe and other Southern African’s countries (2005–16).

	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
GDP (current US$ – billion)
Zimbabwe	5 755	5 444	5 292	4 416	8 157	9 422	10 956	12 393	13 490	14 197	13 893	16 620
South Africa	257 671	271 811	299 034	287 100	297 217	375 298	416 878	396 333	366 810	351 119	317 611	295 456
Botswana	9 931	10 127	10 939	10 945	10 267	12 787	15 683	14 686	14 916	16 259	14 431	15 581
Zambia	8 332	12 757	14 057	17 911	15 328	20 266	23 460	25 503	28 045	27 151	21 154	21 064
Mozambique	7 724	8 312	9 367	11 495	10 912	10 154	13 131	14 534	16 019	16 961	14 798	11 015
Namibia	7 261	7 979	8 741	8 487	8 876	11 282	12 410	13 016	12 718	12 786	11 571	10 948
GNI per capita (current US$)
Zimbabwe	430	410	380	300	400	500	690	770	820	840	850	890
South Africa	4 900	5 530	5 820	5 910	5 800	6 160	6 970	7 540	7 340	6 750	6 070	5 480
Botswana	4 790	5 300	5 620	5 650	5 260	5 570	6 630	7 310	7 580	7 350	6 680	6 750
Zambia	550	710	880	1 160	1 260	1 320	1 390	1 670	1 730	1 770	1 560	1 360
Mozambique	350	370	400	440	480	460	480	520	590	620	580	480
Namibia	3 380	3 870	4 150	4 220	4 150	4 400	5 020	5 510	5 800	5 740	5 280	4 640

Source: The World Bank (2018). http://databank.worldbank.org/data/reports.aspx?source = world-development-indicators

Figure 1. Net official development assistance and official aid received in Zimbabwe and South Africa (2007–16). Source: Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Geographical Distribution of Financial Flows to Developing Countries, Development Co-operation Report, and International Development Statistics database. oecd.org/dac/stats/idsonline.

Table 2. Top 10 donors for Zimbabwe (comprehensive data on total flows of aid to Zimbabwe, 2007–16, US dollars, millions (0)).

Donors	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
United States	139 09	222 90	249 74	155 20	186 84	172 35	169 00	177 50	154 04	216 57
United Kingdom	94 10	89 24	109 86	108 01	77 52	220 02	146 71	171 26	141 93	134 61
Germany	19 45	24 85	34 71	33 08	58 50	56 73	31 62	35 58	20 17	35 64
Sweden	19 71	25 74	29 37	30 37	38 58	39 76	36 91	34 71	29 18	28 51
Australia	3 70	20 22	29 79	44 77	47 55	51 95	35 77	15 04	8 15	3 23
Denmark	10 95	16 89	27 95	26 87	29 56	21 47	23 67	32 31	26 76	9 64
Norway	12 62	20 94	28 93	24 47	22 56	27 27	34 08	20 98	16 46	10 70
Canada	13 01	21 12	28 31	9 25	13 80	21 62	11 77	7 04	4 54	5 67
Switzerland	2 63	5 62	6 96	6 95	13 95	17 41	19 53	15 20	11 27	7 68
Japan	11 71	9 97	12 38	18 92	18 37	21 82	12 42	5 18	6 68	15 05

Source: OECD statistics. https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode = DACGEO.

Table 3. Sample profile.

Profile/Province*	Province 1	Province 2	Province 3	Province 4
Social entrepreneurs (agriculture sector)	0	3	2	4
SME owner (gardening and retail sector)	3	1	1	1
Religious leader (pastors of Christian churches)	2	0	1	1
NGO managers and workers	2	1	1	1
Unemployed rural people (casual work in fields and other tasks)	0	3	4	4

Note: SME = small and medium-sized enterprise; NGO = non-governmental organisation.

*Province 1 = Harare (Zimbabwe’s urban capital); Province 2 = Mashonaland Central (rural area); Province 3 = Mashonaland West (rural area); Province 4 = Mashonaland East (rural area).

Table 4. Themes, key issues and narratives on traditional foreign aid.

Themes	Key issues	Examples of extracts of narratives	Main ideas/expressions	Number of respondents
Ineffectiveness on the implementation of foreign aid	Inappropriate practices in the foreign aid’s implementation system	We work under the pressure of short-term deadlines, and once we get the resources we need to get rapid solutions regarding their destiny. (Interview 9 –NGO manager) From time to time, we see foreign volunteers that come to Zimbabwe linked to the local donor agencies […] I ask why they do it instead of training local trainers. The volunteers receive high allowances that perhaps would not be needed in case local people could collaborate with them to do the job. (Interview 19 – rural unemployed)	Inefficiency/lack or freedom/dishonest behaviours/waste of time/absurd	31
	Corruption in the implementation of foreign aid by the recipient country	I believe Zimbabwe has an endless challenge with governance issues and as long as the current leader is in power, people will remain poor. (Interview 14 – social entrepreneur) Donor agencies are business people with good houses in the city through our money while we get little here in the rural areas. (Interview 22 – rural unemployed) The recipients politicise funding and think that they are entitled to it because of the politics that is preached to them from time to time. (Interview 291 – SME owner) There has been a lot of abuse in the institutional power, so that the aid never reaches the people that it is supposed to reach in full. (Interview 1 – SME owner)	A ruling party’s business/corruption/politicise funds/misuse of funds/thief/power abuse	27
Misconceptions in food aid’s design and its destabilising effects	Wrong choice of products	Our situation would change if we dealt directly with the donors of the aid, maybe then, they would know what we are used to eating. (Interview 17 – rural unemployed) We wish to produce our own food […] there is need to grow drought tolerant seed varieties or better still the construction of dams so that the catchment area can be improved. This will be true help for us, even better than receiving the food that we don’t like. (Interview 6 – rural unemployed)	We like maize/rice we don’t like/they don’t care about our habits	32
	Destabilising effect on lifestyle (dependency syndrome)	If people know that they will receive donor aid every year, people will do nothing to take care of themselves, or even resort to growing very little food as they know they would receive donor aid. (Interview 23 – religious leader) The white people must continue to give us aid because their colonial system caused us a lot of suffering and we lost a lot of cattle through them. (Interview 13 – rural unemployed)	Dependency	28

Table 5. Themes, key issues and narratives on social entrepreneurs’ support.

Themes	Key issues	Examples of extracts of narratives	Main ideas/expressions	Number of respondents
Social entrepreneurial ecosystem	Basic infrastructure and services	What we need is better infrastructure, since till now it seems that only those already out of poverty will benefit from a business loan because people are too poor to commit themselves to debt. (Interview 24 –religious leader)	Solar energy/electricity is always a problem/generators/struggles with internet/inappropriate transport/bicycles	23
		There are days that we do not have electricity from morning till night […] electricity is a big challenge for us and the best help organisations could give us is to assure us that we get rid of this problem. (Interview 8 – rural unemployed)
Human and social capital	Training	We have courageous people who have lived in conditions that maybe people in other countries could not even imagine. (Interview 15 – social entrepreneur)	We don’t know what to do/self-sufficient/lack of knowledge in business	35
		We are people with initiative and commitment with our families and communities, but we also need people with the appropriate knowledge to be put in the good use of our country. (Interview 5 – SME owner)
		We cannot afford more educated people leaving us. (Interview 10 –social entrepreneur)
		We need to use the education to make lives for ourselves, and perhaps we would need more training and accompaniment to show people how we can do it, how we can save our lives with our knowledge, effort and God’s help. (Interview 21 – rural unemployed)
		Training must go where people live, instead of expecting that people will come to look for training, coz they will not come just for one reason. (Interview 12 –NGO manager)
		They cannot even imagine that this could be a possibility for them, they have become used to being poor, to have nothing, to do nothing. (Interview 16 –religious leader)
	Facilitate contacts and networks	Different family tribes are now more willing to work together as well as different religious communities. (Interview 18 –religious leader)	Community work/work together as families/networks/to be connected	19
		Rural villagers could also network with the whole world and learn instead of confining IT skills to educational institutions only. (Interview 20 – SME owners)

World Bank, 2018. Doing business. Measuring business regulations. http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/zimbabwe. Accessed 21 February 2018.

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