We took a moment to pause and reflect at the beginning of 2024. The reflection was mostly influenced by the need to make sure we remain focused and responsive to emerging challenges on the ground. One of our first reflections focused mostly on what we think the year ahead should be about. Our Executive Director’s Big Bet blog on Engaged Communities helped to set the tone for the kind of work that needs to be done.
Firstly, we have renamed one of our centres from the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Financial to the Centre for Economic Development and Livelihoods. This name change will be more encompassing of the work we want to do to understand the political economy of development considering our studies on land, agrarian reform, entrepreneurship, and inclusion in general. Secondly, we have ramped up our communications understanding that the data we produce must be communicated well to have an impact. Our communications now include SIVIO TV for visual content to capture millennials and Gen Zs on visual communication platforms, SIVIO Connect for blog updates and opinion pieces and our regular social media channels. This diverse suite of platforms will hopefully capture the needs of all our diverse audiences.
Our thematic focus this year is on engaged communities evident through associational life. Our Director- Tendai Murisa encapsulates it well in this defining opinion piece- The Big Bet promoting a new shift in all our centres of work.
In the Centre for Civic Engagement, we revamped ZIMCITIZENSWATCH which we initially introduced to the world in 2018. It was then and still is one of our flagship projects. The platform is an online tracker measuring government progress in meeting policy promises to citizens. We have successfully modified it into a tracker of citizens’ perceptions and expectations taking data from an annual survey of the same name while aligning the tracker with the National Development Strategy (NDS 1) 2021-2025. This has resulted in the creation of a unique product that balances citizen expectations and government objectives.
In this centre, we started an initiative called “Building a Concerted Movement of Youths and Women for Democracy and Development” which aims to nurture women’s and youths’ activism and advocacy capacities incubating 16 youth and women activists, journalists, and human rights defenders from across Zimbabwe to help them build sustainable and visible organisations focusing on inclusive democracy.
The Civic Engagement Team participated in a regional dialogue on the Just Energy Transition, Natural Resource Governance, and Climate Change in Southern Africa from the 13th – 14th of February hosted by Southern Africa Trust (SAT) where we shared insights based on our work on enhancing transparency and accountability in the mining sector using our Mining Revenue Monitoring Index (MRMI). The team has also been collaborating with Green Governance Zimbabwe Trust on their Data Driven Advocacy for Accountability in Mining initiative in various face-to-face and online meetings sharing insights on our MRMI. This included a meeting with the Parliamentary Youth Caucus.
Our three policy labs on unemployment, corruption, and price stabilisation which started in 2023 are almost complete. We have 65 participants in total who are working on developing an advocacy plan to carry out advocacy actions during this lab process. The labs will conclude at the end of May 2024.
In the newly formed Centre for Economic Development and Livelihoods, we completed a three-country study on financial inclusion in Kenya, Malawi and Zambia publishing four reports one for each country and an index report which combines data from these three countries and 2021 data from Zimbabwe. We used the data to remodel the SIVIO Institute Financial Inclusion Index (SI-FIndex) developed in 2021. The focus of this study was on the level of digital and financial inclusion of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in these countries. We also saw the completion of our social entrepreneurship lab with 14 founders of social enterprises with ideas that range from agriculture, waste management, climate change, renewable energy, and transport.
In our Centre for Philanthropy and Communities, we have been working on building databases of philanthropy actors to boost our resources for the Philanthropy Lab. We are currently building four databases on community foundations in Southern Africa, philanthropy support organisations, philanthropy networks in Africa and regranting organisations in the region. In a commitment to our philanthropy network building, we are planning to hold a meeting in Zimbabwe which will be the first-ever community foundation network meeting in the country to aid in the development of networks not just in Zimbabwe but in the region.
As a member organisation of the WINGS network, we are part of the Enabling Environment Working group working to assess the operating environment for philanthropy and the CSO sector broadly. In January we participated in the first working group meeting which set the objectives for the priorities of the working group this year. Advocating for an enabling environment is an ongoing endeavour and the meeting sought ways of deepening the work.
In this centre, we were also part of a panel speaking on the role of NGOS in Achieving SDGs in commemoration of World NGO Day on the 27th of February. Our Executive Director was invited by the Nigerian-based, HEXA media which works with non-profits across Africa to enhance their digital footprint and fundraising efforts. The theme of the webinar was The Rise of NGOs in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in Africa.
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