Meet Savanna Trust: Transforming Communities Through the Arts

http://www.savannatrust.com

• What is the role of citizens in ensuring good governance?
• How do we respond to the human rights violations, particularly abductions and harassment of human rights defenders and citizens in our communities?
• How do citizens speak to the abuse of state power and resources by politicians?

Savanna Trust’s flagship play “Liberation” is leaving an important footprint on citizen dialogue around issues relating to human rights, governance and democratic participation in Zimbabwe. These are just a few of the discussions happening post performances. The theatrical backdrop invites critical feedback from audience members on these national processes and perspectives on how they can play out in their local communities.

Meet Bulawayo Vendors and Traders Association (BVTA)

http://www.bvtatrust.org

In 2016 BVTA trained over 600 vendors and informal traders on economic and social rights. BVTA has a membership of over 2000 informal traders in 29 Bulawayo metropolitan wards.  In parternship with ZimbabweAlliance, BVTA has launched the Vendors’ Voices Project (VVP) to innovatively empower informal traders to effectively speak truth to power through existing informal social infrastructure including Stokvels, vendors investment clubs, house meetings, Community-Based Advocacy Teams (CoMBAT) to hold City Council accountable in 4 wards across Bulawayo. BVTA recently held its an Onsite Digital Age Vendors (ODAV) training, equipping over 50 vendors in digital literacy including citizen and advocacy journalism. VISET and BVTA are also coordinating and working together to strengthen the voice of the informal sector across the country.

Meet National Association of Youth Organisations (NAYO)

www.nayoafrica.org

The 2017-2018 Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) exercise in Zimbabwe has revealed an increase from 2013 registration figures of youth registration to 70% (or 3 612 039 out of the total 5 185 072)[1] registered between 20 and 44 years. Youth participation is going to be a determinant factor in the upcoming elections, and even more critical post-elections in shaping governance as young people seek to reclaim leadership at both the level of structure and policy in Zimbabwe.

Meet Vendors Initiative for Socio-Economic Transformation (VISET)

www.viset.org.zw
At Independence in 1980, Zimbabwe inherited a relatively small informal economy which accounted for less than 10% of the labor force. In 2017, Afrobarometer reported that only 26% of youth between 18 and 35 described themselves as in full-time employment.  Voices of Zimbabwe (VoZ) recent poll of vendors the respondents indicated a lack of formal jobs as the recourse people have to make a living (see VoZ economic series report: www.voicesofzimbabwe.net, @Voices_ZW).

Africa loses an estimated $60 billion every year through Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs). Defined by the Global Financial Integrity as “money that is illegally earned or transferred”, this enormous hemorrhage of financial resources from the continent severely undermines Africa’s capacity for domestic resource mobilization (DRM) leaving African countries with no resources to finance development. The majority of these IFFs originate from tax evasion and tax avoidance practices perpetrated by multi-national corporations (MNCs), particularly those involved in the extractive sector. In the last 3 decades cumulative losses from the continent amount to over $1 trillion. Thus, effectively IFFs deprive countries of public revenues that could be used to address poverty and inequality.

By Briggs Bomba

Some have questioned whether Zimbabweans have any reason to celebrate the fall of President Robert Mugabe, and sentiments are divided over the meaning of this change to the struggle for democracy and their aspirations for a better future.

I argue that Zimbabweans have every reason to celebrate Mugabe's fall but that the bigger task is to use this opportunity to organize with more vigor for a more democratic and just Zimbabwe.

Further, I assert that Mugabe's fall creates a new cultural climate of which Zimbabweans must take advantage to launch a new era of invigorated civic organizing and citizen agency in the country.

TrustAfrica is an Africa-wide grantmaking foundation that is dedicated to fostering democratic governance and equitable development and works principally through collaboration and partnership with like-minded institutions and donors. It is incorporated in the United States as a 501(c)(3) taxexempt organization and has a location agreement with the government of Senegal. It has program presence in several African countries, maintains partnerships with several of Africa’s leading institutions, and has built a formidable reputation as a strategic grantmaker and an effective convener. Since 2006, TrustAfrica has supported well over 300 cutting-edge projects in 35 countries, with a focus on some of the most challenging countries which are often unreached by traditional funding institutions. TrustAfrica has a core staff from different countries, based in Dakar, Harare, Johannesburg, and Monrovia, and now has staff presence and a network of program advisors and consultants in all the sub-regions of the continent, as well as peer reviewers in over 20 African countries.