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Canada’s Commitment
Results
Country Profile
Canada’s Commitment
Canada has had a strong historic relationship with Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980. The Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) has made an overall contribution of almost $400 million in Zimbabwe since that time, in support of reducing poverty and improving the overall quality of life of the people of Zimbabwe. In 2003-04, CIDA contributed $16.42 million to strengthen civil society organizations working in Zimbabwe as well as to provide humanitarian assistance.
An AIDS educator works with a women's
group as part of the regional Southern Africa
AIDS Training Program
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Zimbabwe’s domestic situation is of great concern to Canada, which has attempted, through the Commonwealth and in concert with other nations, to help settle the crisis peacefully and democratically. Canada regularly denounces the abuses of civil rights and liberties in Zimbabwe, at the United Nations, the Commonwealth and elsewhere. To exert pressure on the authorities, Canada decided in March 2002 to withdraw all official Canadian direct funding to the government and to deny the granting of visas to senior members of the current government.
Through our current official development cooperation program, CIDA is working with a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Zimbabwean community-based organizations, and focussing its programming on two key sectors—human rights, governance and protection and health (HIV/AIDS), along with the crosscutting theme of gender equality which is being pursued across the program.
The goals of this approach are:
- To address the humanitarian needs of Zimbabweans, particularly related to the spread of HIV/AIDS and food insecurity;
- To build capacity and maintain community-level civil-society institutions as catalysts for future growth; and
- To work to promote dialogue and commitment to the governance, economic and development goals as outlined in the NEPAD.
Several regional crises, such as the dramatic increase in HIV/AIDS prevalence and an acute drought, compound the challenges facing development in Zimbabwe.
 Results
Despite the considerable challenges, CIDA-funded programs are designed to benefit the people of Zimbabwe. For example:
- HIV/AIDS projects—supporting community-based prevention and care initiatives on HIV/AIDS, including the prevention of mother to child transmission—benefited 21,000 mothers and their children through counselling, medication and training;
- Strengthening the capacity of NGOs and civil society to promote and protect human rights, led to the promotion of democracy and good governance, as well as gender equality throughout the country;
- Support is provided to local partners to promote the rule of law in Zimbabwe by improving access to the justice system.
Country Profile
The political and economic situation remains difficult in the country. In November 2005, the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front won an overwhelming majority in the elections for the newly-created Senate, but with a historically low voter turn out (19%). The opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change, meanwhile, remains weakened by internal struggles.
In March 2006 inflation surged to 1,000 percent, while real Gross Domestic Product is estimated to have declined by some 6.5 percent during the previous year. Shortages of food, fuel and essential agricultural inputs remain acute. Notwithstanding recent rainfalls, food security remains a major concern, due to rising poverty and low agricultural output as a result of shortages of critical inputs (e.g., fertilizer), poor seed quality, and the deterioration in governance, particularly with respect to disruptive implementation of land reform.
Since 2000, Zimbabwe’s Human Development Index fell significantly, to 0.505 in 2003, which places the country 145th out of 177.
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