Foreign investors abandoned Zimbabwe in early 2000 when self-styled war veterans began seizing private farms ostensibly to pressure the government to speed up the redistribution of land to landless blacks.
The government’s critics say the farm seizures, which many Zimbabweans largely blame for causing the current food shortages because they disrupted farming operations, were merely a ruse meant to take away attention from the deteriorating economy.
The government must also take up proposals by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that it implements an economically and agriculturally sound land reform plan which can be supported by donors instead of the present chaotic fast-track land reforms.
The sources said issues of human rights, democracy and the rule of law were still prominent on the list of outstanding items which the donors said Harare must tackle before being given food aid.
Of the US$83 million humanitarian appeal to the international community made by the UNDP on behalf of Harare late last year, donors have only given US$20.7 million, according to the government’s own figures.
Aid experts say the slow response to the humanitarian aid appeal is a reflection of Zimbabwe’s strained relations with the international community over issues of governance and its human rights record.
By Abel Mutsakani News Editor, The Financial Gazette
Article reprinted, courtesy of The Financial Gazette, Southern Africa’s Leading Business and Financial Newspaper. http://www.fingaz.co.zw
The government’s critics say the farm seizures, which many Zimbabweans largely blame for causing the current food shortages because they disrupted farming operations, were merely a ruse meant to take away attention from the deteriorating economy.
The government must also take up proposals by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that it implements an economically and agriculturally sound land reform plan which can be supported by donors instead of the present chaotic fast-track land reforms.
The sources said issues of human rights, democracy and the rule of law were still prominent on the list of outstanding items which the donors said Harare must tackle before being given food aid.
Of the US$83 million humanitarian appeal to the international community made by the UNDP on behalf of Harare late last year, donors have only given US$20.7 million, according to the government’s own figures.
Aid experts say the slow response to the humanitarian aid appeal is a reflection of Zimbabwe’s strained relations with the international community over issues of governance and its human rights record.
By Abel Mutsakani News Editor, The Financial Gazette
Article reprinted, courtesy of The Financial Gazette, Southern Africa’s Leading Business and Financial Newspaper. http://www.fingaz.co.zw