BOOKS publications
SADC initiative in Education
Policy Development, Planning
and Management: Report of a
Needs Assement Study

Published by UNESCO Sub-Regional Office for Southern Africa, P.O. Box 435, Highlands, Harare.
Review by Naume Ziyambi

Education is a critical factor in the socio-economic development of societies. But the inefficiency of the educational systems in terms of quality and quantity has been a growing concern in the SADC community.

SADC Initiative in Education Policy Development, Planning and Management: Report of a Needs Assessment Study provides a situation analysis of capacity for policy development in education in southern Africa. It also attempts to identify priority issues that need to be addressed and to propose strategies to this end.

The needs assessment study is the initial phase of a SADC project, with UNESCO and the Netherlands Government as collaborating partners, which aims to build capacity in policy development through regional cooperation.

The study found that existing policies have much similarity in terms of the conditions they attempt to address and the constraints within which they are implemented. These include the quest for access, equity and relevance of education in the context of political reforms and structural adjustment programmes.

Capacity needs and priorities revolve around the shortage and non-effective use of resources, financial, physical and human. This in turn leads to poor policy planning, weak coordination and ineffective monitoring and evaluation.

Proposals for a programme of capacity building include the creation of a regional network through an annual forum for discussion and exchange and strengthening of existing programmes and projects of collaboration.

In order to realise the recommendations made, there is need for more indepth research on national capacities. A team of four consultants covering the then 12 SADC countries within a limited timeframe could not have done full justice to an area of such broad scope.

The state of Zimbabwe's
Environment 1998

Published by Ministry of Mines, Environment and Tourism, Zimbabwe, P Bag 7753, Causeway, Harare.
Review by Tinashe Madava

The State of Zimbabwe’s Environment 1998, edited by Munyaradzi Chenje, Lovemore Sola and Dan Paleczny is a report on a Ministry of Mines, Environment and Tourism coordinated project involving some 40 government and non-governmental, academic and industrial organisations.

Wide-ranging in scope, the report explores Zimbabwe’s environmental problems as well as the impacts of political, economic and social decisions of the past and present on the environment.

This holistic approach is a strength of the book as it provides decision-makers with a means of identifying past and present shortcomings.

The land issue is a highly charged one in Zimbabwe at the moment. Here, the report looks at the historical context of how land was allocated in Zimbabwe and the impacts this has had on communities and the environment.

The book calls for land redistribution as a solution to the problems of high population densities, high rates of soil erosion, deforestation, land fragmentation into uneconomic units, overstocking, overgrazing and illegal settlement in fragile areas.

The report serves as a catalogue of the condition of Zimbabwe’s land, water, air, plant and animal resources, and as a means of understanding the complex ways in which the country’s history, traditions and policies have served to create the current environmental situation.

Articles on SADC issues....

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Guest Column

Around the region -- news briefs
Mozambique National Human Development Report ’98
Published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), P.O. Box 4595, Maputo, Mozambique.
Review by Naume Ziyambi.
Peace and economic growth, with or with out human development is the central theme of the recently published Mozambique National Human Development Report 1998.

The challenges facing Mozambique today, in terms of sustainable development, are enormous but not insurmountable. Opportunities exist provided that there is rapid human development through “a skillful and intelligent management policy”.

The Global Human Development Report (GHDR), which conceives human development as “the process of enlarging people’s choices”, was the basis upon which the Mozambique report was compiled. Building on the GHDR concept, the report uses available data to make a valuable contribution towards an updated Human Development Index (HDI). The HDI in the report is measured in three key parameters: life expectancy, education and the standard of living.

The report shows that Mozambique’s HDI improved by an annual average of 12 percent between 1995 and 1997 and was set to grow further in 1998. In the last 20 years, life expectancy and educational levels have accounted for the greatest part of the HDI, contributing about 40 percent each with the other 20 percent coming from the standard of living component, which is measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

However, Mozambique’s GDP has been steadily growing since the end of the war in 1992, surpassing growth of the other two indicators – life expectancy and education.

Apart from being the first of its kind in Mozambique, the report is to be commended for bringing together a group of Mozambican professionals and intellectuals, most of them independent of UNDP, to debate and analyse the development challenges facing the country.

The report, which was sponsored by the UNDP office in Maputo and ILO, with coordination and technical assistance from the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) office in Maputo, is attractively designed with illustrations to facilitate accessibility.

Political, technical and administrative leaders will find the report, written in Portuguese and English, useful in the design, implementation, monitoring and assessment of development strategies and programmes.