via Zim lowly ranked on policy consistency-ACBF – The Zimbabwe Independent January 5, 2016
ZIMBABWE has been ranked 36 out of 45 African countries, making the country one of the tail-enders with respect to policy consistency and quest to meet developmental goals, a regional study has shown as government sends mixed signals on the country’s indigenisation and empowerment policy.
A study carried out by the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) shows that Zimbabwe is struggling to improve its domestic resource mobilisation, which is critical in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the African Union’s vision of an Africa, driven by its own citizens.
The ACBF-Africa Capacity Report (ACR) 2015 launched last week measures and examines capacity in relation to the development agenda in African countries by focusing on the key determinants and components of capacity for development.
The study comes at a time when regional peers have embarked on several reforms to improve business climate and improve wealth creation.
Zimbabwe on the contrary has been criticised for policy inconsistency that has chased away investors. This week, government announced that it would re-gazette indigenisation and empowerment regulations barely a week after a new framework was gazetted.
ACR focuses on the Africa Capacity Indicators and the Africa Capacity Index (ACI) which is a composite index calculated from four clusters that cover the policy environment, implementation processes, development results and capacity development outcomes.
ACR defines capacity as the individual, organisational and societal ability to set goals for development and to achieve them.
Despite government’s efforts on tax revenue collection over the years, the report says the country’s domestic resource mobilisation is low with an average tax effort (1996-2013) of 1,59.
Domestic resource mobilisation in the ACR report refers to generating savings and taxes from domestic resources — and allocating them to economically and socially productive activities —rather than using external sources of financing, such as foreign direct investment, loans, grants, or remittances.
In the report, Zimbabwe’s level of capacity development was in the medium bracket with an ACI composite index value of 46,7.
Other assessment of capacity development areas are: partnering for capacity development and capacity profiling and capacity needs assessment which Zimbabwe is rated 0,0 for both areas.
In other areas like gender equality mainstreaming and social inclusion Zimbabwe is ranked highly at 86,7; development cooperation effectiveness 72,9; policy choices for capacity development 54,5.
The scores of the variable indicators are standardised on a scale ranging from 0-100.
“Results for this year indicate a good policy environment and good implementation processes for most African countries, although countries are not doing as well on development results, reads the ACBF- Africa Capacity Report.
“Notably, capacity development outcomes have deteriorated and remain the most pressing issue. Performance on the thematic indices is generally encouraging and particularly strong on gender equality and social inclusion.”
ACBF in the report said the capacity dimensions of domestic resource mobilisation are crucial today if African countries want to meet the ambitious Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union’s vision of “An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena” (AU 2014) the goals of Agenda 2063.
“Discussions for the post-2015 agenda have set high expectations for domestic resource mobilisation as a self-sustaining development finance strategy. A focus on domestic resource mobilisation and illicit financial flows in the African context is required for several reasons. For a start, mobilising domestic resources allows countries to reduce their dependency on foreign aid,” reads the report.- Wongai Zhangazha
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