2014 Koninklijke Brill NV

303 Pages·2017·2.21 MB·English

Voices of Zimbabwean Orphans
For use by the Author only | © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV
Afrika-Studiecentrum Series
Series Editor
Dr. Harry Wels (vu University Amsterdam, The African Studies Centre,
Leiden, the Netherlands)
Editorial Board
Prof. Bill Freund (University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa)
Prof. Lungisile Ntsebeza (University of Cape Town, South Africa)
Prof. Eddy van der Borght (vu University Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
Dr. Marja Spierenburg (vu University Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
VOLUME 33
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/asc
For use by the Author only | © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV
Voices of Zimbabwean Orphans
A New Vision for Project Management
in Southern Africa
By
Manasa Dzirikure and Garth Allen
LEIDEN | BOSTON
For use by the Author only | © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV
Allen, Garth.
Voices of Zimbabwean orphans : a new vision for project management in Southern Africa / by Garth
Allen and Manasa Dzirikure.
pages cm. -- (Afrika-studiecentrum series, ISSN 1570-9310; volume 33)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-28247-6 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-28328-2 (e-book) 1. Orphans--Africa,
Southern--Social conditions. 2. Orphans--Zimbabwe--Social conditions. 3. Children--Services for--Africa,
Southern. 4. Social planning--Africa, Southern. 5. Project management--Africa, Southern. 6. Africa,
Southern--Social policy. I. Dzirikure, Manasa. II. Title.
HV1350.A45 2014
362.73096891--dc23
2014032277
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issn 1570-9310
isbn 978-90-04-28247-6 (paperback)
isbn 978-90-04-28328-2 (e-book)
Copyright 2014 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
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Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgements ix
List of Figures and Tables x
1 The Social Situation of Orphans in Southern Africa, and in Zimbabwe
in Particular 1
2 Zimbabwe and its Orphans 14
3 Theory and Practice in Understanding and Improving the Social
Situation of ovcs in Southern Africa 29
4 Systems, Social Development, and the Needs of ovcs 43
5 Key Conceptual Frameworks for Understanding the Social Situation
of ovcs 69
6 The Zimbabwe Study of ovcs 77
7 What Orphans Want?
Voices from the Field 110
8 The Role of Theory in Social Planning for ovcs 169
9 ovcs
Policy and Practice in a Holistic Tradition 200
10 Project Management for ovcs in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa 230
11 Moving Policy and Action Forward for the Benefit of ovcs in
Zimbabwe Southern Africa 251
References 267
Names Index 288
Subject Index 290
For use by the Author only | © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV
For use by the Author only | © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV
Preface
The origins of this book lie in our concern for the poorest and most vulnerable
of the children and young people, the ovyps (orphans and other vulnerable
young people and children Southern), of the fifteen Southern African Develop-
ment  Community (sadc) countries. The specific impetus for the study was
Dzirikure’s doctoral studies, from 2007–2011, which in turn arose from his work
as sadc’s Senior Programme Officer, ovc and Youth, a post he still holds. Allen
was the supervisor of the study and was also an active participant in sadc’s
strategic planning work for ovcs during and since the doctoral study.
The study is a classic example of practitioner research, whereby the doc-
toral study added value to the ongoing work of sadc’s strategic planning for
ovcs. The doctorate was awarded in April 2011 and since then for purposes of
this publication, we have extensively rewritten the submitted thesis. The main
changes have been to reduce the detail in the justification for the theoretical
and empirical approach taken in the thesis, and to change the style and signifi-
cant form of the writing. However, this work, whilst a partnership and jointly
authored, is rooted in Dzirikure’s original professional and academic commit-
ment to the topic and to utilizing his and Allen’s interests and skills to work for
the benefit of sadc’s ovcs. The original thesis is available via the University of
Kwa-Zulu Natal’s depository of successful doctoral studies. The specific title of
the thesis is: ‘Towards a Management Approach for Sustainable Social
Development Programmes for Orphans in Southern Africa: Application of
Systems Theory’.
Both authors are driven by moral outrage that the most vulnerable children
and young people in sadc, numbering tens of millions, have been ill-served by
round after round of well-intentioned but weak, often inadequate, poorly
designed and delivered, policy and planning approaches to improving the wel-
fare of these worse off members of the sadc region. This book offers a fresh
look at the possibilities, problem areas and barriers to significant improve-
ment in the current and future lives of the region’s ovcs. The approaches rec-
ommended as such have wider significance, beyond ovcs, for government
inspired strategic planning for the worse off members of the sadc countries,
and perhaps wider application in Africa beyond sadc. In particular, we lament
the unacceptable living standards of ovcs in Zimbabwe and the failure of the
Zimbabwean and sadc project management community to make a significant
improvement in the lives of the majority of ovcs.
For use by the Author only | © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV
viii preface
We use the phrase ‘worse off’ members of society to signal our allegiance to
the general moral position developed in John Rawl’s work, especially in his
monumental ‘Theory of Justice’. Here, and elsewhere in his work, the basic
moral and strategic position of any social policy aiming to promote ‘justice as
fairness’, is to target the known needs of the comparatively worse off members
of any society. Of course it is not always easy to identify such people, nor to
successfully target or skew public resources towards them. In this book, our
special interest group of Zimbabwean ovcs are those who have difficulties
accessing their basic needs and services as a result of either the loss of one or
both of their parents to death and neglect, social and political conflict, poverty,
or a combination of these factors. However, as we shall see, in practice, there
are major problems in reaching a philosophical and technical consensus about
what social characteristics should qualify for the status of ‘vulnerability’
deserving of societal or public care and support. But this shortcoming, in the
overall scheme of things, is insignificant, and does not dilute the moral impera-
tive for better off people to work with and for the worse off members of their
society in order to raise the latter’s absolute and relative wellbeing.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our families and friends in Zimbabwe, Botswana,
England and South Africa for their continued and long suffering interest in this
study. And we also should thank the hundreds of Zimbabwean respondents
whose Voices are the subject of our work: ovcs, their families and carers, pro-
fessionals from the government and voluntary sectors, and workers and volun-
teers from charity and church organisations, and all who spared precious time
to talk with us.
For use by the Author only | © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV
List of Figures and Tables
figures caption
1 Map of sadc countries 15
2 The learning cycle 74
3 Systems thinking, project management and child development 75
4 Map of Zimbabwe showing the study sites, Zimbabwe’s provinces and
main cities and towns 82
5 Percentage distribution of child participants by orphan hood 112
6 Percentage distribution of carers by age and level of education 114
7 C ommon relationships between carers and orphans in Zimbabwe as
reported by carers and orphans 116
8 Orphans and carer(s): duration of living together 120
9 Outcomes of csd and their relationships 234
10 Requirements for csd and their relationships 235
11 A Comprehensive Service Delivery Spiral Cycle 241
12 The phases of the project cycle and feedback loops 246
13 Project cycle and the spiral nature of project processes
in each stage 247
14 S pirals of the project cycle and transfer of learning between
projects 249
tables caption
1 Estimated number of orphans in the sadc by country 2
2 Mineral wealth in Zimbabwe 16
3 Basic needs of ovc 41
4 Techniques commonly used in participatory reflection and action
(pra) 60
5 Schedule of visits to study sites for data collection 81
6 National administrative structures and languages in Zimbabwe 82
7 Area distribution of all research participants 88
8 Story lines narrated by orphans and carers compared 93
9 Themes of questions for practitioners and carers compared 97
10 Social characteristics of orphan participants 111
11 Social characteristics of carer participants 113
12 Level of formal education by age category of carers 113
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