Human Rights lobby group, the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) says the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted negatively on the standard of living in the country, calling on the Government to urgently address the situation.
In a report titled the Impact of COVID 19 on Socio-Economic Rights in Zimbabwe, ZPP said a number of factors had impacted on the enjoyment of socio-economic rights with women and children the worst affected.
“There has been a general decline in the standard of living in Zimbabwe due to decades of economic decline, a protracted political and governance crisis spanning decades, weak, inconsistent and ineffective government policies, rampant corruption and recurrent droughts and erratic rains which have plunged millions into chronic hunger and poverty,” noted the report.
The current state of affairs in social service delivery, ZPP said cannot match the impacts of the pandemic.
“The study has shown that the broken and dysfunctional social service delivery system in the country cannot withstand the impacts of the pandemic due to several years of underfunding and neglect by the Government. Nonetheless, there is an opportunity to redress the ongoing crisis by ensuring that socio-economic rights are placed at the center of the COVID-19 response and recovery plans. Bold and urgent actions supported by financial resources will be needed to build back better and equitably in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said ZPP
The pressure group called on the Government to urgently support the vulnerable as well as work with the private sector to protect citizens.
“The Government should urgently release funds earmarked for social protection and it should be disbursed to the most vulnerable and marginalized people. Funds should also be released to critical social service delivery institutions so that they can carry out their mandate of protecting citizens worst affected by the pandemic and reduce the burden of UCDW among women and girls.
“The Government should collaborate with various stakeholders in ensuring that systems and mechanisms for detecting and preventing GBV and exploitation of children are functional, well-resourced and accessible to victims. The systems and mechanisms should be decentralized at community level.
“The Government and development partners should engage frontline health workers and collaboratively work towards resuscitating the health delivery system and provide the right to decent work in a transparent and accountable manner. The Government, central bank and development agencies should timeously disburse financial rescue packages to the informal economy including prioritizing social dialogue with the informal economy associations so that micro and small enterprises, including informal traders, can immediately resuscitate their businesses.”
