Monitoring and evaluation are critical in knowing your successes and your failures.
The research comes in with the necessary insights that will help any government improve their services. That is if they are willing to learn.
From the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government of Zimbabwe has been implementing numerous interventions that were aimed at curbing the spread of the virus. At the same time, these interventions were to protect the people from socio-economic disasters that pandemics bring along.
Given that the pandemic is still ongoing, research around the effectiveness of the national programs is critical and cannot afford to be ignored.
In this regard, we are going to have a look at the recent Afro-barometer report on Zimbabwe. This research is widely known for its mandate in giving a voice.
According to the report, researchers interviewed 1200 adult Zimbabwean citizens. This sample yielded a +/-3% margin of error, pointing to 95% confidence levels.
The report points out that 47% of the respondents said a family member lost their primary source of income due to the prevalence of Covid-19. This data shows the levels of socio-economic impact the pandemic has had on Zimbabwean society.
But how did the government fare in responding to Covid-19? It is plausible that 68% of the respondent considered themselves informed about coronavirus. Information is critical. As reflected in the report, most people (81%) support restrictions put in place as necessary.
A lot of resources were dedicated by the government and other private players donated resources for the government to provide social nets to citizens. It is sad to note that only 10% of the respondent acknowledged that they received some sort of assistance from the government. 48% believe that those dedicated resources were not distributed fairly amongst deserving citizens.
Issues of corruption were also topical in this pandemic, with heavy evidence in the past suggesting that some government officials had a hand in these dealings. 54% of the respondent believe that resources available for responding to the pandemic were lost to corruption. This belief implies that the authorities and ZACC should be putting more efforts to plug leaks that cost the country its public resources.
At this stage of the pandemic, most countries in the world are aiming to achieve herd immunity and public confidence in this regard proves to be critical. The only way for people to be vaccinated in numbers is when they trust the government and have informative confidence that the vaccination process is safe. In the survey, only 42% of the respondents trust the government of Zimbabwe to ensure that the vaccination process and vaccines are safe.
The time for reflection is now and the government of Zimbabwe must not ignore these kinds of researches done by independent players. This gives the authorities an overview of how they have been faring and insights into where they should direct their efforts to.
The Covid-19 pandemic is ongoing!
