Chronic Poverty In Semi Arid Zimbabwe

This paper examines the c ...

Based on a decade of research by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre, this volume includes material on inter-generational transmission, the importance of assets and vulnerability, and conflict, and new thinking about the close relationship between social exclusion and adverse incorporation.

The study sites. Methods. The wealth index and its variation. Human, financial, physical and natural capital - the essets available to households. Households productive activities - the generation of cash and subsistence gross income. Exploring household strategies. Net income and poverty. Temporal changes in livelihood strategies. Modelling livelihood change. Making a difference.

Villagers in the semi-arid but wildlife rich Mbire district of North eastern Zimbabwe live in chronic poverty. Rain-fed agricultural production is low due to low and erratic rainfall coupled with shortages of inputs and markets. The low agricultural production, near pristine environment with a rich wildlife base makes wildlife utilisation the best landuse option. From this assumption it has therefore been pertinent to investigate households' dependence on wild food resources as compared to other sources. Data were collected through meals, gathering and hunting monitoring. A sample of households was selected along an anthropogenic gradient from Mushumbi Pools to Angwa which is adjacent to wild land. For each household meals and gathering/hunting monitoring was conducted in the dry and post harvest season. Participatory Rural Appraisal methodology was also employed to get qualitative data on perceptions about wild food availability. In trying to understand dependence on wild food items several analyses were employed. These include one way ANOVA, correlations (bivariate), one sample and paired sample t tests to measure variations, associations and differences in the use of different wild food items by different categories of households. Results show that households along the gradient depend mostly on vegetative wild food (plant portions) while those located near forested areas have access to a wide variety of wild food including wild animal protein. Distance has a significant influence on the consumption of bushmeat and fish, while seasonality affects wild fruit availability and therefore consumption.

The book provides empirically-rich case studies of the lives and livelihoods of marginalised ethnic minorities in colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe, with a specific focus on diverse rural areas. It demonstrates the dynamic and complex relationships existing between ethnic minorities and livelihoods, and analyses the ways in which projects of belonging (and identity-formation) amongst these ethnic minorities are entangled in their respective livelihood construction projects, and vice versa. The ethnic minorities include those considered indigenous to Zimbabwe, and those often defined as ‘aliens’, including ethnicities with a transnational presence in southern Africa. The ethnicities studied in the book include the following: Chewa, Doma, Tonga, Tshwa San, Shangane, Basotho, Ndau, Hlengwe and Nambya. By studying their livelihoods in particular, this book offers the first full manuscript about ethnic minorities in Zimbabwe. In doing so, it highlights the significance of these ethnic minorities to Zimbabwean history, politics and society.

Thinking about development in Africa requires an appreciation of at least two sets of ideas. It is not sufficient to stress the ubiquity of failure, malnutrition, disease, predatory states and war; one also has to recognize that important aspects of the lives of millions of ordinary people have been transformed over the last five decades. All contributions in this book give insight into the heterogeneity of poverty and development processes in Sub-Saharan Africa, and confront the ideas, concepts and assumptions that lie behind pro-poor policies with their empirical findings.

This groundbreaking volume researches the lives of gecekondu settlers in the capital city of Turkey in order to understand how households cope with poverty and why some households are more successful than others in reducing their deprivation. It takes a critical stance towards existing conceptions such as household survival, livelihood and coping strategy and develops an alternative model based on four types of household response to poverty: income generation, income allocation, consumption and investment. In explaining household responses and their outcomes for poverty, the book demonstrates the role of different resources beyond income including social, economic and cultural capital. It emphasises broader structural factors such as labour market processes and state policies which influence the availability and/or benefit delivery capacity of household resources, and thereby moves beyond the dominant view which overemphasises the resilience of the poor. Gender divisions within the household are also examined. The book adopts an innovative method for measuring poverty. The new method combines 'objective' and subjective dimensions of deprivation to develop a unique way of addressing two central questions: what are those standards of living whose absence indicates deprivation, and how can the value of each standard of living be determined?