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The resources towards devolution have been increased from Z$720 million in 2019 to Z$3 billion in 2020 and the provinces have been challenged to come up with high impact projects that transform the people’s lives. 

In his New Year message, President Mnangagwa said the respective communities should take advantage of the increased resources for devolution to accelerate the formulation and implementation of high impact projects which transform the people’s lives. 

He said the ongoing development drive should not leave anyone behind. When President Mnangagwa chaired his first Cabinet meeting on December 3, 2017, he gave the new ministers a week to come up with priority projects and quick-win measures to improve the livelihoods of the people. 

He challenged the ministers to get down to business and set priority projects that had a visible impact on the ground. The message is now being cascaded to provinces that should come up with quick-win projects for implementation under devolution. 

What is critical in our view is to identify the organs or institutions that should drive the identification and implementation of these high impact projects. It is a fact that we have in rural areas district councils while in towns and cities we have municipalities whose responsibility is to drive development. 

The provincial councils that are supposed to head provinces are yet to be operational and this might be a stumbling block to the formulation and implementation of high impact projects. 

There is therefore a need to operationalise these councils and in the event there is a change regarding the issue then it has to be made clear so that rural and urban councils drive the implementation of these high impact projects. 

We want to commend Government for availing resources to decentralise development to provinces and what is important is to come out clear regarding those responsible for formulating and implementing development projects. 

It might be interesting to review the implementation of high impact projects by different Government ministries since the challenge by President Mnangagwa in December 2017 when he chaired his first Cabinet meeting so that we can draw lessons as a nation as we move to formulate and implement similar projects at provincial or district level. 

The shortcomings or challenges encountered by the different ministries might assist the provinces in improving on the formulation and implementation of high impact projects. The objective of devolution is to facilitate the exploitation of local resources to develop communities hence the Central Government’s decision to allocate resources to the respective provinces. 

We want to once again implore Government to come out clear regarding institutions that should drive devolution so that resources that have been allocated can be put to good use.