dc.description.abstract |
has taken charge in most developing countries, unfavourable to the wellbeing
of the less economically advantaged populations. Seemingly,
Zimbabwe is not an exception to this development. Increasing concerns
have been expressed about the effects of the several interventions aimed
at poverty reduction in Zimbabwe, both from within and outside the country.
The programmes and projects that have been devised to address poverty
nationally and at local levels since 1980 have allocated vast amounts of
resources and funding to different projects and initiatives. The nature of
these initiatives have not demonstrated huge and resounding successes
mostly because there have been serious shortcomings in their
conceptualisation and implementation. Based on the social development
theory that believes that the human being should be the centre of
development, this paper conceived poverty as deprivation of means of
securing necessities in life. This research focused on assessing why the
contribution of Food-for-work and Cash-for-work (public works)
programmes towards reducing vulnerability of households to the problems
of food deprivation, unemployment, and social exclusion in making
important decisions in life has not produced resounding results.
This dissertation provides answers the problem and sub-questions based
on both quantitative and qualitative data collected from a focus group
discussion and a household questionnaire survey carried out in July-August
2008. From the discussions held it was established that, poverty in the Gutu
District is strongly linked to a failure of productive agriculture and exclusion
from formal or urban wage employment. The main conclusions are that the
public works programme has neither brought all the benefits its proponents |
en_ZA |