By Perpetua Murungweni

Citizens in Action Southern Africa (CIASA) in partnership with Alliance for Community Based Organisation (ACBOs) held an annual Pause-and-Reflect all stakeholders meeting, which was held at Great Zimbabwe Hotel on February 23, 2024.
The all stakeholders meeting was meant to bring constructive dialogue between stakeholders on active participation in implementing the NDS1 with the aim of shaping the future of Masvingo. The meeting was held under the theme ‘Trends and Insights for Tomorrow.’
CIASA director Gamuchirai Mukura, said as an organisation they organised the engagement because they saw that the implementation of NDS1 requires participation of all stakeholders.
“We saw a need for an all stakeholders meeting because we realised that the implementation of the NDS1 requires the active participation of all stakeholders, including the government, private sector, civil society, and development partners.
“NDS1 is a 5-year medium-term plan towards the realization of the Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030. NDS1 contains strategies and pathways that are meant to ensure sustainable inclusive growth and development. While the NDS1 is running under the Vision 2030 theme “Towards a Prosperous and Empowered Upper Middle-Income Society by 2030” the inclusion of non-state actors will help this desired outcome to be realized through their support in complementing government efforts, through their work in different sectors of society,” said Mukura.
Mukura said that the organisation noticed that since the beginning of the global goals there have been challenges that slows quality engagement between stakeholders and that the stakeholder engagement was under-resourced.
“Since the inception of the global goals, however both systemic and capacity-related challenges slow the development of quality engagement in many developing countries and Zimbabwe is not an exception.
“Engagements processes can often be rushed, under-resourced, and under-planned, leading to frustration on all sides. The responsibility for stakeholder engagement is not properly defined or resourced, and low levels of trust reduce the space for constructive dialogue,” said Mukura.
Mukura also said that, there was need for systematic engagement between stakeholders in order to respond to the fundamental of the 2030 Agenda.
“Systematic, quality engagement is needed to respond to the fundamental objective of the 2030 Agenda – that no one should be left behind. There is also a need for innovation to deepen the levels of engagement, going beyond consultations to build trust, creating a sense of ownership of the agenda and developing coherent policies, integrating the perspectives of different stakeholders, and information sharing,” said Mukura.
Speaking at the same event Deputy Director Enviromental Planning and in the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Clorence Matewe acknowledged the importance of stakeholder meetings and said the government will continue to work closely with all development key stakeholders such as NGOs.
“As government we acknowledge the importance of all stakeholders’ present, and their roles as some of the key drivers of development in the work that we do to improve the lives of people across the province. Our province stands tall in its impeccable track-record of harmoniously working with development partners such as NGO`s and the business sector,” said Matewe.
Matewe also said such initiatives like the one organised by CIASA allows collaboration and building of relations within the government and private sector.
“This is a very good initiative brought to us by CIASA, it allows the government to collaborate and work hand in hand with NGOs. We have undertaken various community development initiatives in collaboration with NGO`s in the provision of social services such as Education, Health, Access to portable water and sanitation, climate-resilience building and in addressing some of the social ills affecting us such as drug abuse and gender-based violence. Whilst there is so much work to be done, the sum total of all combined efforts has led to the improvement of our communities,” said Matewe.
The meeting was attended by different stakeholders such as civil society organisations (SCOs), community-based organisations (CBOs), International Non-government organisation (INGOs), local authorities and government departments

By Beatific Gumbwanda

TRIANGLE – The late former Police Assistant Commissioner and Zimbabwe Sugarcane Development Association’s (ZSDA) Chairman, Edmore Veterai’s legacy will forever be written in the sugarcane outgrowers farming history through his immense contributions in connecting Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) with sugarcane farmers through the introduction of certificate in sugarcane agriculture, which empowered most farmers with adequate farming knowledge, with one beneficiary, Francis Moyo scooping an award on the just ended Tongaat Hulett farmers awards.
Tongaat Hulett Zimbabwe (THZ) recently held sugarcane out grower awards at Triangle Country Club (TCC) where more than 1300 farmers from different mill groups including Triangle Mill Group, Triangle Estate, Hippo Valley Estates Mill Group, Hippo Valley Mill Group and Mkwasine Mill were accorded an equal opportunity to exhibit their farming techniques over the past season.
The awards were branched into six categories namely best female, best youth out grower, best small scale plot, best medium plot and best large plot, where Francis Moyo, who is currently sitting on a 100 hectare sugarcane plot won an award as the Best Large Plot Outgrower Farmer and Samson Sigauke who has 49 hectares being the overall Best Outgrower Of The Year.
Francis Moyo who is the pioneer of the Certificate of Sugarcane Agriculture from Great Zimbabwe University won in the large scale farmers category for Triangle Mill Group with Croco Motors scooping for Hippo Valley Mill group and Stanley Chipfere for Mkwasine Mill Group.
In an interview with Moyo, he said it was not easy to come up with such a result considering he was offered 150 hectares of dry land in 2016 and managed to convert it into irrigable land.
“I am very happy indeed as it was never easy to get where I am today. I was offered 150 ha of dry land where I later applied my knowledge attained from Great Zimbabwe University’s program, not forgetting Professor Munashe Shoko who spearheaded the University program together with the Late Edmore Veterai to come down to Chiredzi.
“I am happy I managed to transform theory into practice hence deserving the award. Agriculture is an art and would want to encourage other farmers to take sugarcane production as a business and to promote a listening ear as soil and plants do communicate,” said Moyo
Moyo had an average yield of 147 tons per hectare in the 2023/24 season and is hoping to pursue a Master of Philosophy in Sugarcane Technology after succeeding in the Certificate of Sugarcane Agriculture, Diploma in Sugarcane Production and Honors Degree in Soil and Plant Science with Great Zimbabwe University.