Africa and the rest of the developing world highly depend on foreign aid for development and poverty alleviation.  Zimbabwe is no stranger to aid and the early success of the ruling ZANU PF government especially in the fight against illiteracy, disease and malnutrition was entirely due to the massive support from foreign donors and aid agencies.

The last ten years have seen rapid growth in the need for donor and aid support to Zimbabwe, yet the activities of NGOs and aid agencies have been severely crippled by the destructive policies of the ruling ZANU PF government. The NGOs are viewed with suspicion by a government whose increasingly paranoid tendencies have seen them come up with the most unimaginable pieces of legislation, such as the Non-Governmental Organizations Bill of 2004, which was passed into law in 2006.

The Bill has literally outlawed more than twenty NGOs that have been operating in Zimbabwe for years.  A catalogue of stringent re-registration rules were put in place that have forced most NGOs to simply pack their bags and go back to their countries of origin.  Those that have been formed and started from within Zimbabwe have simply folded and seized to operate.

Sadly, the primary victims of the paranoid actions of the government have not been the NGOs nor their supposed “Western financier,” but the ordinary impoverished people of Zimbabwe, who have since endured untold hardships.

A ZPDP government will seek to have the anti-NGO legislation repealed and NGOs given the independence that they have always enjoyed in Zimbabwe. Our government will ensure that there is zero interference by politicians in the operations and activities of NGOs in Zimbabwe.  Our government will ensure there is zero-politicization of aid and humanitarian assistance that is meant for poverty alleviation and reduction.  A ZPDP government will leave the distribution and disbursement of any such aid and humanitarian assistance to the NGOs and any non-political players whose service might be enlisted to do so.

Under a ZPDP government, the growth and non-interference of NGO activities will be totally guaranteed because this is necessary for poverty alleviation and reduction. Politicians will not be allowed to seek cheap mileage through their unsolicited meddling in the distribution of aid and humanitarian assistance especially in times of man-made crises and humanitarian disasters as the ones we have witnessed in Zimbabwe in recent years.

Politicians will be restricted to their primary function of governing in the national interest.