At the beginning of each year, I try and catch up on the ever-growing literature on land, agriculture and rural change in Zimbabwe. Each year there seems to be more and more, as the body of work grows based on … Continue reading → …
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ZimbabweLand
Financing agriculture: what are the challenges and opportunities in Zimbabwe?
The previous three blogs have offered some insights into the different dynamics of financing agriculture in Zimbabwe – covering in turn loans/credit, remittances and savings clubs. What is clear is that financing for commercialising and intensifying small- and medium-scale agriculture, … Continue reading → …
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Managing money: savings and investment in Zimbabwean agriculture
The previous two blogs have explored how people in rural settings get hold of money, either through loans/credit or from remittances, but making use of and managing money is a challenge, especially in a high-inflation economy and one with parallel … Continue reading → …
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The changing remittance economy in Zimbabwe
The flow of remittances to Zimbabwe is huge, with diaspora remittances from outside the country estimated at over US$1 billion per annum, or around 16% of total foreign exchange receipts. This comes from a large network in the diaspora, whether … Continue reading → …
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Why financing agriculture in Zimbabwe needs a rethink: limited credit and few loans
Finance is crucial for agriculture – for inputs, for labour, for capital investments and for dealing with emergencies – yet in Zimbabwe agricultural financing is tough. In part this is because of the state of the economy as farmers have … Continue reading → …
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Zimbabweland end-of-year wrap-up, 2023
As has become traditional, I have compiled a list of blogs published during 2023 that have been most read. Always slightly arbitrary I know as those published most recently don’t get much of a chance to appear – anyway, the … Continue reading → …
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Eight conversations about sustainable livelihoods and rural development
Prompted by some new translations, I have discussed my short book Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development at eight different sessions over the past few months. Coming on the back of a podcast recorded in South Africa that was released earlier … Continue reading → …
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Resilience as a process: the multiple meanings of a popular buzzword
Resilience is one of those buzzwords that seems to be everywhere. Every self-respecting donor project has ‘resilience’ in the title, and no doubt in the hallowed halls of COP28 ‘resilient’ climate development is being discussed right now. But what does … Continue reading → …
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Why a focus on climate change and class struggle must be central to debates at COP28
COP28 opens in Dubai later in the week and debates about how to address the climate crisis are in the news. But in the air-conditioned halls of the conference centre there will be little talk of class struggle. Technical solutions … Continue reading → …
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Seven stories about navigating an uncertain world
This blog replicates one that first appeared on the PASTRES site. Although not about Zimbabwe’s land and agrarian change story per se, the themes are highly relevant. Indeed, how farmers, herders, traders and others navigate an uncertain environment has been … Continue reading → …
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