Evaluation of the Social Development Fund in Zimbabwe: A Pilot Study

Abstract

This study, which was commissioned from Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen, by the African Development Bank (ADB), contains the findings and recommendations of an evaluation of the Social Development Fund (SDF) in Zimbabwe over 1990-95, the period of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme. The study reviews the initial SDF programme design and the mandate of the SDF. It evaluates the performance first of the social welfare and other non-lending components of the SDF programme, then of the small enterprise lending and training components of the SDF. It proceeds to review the design of the more broadly conceived Poverty Alleviation Action Plan, its relationship with the SDF during the programme period and future options for its integration with the SDF. The study concludes with an assessment of the available options for the future development of the SDF's welfare and credit programmes; and recommendations on possible forms of follow-up intervention by the ADB.

Richard Moorsom is a historian policy researcher specialising on Namibia and southern Africa. A member of CMI's research staff since 1989, he is currently on leave of absence working as a research historian for the Waitangi Tribunal, Wellington, New Zealand.

Dr. Lloyd Sachikonye is a senior researcher at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Zimbabwe, Harare. The social and political dimensions of structural adjustment in Zimbabwe have formed a particular focus of his work, which includes a recent study of industrial restructuring and labour.