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| Zimbabwean Finance Minister Tendai Biti. |
ZIMBABWE saw a record drop in poverty levels as part of a "peace
dividend" under the stewardship of former finance minister Tendai Biti
and Zimbabwe’s unity government, Afrobarometer’s 2012 Lived Poverty
Index shows.
The survey results, which were released on Tuesday,
cover a period when key ministries such as education, finance and health
were run by ministers, including Mr Biti, from the Movement for
Democratic Change (MDC).
The country’s relative economic stability
between 2008 and this year is credited to the unity government and
comes off a low base after nearly a decade of economic mismanagement
that includes President Robert Mugabe’s disruptive land-redistribution
programme.
The survey says poverty levels declined despite the unemployment rate remaining above 80%.
Analysts
told Business Day that poverty may have fallen mainly as a result of
most citizens taking up informal revenue generation. "The economy
improved, inflation was stable and there was confidence in the unity
government. Most Zimbabweans crossed the borders and supported families
and friends with remittances while those that stayed engaged in informal
trade dealings," said economic analyst Johannes Kwangwari.
The
latest Afrobarometer surveyed 54,005 people in 35 countries between
October 2011 and June this year, only a few weeks before Zimbabwe
conducted elections, which were won by Mr Mugabe and his Zanu (PF)
party.
The Afrobarometer survey says Zimbabwe scored 1.36 on the
Lived Poverty Index compared to the 2.02 it scored for 2008. A score of
four on the index shows an absence of basic necessities while zero
reflects no poverty at all.
"Following the disputed and highly
flawed 2008 election, a government of national unity was put into place.
The previous opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC), gained control of the ministry of finance (under Mr Biti).
"One apparent result of this ‘peace dividend’ was a rapid fall in lived poverty," says the survey.
Mr
Biti clashed with Mr Mugabe’s government over issues such as reducing
government expenditure during his tenure as finance minister.
He
failed to force Mr Mugabe’s party, under which the mining and justice
ministries fell, to adequately account for revenue from diamond mining,
an issue that remains unresolved.
The Afrobarometer survey also
showed poverty levels in South Africa worsened even as the African
economic powerhouse reportedly notched up 3.6% growth between 2002 and
last year.
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