NDAMU SANDU
African Development Bank (AfDB) president Akinwumi Adesina has called for a revival of a reconstruction fund to help Zimbabwe deal with some of the social issues as it embarks on reforms as part of the arrears clearance and debt resolution process.
In 2010, a group of donors created the Zimbabwe Multi-Donor Trust Fund (ZimFund) with a focus on emergency infrastructure rehabilitation in water and sanitation, as well as in energy.
“ZimFund, which we all worked on collectively, worked well. Perhaps we can all come together and see how we can revive ZimFund to be a framework to support the Government of Zimbabwe to deal with some of the social issues of reforms,” Adesina said at a recent second structured dialogue.
The AfDB was designated to manage the ZimFund with the endorsement of Zimbabwe’s government, the donor community and the United Nations.
The donors were Australia, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, contributing US$145.8m.
According ZimFund, 4.5m have benefitted from improved water and sanitation services as a result of the water and sanitation projects in Chitungwiza, Chegutu, Kwekwe, Harare, Masvingo Mutare, Ruwa and Redcliff.
ZimFund said 5m Zimbabweans have benefitted from rehabilitated transmission and distribution networks.
Zimbabwe is working on an arrears clearance and debt resolution process which will entail embarking on painful reforms.
The first structured dialogue platform between Zimbabwe and its creditors held last year agreed on three pillars for implementation: economic reforms, governance reforms and land tenure and compensation of former farm owners including resolution on Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement.
Analysts say social issues such as water and sanitation could be forgotten as Zimbabwe embarks on a raft of reforms to get the arrears clearance and debt resolution process completed.
