Zimbabwe: Policy formulation in the coalition government

When I wrote the article, "The renewal of Zimbabwe," last year on this blog on the 5th of May 2008, I got some very constructive comments in the form of questions that the coalition government can now answer and use to set up policies. I thought of sharing with you readers those comments, with the hope that they might become handy to the policy makers in the coalition government as they try to reconstruct the country.

Clemencia wrote on May 5, 2008 1:25 PM:
I am well versed in economic and financial matters and in view of your points regarding good economic governance I just want to pose some questions that the policy makers in Zimbabwe should answer in order for them to be able to come up with good effective economic policies.
1. How do you reinforce the capacity of the State to coordinate the formulation and implementation of macro-economic and development policy in the face of a lopsided budgetary dependence on external donor funding?
2. How do you manage the timing and sequencing of financial liberalisation, given the adverse effects of premature capital account liberalization such as
capital flight and exchange rate volatility?
3. How do you institute an effective and transparent regulatory and supervisory
framework for the financial sector, promote the independence of the central/reserve bank, given its role and responsibilities as the lender of last resort?
4. How do you strengthen the growth of the financial sector and enhance mobilisation of savings for economic development? Should priority be to the development
of banks or to the stock markets?
5. How do you build strong regulatory institutions that do not at the same time stifle private initiative and economic growth?
6. Is moving public audit agencies from the Executive Branch to a location where they report to parliament a solution to the problem of insufficient independence?
7. What is the degree of autonomy of the tax authority?
8. How best do you improve financial mediation in Zimbabwe, given that some of the financial systems in the country are shallow and highly informal?

Chipo wrote on May 5, 2008 5:53 PM:
I am into Human Resources so let me make my contributions by posing questions for the policy-makers to consider regarding human resources.
1. How do you control bureaucratic excesses and fight political corruption in a context of low salaries in the public service?
2. What type of formal educational system is needed to supply not only the professional skills that are necessary for economic management,
but also the ethics, desired behaviors and values that are required for the effective running of a market friendly public bureaucracy?
3. How do you reconcile the need for a professional public bureaucracy that is devoid of political interferences with the accountability and responsiveness
requirements of a democratic system? What type of incentive systems,
performance measurements and recruitment policy should we put in place?
4. How do you control the incidence of the brain drain in a globalizing world,
adequately motivate not only professional economic and public managers but all professionals for that matter and foster their retention and effective utilization.

Agnes wrote on May 5, 2008 5:56 PM:
I would like to pose my own questions for
the policy makers to ponder using the knowledge of marketing that I have.
1. What is the proper balance between the role of the State and the role of the market, given the adverse effects of both market failure and government failure?
2. How do you promote competition in contexts where the size of the markets is very small?
3. How do you reconcile the need to build and utilise national capacity, for the sake of country ownership of the development process, with the need to open up public institutions to external inputs in an increasingly globalised world?
4. How do you delineate and enforce property rights in contexts where oral traditions outweigh and conflict with written norms, laws and contracts.

Babra wrote on May 6, 2008 9:13 AM:
Let me make a constructive contribution to your article by digging into my memory about what I learnt many years back at varsity when I was doing my political administration degree. Am into business administration now so pardon me if my
ideas sound a bit rusty. These are the questions that I want the policy makers to ponder about.
1. How do you ensure the independence of the judiciary in a cultural context where the Head of State/Government is perceived and expected to bear ultimate responsibility for social justice and peace?
2. How do you generate or improve dialogue between the State & Civil Society, when the latter is perceived to be engaged in unfair and unspoken competition for political power.?
3. In Zimbabwe, at present, plundering the state or illegal economic transactions
are among the primary sources of personal wealth for most government ministers
as well as ordinary people. How do we prevent this gross mismanagement of public funds and corruption?
4. What institutional values and capacity should be fostered in order to bridge
the gap between policy formulation and policy implementation.?
5. How do you strengthen the regulatory and enforcement capacity of the State
especially as regards corporate governance values and codes of conduct, in a situation where privatization has brought in large and powerful multinational
corporations.?
6. What adjustments if any need to be made to the electoral codes and political
practices to ensure good political governance?
7. Who are the political entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe and what are their defining
characteristics and how do you nurture and support them to be tomorrow’s leaders?
8. How can Zimbabwe best equip itself to conduct and manage the sequencing
and timing of economic and political reforms concomitantly?