AN EVALUATION OF ZIMBABWE NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY: IS ZIMBABWE ON COURSE TO ATTAIN UPPER MIDDLE INCOME ECONOMY BY 2030?

Abstrakt

Zimbabwe was the most industrialized country in sub-Saharan Africa with the exception of South Africa and was a major exporter of manufactured products to its neighbours. Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) (2015) observed that by 2015, however, the country’s industrial sector had all but collapsed following years of economic problems that resulted in serious deindustrialization as factories closed and relocated to neighbouring countries and thousands of workers were thrown out of employment. In view of this calamity, the Government of Zimbabwe reviewed its industrial development policy 2012-2016 and launched 2019-2023 policy. The purpose of the evaluation was therefore to identify implementation gaps and inform future policy reviews, bearing in mind that the policy under review promised to propel Zimbabwe out of mess and grow the economy to a developmental state by 2030. The overall objective of this evaluation is to assess the effectiveness, efficiency, adequacy, administrative ease, equity, responsiveness and politically acceptability of the Industrial development policy. The evaluation utilised the qualitative approach because it is context-specific and provides flexibility and gives the evaluator the ability to conduct an in-depth evaluation on selected participants. The Delphi technique was used in this study. The Delphi technique is a group process used to survey and collect the opinions of experts on a particular subject. It is a method for structuring a group communication process so that the process is effective in allowing a group of individuals to deal with a complex problem. The overall findings from the expert drawn from the Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) was that the policy objectives were noble but it faced serious implementation constraints due to country risk factors such as; Economic risk/unsustainable macro-economic variables, Commercial risk; (for example trading partners lacking confidence), Political risk ,thus the real or perceived mistrust and tolerance in expressing political views within a country that may give rise to political instability or apprehension by foreign governments in engaging freely with that country and social /cultural risk e.g. crime and moral decadence.

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