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Faced with a gravitating socio-economic dilapidating fabric, the national budget is supposed to be a well thought out strategic plan putting the country on a highway to recovery and rebuilding. On the contrary, the 2022 national budget casts a dark cloud on any lingering prospects of development. Fight Inequality Alliance Zimbabwe (FIAZ), a social movement in the fight against inequality posits that, the budget is a reflection of the failure by the state to intercede for the poor as it further widens inequalities between rich and poor, a view that is reflected mostly in the ailing commitment of government towards devolution.
Recognizing the centrality of devolution to the development agenda, the 2013 Zimbabwe Constitution makes provisions for the establishment of the devolution mechanism. Resultantly, in 2020, the government under President Emmerson Mnangagwa made strides on formulating the Devolution and Decentralization Policy. A document which on its own is imbued with cloudiness and ambiguity as to the criteria by which funds must be allocated to various metropolitans and local authorities. Furthermore, in its opening, the policy quoting the Constitution states with ambiguity that, “whenever appropriate” devolution must take shape with government powers being devolved to the lower-ties of government. A phase which demonstrates an indifferent attitude towards attaining the vision it claims to advocate for.
However, the policy on Devolution and decentralization dully notes that, local authorities on their own are fiscally inadequately capacitated to finance the devolution agenda. Therefore, the central government must allocate funds to compliment local authorities’ efforts. According to the policy, treasury shall target distributing 5% of fiscal revenues to sub-national tiers of government towards funding local authorities’ budgets. However, in the 2022 national budget, only ZW$42.5 billion was allocated towards devolution. ZIMCODD observes that, these funds are not even double the 2022 budget for Bulawayo City Council which is ZWL 26.7 billion. To the surprise of many, the Defence and War Veterans Affairs ministry received an allocation amounting to 6.4% of the budget (ZWL 61,553,280,000). In lieu of the fact that, Zimbabwe is not at war with any nation but against socio-economic under development, consideration should have gone towards mechanisms of development such as devolution.
Currently local authorities are grappling with poor service delivery mainly in areas of water and sanitation. The resultant effect is an increase in the burden of unpaid care work in women who are then forced to seek for water over long distances, thereby compromising their health well-being. Hence, in that respect, it can be argued that, by not recognizing the centrality of devolution, the budget is perpetuating structural economic gender-based violence against women.
Be that as it may, there is now need for expenditure monitoring and tracking in order to ensure transparency and accountability in accordance with the principles of public finance management. Nonetheless, devolution remains a distant dream.
Social Worker, Socio-economic Development Policy Advocate
ActivistaZW Member
Email: rn***********@gm***.com
Cell: +263 776 551 594
