Understanding the Drivers of Poverty in Zimbabwe: Emerging Lessons from the Protracted Relief Programme

This paper looks at the drivers of poverty in Zimbabwe based on field work and detailed analysis of internal monitoring reports of the multi-donor funded protracted relief programme in Zimbabwe. It analyses the role of macro-economic instability, environmental factor and an unstable politics as the key co-variant drivers of poverty. The paper shows how these contextual issues have made it harder for Zimbabweans to make a living. It discusses local and individual factors driving poverty and identifies the key role played by lack of education, poor health, unemployment and some cultural factors in driving poverty. An analysis of the programme respnse provided through the PRP shows how through building new local level institutions to complement decaying state institutions has helped to stabilise local communities. The analysis also shows how local level capacity building and resource mobilisation that has helped relaunch strategies for sustainable livelihoods.