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Takudzwa Chiwereweshe and Wimbainashe Zhakata
Civic society organisations operating in Manicaland need to come up with alternative sources of funding to be able to consistently complement Government efforts to foster growth in the province.

This follows revelations that traditional funding methods have been dwindling owing to the economic recession in donor countries.

Speaking in Mutare last Friday at a meeting with the Manicaland Minister of State for Provincial Affairs  Monica Mutsvangwa, development partners’ coordinator Mr Tinashe Tsepete said the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were committed to working towards achieving set goals and targets.

“We have limited funding streams owing to economic recession in the different donor countries. As a provincial network, we will need to commence discussions on how we can come up with alternative sources of funding our development activities,” he said.

“We in the development sector are aware that our mandate is to complement Government efforts and hence almost all partners present here implement programmes that contribute towards the achievement of goals set in the country’s economic blueprint, Zim-Asset.”

He said the province has been facing some challenges, which include the mid-season drought that had destroyed a significant amount of crops, as well as the outbreak of fall armyworm, that need the development sector to step in and offer assistance to complement Government efforts.

Mr Tsepete added that civic society is also actively seized with pushing for the harmonisation of laws aimed at ending child marriages, including ending incidences of gender-based violence.

“The current disharmony of Zimbabwean laws and Acts on ending child marriages is of concern to us and we have been doing all we can to contribute to the process of harmonising them.

“Gender-based violence has proliferated in our target areas of operation. This will continuously require concerted and holistic efforts in addressing this incessant phenomenon,” he said.

Minister Mutsvangwa commended the work being done by development partners and urged them to continue partnering Government in future development programmes.

“The task at hand of building Manicaland is in the hands of us all. There is need to work together so that we remove any kind of suspicion because after all, you are complimenting Government efforts,” she said.

She promised to work closely with the NGOs on the fight against child marriages and the rehabilitation of the children who survive such unions.

“Child marriages need to be stopped. Children need to be protected. We have talked about ending child marriages. We have organisations that have been trying to build those children’s confidence by ensuring they go back to school.

“To end it, (child marriages) we need to help those children who are already in marriages,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.