Multiple Vulnerabilities Locking Rural Communities in the South Eastern Low-Veld of Zimbabwe

Abstract

The study analyses the multiple vulnerabilities of the rural communities. This is an exploratory qualitative case study. One hundred households from ward 20 and 22 participated in this study through questionnaires, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and semi-structured interviews. The average household size was 8 with 30% of the households having a member who was chronically ill while orphans were reported to be present in 54% of the households. The livelihood base was largely agriculturally based where over 53% of them lacked the lacked requisite productive assets for communal faming.   Ninety nine percent had experienced crop failures in the 3 years preceding the study, attributed mainly to insufficient rainfall. Production levels for both field crops and gardening activities were exceptionally low and the markets were poor. The boreholes for the majority of the households and the two irrigations schemes in the two wards were under breakdown. The communities were vulnerable to more frequent floods, droughts, dangerous wild animal and diseases. The  value  of  the  research  is  that  no  known  study  has invoked a holistic approach to study multiple vulnerabilities in rural areas of Zimbabwe. This exploratory study attempt to unravel some of the subtle complexities underlying the vulnerabilities of rural communities in Zimbabwe in a view to recommend empirically based solutions to unlock their potential.

Keywords: Vulnerability, livelihoods, sustainable