Challenges and opportunities for indigenous social protection systems in Zimbabwe: A conceptual review

Abstract

This conceptual article reviews indigenous social protection programmes in Zimbabwe as we highlight challenges militating against each program and respective opportunities that can be salvaged to improve these programs. Among the social protection programmes reviewed are savings clubs, zunde ramambo and sara pavana. The Ubuntu philosophy was adopted as the conceptual framework to analyse the delivery of indigenous social protection programmes in Zimbabwe. Research findings indicated that the indigenous social protection programmes in Zimbabwe are associated with a myriad of challenges largely related to the current socio-economic and political environment in the country together with the negative impact of pandemics, and the forces of globalisation and westernisation. We then recommended the need to formalise indigenous systems of social security; for the government to provide more land, raise awareness and mobilise key stakeholders to participate in zunde ramambo programmes; for the government and other key stakeholders to improve in the coordination of indigenous social protection programmes among key stakeholders which include government, leaders including chiefs, local government, as well as social workers so as to maximize or leverage of these systems, among other recommendations.