An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Community Development Strategy on Poverty Alleviation in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The major objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of community development projects in addressing poverty in Zimbabwe. In order to make this assessment an evaluation of Nyandoro community project was undertaken to find out if they have managed to create employment, increase consumption and increase the incomes Ievels of the majority of the population within these communities as it was the intention of government. The second goal of the state for these projects was to bring equity among the citizens by empowering and promoting people's participation in decision making and to reverse the years of deprivation and neglect of the poor. Therefore this study also made an assessment of the extent to which these objectives of the government have been accomplished. The research investigates the factors hampering the upliftment of the Iivelihoods of the poor through community development projects. For this study qualitative and quantitative methodology paradigms were employed. Qualitative research is one of the two major approaches to research methodology in social sciences. The qualitative perspective can give the researcher the inside view of the informants and can give the researcher a chance to probe for more information. Simply put, it investigates the why and how of decision making, as compared to what, where, and when. WhiIst on the other hand quantitative is deductive and will comprise of structured questions to eliminate researchers influence (Creswell, 1994:174). These two l perspectives complement each other and their convergence will increase confidence that what is being targeted is being accurately captured since any bias will be neutralised through the utilization of structured questions.