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Zimbabwe’s Youth Empowerment Programme and Poverty Alleviation amongst Youths in Gweru Urban District

Zimbabwe’s youth empowerment programme was a public-private partnership between the Government of Zimbabwe and some Zimbabwean financial institutions. The aim of the programme was to alleviate poverty amongst youths through the provision of micro credit. Established in 2009 as the panacea for Zimbab...

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Main Authors: Maraire, Fungayi Promote, Munhande, Constantine
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: UUM Press 2020
Subjects:
JZ International relations
Online Access:https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/29811/1/JGD%2016%2002%202020%20103-126.pdf
https://doi.org/10.32890/jgd2020.16.2.6
https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/29811/
https://e-journal.uum.edu.my/index.php/jgd/article/view/14911
https://doi.org/10.32890/jgd2020.16.2.6
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spelling my.uum.repo.298112023-09-27T15:01:49Z https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/29811/ Zimbabwe’s Youth Empowerment Programme and Poverty Alleviation amongst Youths in Gweru Urban District Maraire, Fungayi Promote Munhande, Constantine JZ International relations Zimbabwe’s youth empowerment programme was a public-private partnership between the Government of Zimbabwe and some Zimbabwean financial institutions. The aim of the programme was to alleviate poverty amongst youths through the provision of micro credit. Established in 2009 as the panacea for Zimbabwe’s youth empowerment challenges, there is very little credible data on the performance and effectiveness of this noble intervention that was criticised by some as partisan. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which Zimbabwe’s youth empowerment programme was able to achieve its main objective of alleviating poverty amongst the youths in Zimbabwe’s Gweru Urban District. The paper adopts a qualitative case study research design utilising both primary and secondary sources of data. Primary data was collected through semi- structured interviews with key informants as well as researcher observation. Secondary data was mainly obtained through searches of both physical and online libraries and repositories. Qualitative content analysis is the method used to analyse the data. The research findings reveal that the objectives of the programme were indeed relevant to the current challenges being faced by the youth in Zimbabwe. However, the programme had very little effect on youth poverty and unemployment in Gweru Urban District which remains high. Possible reasons for the limited effectiveness could be the fact that few youth projects were funded as compared to the number of youths that were in need of funding. The high rate of collapse of the youth projects funded coupled with the failure to sustain production levels achieved after accessing the loans also meant that chances of employment creation were limited. There were however, a few success stories noted by the study. The study recommends more training for beneficiaries if such programmes are to be more effective in future. This study is of significance as it adds to the existing body of knowledge the effectiveness of micro credit as a poverty alleviation strategy. Moreover, the paper is of importance to the Zimbabwe government and other development agents as it provides credible and perhaps more reliable accounts on the performance and effectiveness of Zimbabwe’s youth empowerment programme. UUM Press 2020 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en cc4_by https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/29811/1/JGD%2016%2002%202020%20103-126.pdf Maraire, Fungayi Promote and Munhande, Constantine (2020) Zimbabwe’s Youth Empowerment Programme and Poverty Alleviation amongst Youths in Gweru Urban District. Journal of Governance and Development (JGD), 16 (2). pp. 103-126. ISSN 2289-4756 https://e-journal.uum.edu.my/index.php/jgd/article/view/14911 https://doi.org/10.32890/jgd2020.16.2.6 https://doi.org/10.32890/jgd2020.16.2.6
institution Universiti Utara Malaysia
building UUM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Utara Malaysia
content_source UUM Institutional Repository
url_provider http://repo.uum.edu.my/
language English
topic JZ International relations
spellingShingle JZ International relations
Maraire, Fungayi Promote
Munhande, Constantine
Zimbabwe’s Youth Empowerment Programme and Poverty Alleviation amongst Youths in Gweru Urban District
description Zimbabwe’s youth empowerment programme was a public-private partnership between the Government of Zimbabwe and some Zimbabwean financial institutions. The aim of the programme was to alleviate poverty amongst youths through the provision of micro credit. Established in 2009 as the panacea for Zimbabwe’s youth empowerment challenges, there is very little credible data on the performance and effectiveness of this noble intervention that was criticised by some as partisan. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which Zimbabwe’s youth empowerment programme was able to achieve its main objective of alleviating poverty amongst the youths in Zimbabwe’s Gweru Urban District. The paper adopts a qualitative case study research design utilising both primary and secondary sources of data. Primary data was collected through semi- structured interviews with key informants as well as researcher observation. Secondary data was mainly obtained through searches of both physical and online libraries and repositories. Qualitative content analysis is the method used to analyse the data. The research findings reveal that the objectives of the programme were indeed relevant to the current challenges being faced by the youth in Zimbabwe. However, the programme had very little effect on youth poverty and unemployment in Gweru Urban District which remains high. Possible reasons for the limited effectiveness could be the fact that few youth projects were funded as compared to the number of youths that were in need of funding. The high rate of collapse of the youth projects funded coupled with the failure to sustain production levels achieved after accessing the loans also meant that chances of employment creation were limited. There were however, a few success stories noted by the study. The study recommends more training for beneficiaries if such programmes are to be more effective in future. This study is of significance as it adds to the existing body of knowledge the effectiveness of micro credit as a poverty alleviation strategy. Moreover, the paper is of importance to the Zimbabwe government and other development agents as it provides credible and perhaps more reliable accounts on the performance and effectiveness of Zimbabwe’s youth empowerment programme.
format Article
author Maraire, Fungayi Promote
Munhande, Constantine
author_facet Maraire, Fungayi Promote
Munhande, Constantine
author_sort Maraire, Fungayi Promote
title Zimbabwe’s Youth Empowerment Programme and Poverty Alleviation amongst Youths in Gweru Urban District
title_short Zimbabwe’s Youth Empowerment Programme and Poverty Alleviation amongst Youths in Gweru Urban District
title_full Zimbabwe’s Youth Empowerment Programme and Poverty Alleviation amongst Youths in Gweru Urban District
title_fullStr Zimbabwe’s Youth Empowerment Programme and Poverty Alleviation amongst Youths in Gweru Urban District
title_full_unstemmed Zimbabwe’s Youth Empowerment Programme and Poverty Alleviation amongst Youths in Gweru Urban District
title_sort zimbabwe’s youth empowerment programme and poverty alleviation amongst youths in gweru urban district
publisher UUM Press
publishDate 2020
url https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/29811/1/JGD%2016%2002%202020%20103-126.pdf
https://doi.org/10.32890/jgd2020.16.2.6
https://repo.uum.edu.my/id/eprint/29811/
https://e-journal.uum.edu.my/index.php/jgd/article/view/14911
https://doi.org/10.32890/jgd2020.16.2.6
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score 13.211869

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