Papers by Bernard Chazovachii
The major fulcrum of this study was on examining the impact of the Domestic Violence Act in reduc... more The major fulcrum of this study was on examining the impact of the Domestic Violence Act in reducing violence perpetrated against women. More specifically, the study sought to establish factors that constrain the full implementation of the Act. It further explored strategies employed by survivors of violence to alleviate their suffering. The study used qualitative methodology with unstructured interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions as the data gathering techniques. Purposive sampling was selected as it enabled the researcher to use his knowledge of the area of study. The study was grounded in Giddens' structuration theory which contends that structures and actors constitute each other. The research explored and established that domestic violence was still very high in rural areas despite the enactment of the Domestic Violence Act. Several factors amongst them lack of awareness of the Act, women dependency on their husbands, societal attitudes and beliefs, the dual legal system and weak enforcement mechanism were identified as impeding the effective implementation of the Act. Despite the challenges faced vis-a-vis the implementation of the Act, women devised strategies that included forging networks to provide emotional support, using love potions and resorting to newly emerging Pentecostal churches to ameliorate their suffering. The research concluded that the Act has had a negligible impact as women continue to bear the brunt of domestic violence. Notwithstanding the endeavours to empower women through reducing the various forms of abuse, gender equality remains contentious, elusive and vehemently opposed and resisted by men, the major beneficiaries of the status quo.
Realizing social exclusion at its peak in Masvingo, Gutu district, Non Governmental Organizations... more Realizing social exclusion at its peak in Masvingo, Gutu district, Non Governmental Organizations intervened through the provision of piggery project as an attempt to empower the rural communities. This paper sought to evaluate the contribution of piggery production project to the empowerment of rural people in ward 21 of Gutu District. Quantitatively; questionnaires were used while interviews and field observations were done in collecting qualitative data. The findings revealed that different benefits were derived from the project and these included meat (human capital), manure and infrastructures (physical capital), and financial capital. These benefits brought empowerment through human capital enhancement, increased income from financial capital, broadening livelihood portfolios through Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAS), chicken rearing, rural trade and garden farming from manure. Although the project achieved economic empowerment to some extent, little was done to social empowerment since women, children, the old aged, the HIV and AIDS victims were secluded while the economically active group empowered. Therefore, for such projects to succeed ,there should be inclusion of all the people in the village willing to participate regardless of the age, sex, marital status and health; training and marketing of products be strengthened for the sustainability of the empowerment projects.
Russian Journal of Agricultural and Socio-Economic Sciences, 2013
The study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of community participation in rural development pr... more The study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of community participation in rural development projects in Zimbabwe testing the credibility of the popularized supposition that almost all contemporary development efforts characteristically embrace local participation. Public participation is widely assumed to be an essential ingredient for the fruition of rural development efforts. The research made use of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies in which unstructured interviews, focus group discussions and questionnaires were used as data gathering instruments. The analysis of data was enabled by the use of People-Centered Development (PCD) as a conceptual framework. Findings revealed that the level of community participation in the district is not only minimal, but it is also top down. This has much to do with the negative perceptions by facilitating agents viewing local people as passive recipients of externally crafted models of development and other factors such as the power dynamics within and between the community and other stakeholders. The research also found preferential treatment of other tribal groups by the facilitating agent, intra group conflicts and bureaucratic and political influence as obstacles militating against effective participation. Based on these findings, and consistent with the wider literature, recommendation are that the nature of community engagement should be based on the principle of equal partnership among all stakeholders as this would encourage full cooperation and thus effective participation.
Determinants of Climate-Smart Agriculture Dissemination Strategies in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT ALTERNATIVES
The purpose of this article is to identify determinants of Climate-Smart Agriculture disseminatio... more The purpose of this article is to identify determinants of Climate-Smart Agriculture dissemination among different categories of smallholder farmers. It notes that climatic change is a global phenomenon that requires stakeholders to exercise their minds, as a collective, to find long-lasting solutions. Although the potential of Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is acknowledged in academia and among development agencies, it remains unclear whether smallholder farmers would be willing to adopt the initiative. Whereas CSA has been hailed as a way of cushioning smallholder famers from the vagaries of climate change, determinants of its dissemination are unclear to smallholder farmers. This article draws data from the smallholder farmer in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe; and it finds that categories in technology adoption are characterised by different levels of risks that farmers are keen to take, human capital, resource endowment and entitlements, reliability, and accessibility of the strategy and i...
Understanding Strategies for Resilient Livelihoods by Masvingo Urban’s Vulnerable Groups During the Covid-19 Pandemic in Zimbabwe
African Journal of Governance & Development, Oct 1, 2020
Journal of Human Ecology
This paper examines the impact of tourism leakages on the local economies. It draws results from ... more This paper examines the impact of tourism leakages on the local economies. It draws results from a survey done in Nyanga District in Zimbabwe. Data were collected using questionnaires and in-depth interviews. The quantitative analyses were employed to evaluate the level of leakages and its impact on local economies using monetary values. Content analysis was used to summarize community perception of tourism contribution to local economies. Results revealed that the most dominant type of leakage noted in the study area was inter nal/import leakage followed by external leakage and pre-leakage. Out of USD $187 that is spent by each tourist in Nyanga per day, the locals only get USD $24 which is 12. 83% and the rest, 87.17% goes to the service providers which are not owned by the local people. The leakage of money out of the country was however relatively low. The paper concludes that the low leakage out of the country is a result of limited number of international tourists. Reduction of leakages can only be achieved through the creation of strong and sustainable linkages of ecotourism with the other livelihood options, training local communities and strong local community participation in eco tourism activities.
Russian Journal of Agricultural and Socio-Economic Sciences, 2013
This study seeks to assess the impact of rural high way service centres on livelihood diversity. ... more This study seeks to assess the impact of rural high way service centres on livelihood diversity. The establishment of Ngundu rural highway service centre was an approach to assist highway travelers and local residents in accessing essential services without going offroute. Since the establishment of these highway service centers, little has been realized in terms of their utility. Data was collected using questionnaires; participatory observation and interviews and presented in the form of graphs; pie charts and tables. The rural highway service centre benefited local residents in its sphere of influence through social welfare provision; employment creation; recreation and as agricultural inputs collection centres. However the opportunity on livelihoods diversity by locals and travelers to enjoy their need has been abused .Both locals and travelers have turned the centre into risk livelihood strategies arena, crime and deviant behavior proliferated turning it into life threatening zone. Therefore need is there to reinforce overnight surveillance through the neighborhood watch for security and welfare of genuine dealers and travelers for sustainable and investment confident and promotion climate.
Multiplicative Lie-Type Derivations on Rings
Bulletin of The Iranian Mathematical Society, 2021
Sustainable Agriculture Research, 2012
The study sought to establish the contribution of beekeeping in rural livelihoods sustainability.... more The study sought to establish the contribution of beekeeping in rural livelihoods sustainability. Chitanga village had experienced low agricultural productivity due to poor and infertile soils and this has led to food insecurity which had driven them into beekeeping. This opportunity has been driven by the existence of tall trees and wild plants that develop flowers in the village which attracted bees. However, the utility of beekeeping enterprise as a livelihood activity has not been fully realised. This study was carried out in the context of a sustainable rural livelihoods framework. This framework states that at any given time, every community or society falls under a vulnerability context as a result of both natural and human made disasters. In light of the vulnerability, a community mobilises the various forms of its assets at its disposal to earn a living. Applying this framework, the study analysed the strategies the community employed to enhance its livelihoods through the sharing of benefits. The research used questionnaires, structured interviews and observations as sources of gathering data. The study established the benefits which accrued from beekeeping that included honey as food, income in the form of cash, medicines, scenery creation for tourism and income generating projects through making of hives, growing of flowers and citrus fruits which attract bees. A backward and forward linkage of enterprises emerged. Employment creation and increasing in the number of livelihood activities in the area has been witnessed due to beekeeping. This culminated in diversification of livelihood options leading to rural transformation through utilization of local available resources. The study recommends that the sustainability of beekeeping enterprise should be reinforced by backward and forward linkages. The government partnered by NGOs should take the lead and compliment the efforts of beekeepers by providing clear policy and planning.
AFRICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL RESEEARCH, 2012
Advanced Monitoring Systems of the processes constitute a higher level to the systems of control ... more Advanced Monitoring Systems of the processes constitute a higher level to the systems of control and use specific techniques and methods. An important part of the task of supervision focuses on the detection and the diagnosis of various situations of faults which can affect the process. Methods of fault detection and diagnosis (FDD) are different from the type of knowledge about the process that they require. They can be classified as data-driven, analytical, or knowledgebased approach. A collaborative FDD approach that combines the strengths of various heterogeneous FDD methods is able to maximize diagnostic performance. The new generation of knowledge-based systems or decision support systems needs to tap into knowledge that is both very broad, but specific to a domain, combining learning, structured representations of domain knowledge such as ontologies and reasoning tools. In this paper, we present a decisionaid tool in case of malfunction of high power industrial steam boiler. For this purpose an ontology was developed and considered as a prior conceptual knowledge in Inductive Logic Programming (ILP) for inducing diagnosis rules. The next step of the process concerns the inclusion of rules acquired by induction in the knowledge base as well as their exploitation for reasoning.
Merlot, a non-timber forest product, has never been taken aboard when it comes to the national ec... more Merlot, a non-timber forest product, has never been taken aboard when it comes to the national economic contribution in Zimbabwe. It has been viewed as a fruit for the rural poor people and wild animals. Therefore this paper seeks to assess the utilization of merlot fruit as a dry land rural livelihood enhancement strategy in Dande area. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies through questionnaires, secondary records, interviews, focused group discussions and observations respectively were used in the collection of data. Content analysis and categorical data generated were coded according to themes and tabulated for presentation and analysis. Findings revealed that the fruit can be eaten raw, made into jam or sweet strips and in porridge preparation. It can generate income for the rural households after sale and enterprise development which created employment for the rural youth. Beer can be brewed from the fruit for cooperative work (nhimbe) for community development and f...
Resilient entrepreneurial poor in urban housing by the homeless people in Chimanimani post-Cyclone Idai disaster in Zimbabwe
The Fountain – Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 2019
Despite the homelessness escalated by Cyclone Idai in Chimanimani town in Manicaland province, in... more Despite the homelessness escalated by Cyclone Idai in Chimanimani town in Manicaland province, in Zimbabwe, entrepreneurial poor continued with their resilience in accessing affordable housing in urban areas. In spite of these efforts, little has been theorized on the homeless entrepreneurial poor strategies in accessing low cost urban housing in urban areas. Therefore, it is against this backdrop that the paper seeks to explore the resilience theory and how it informs entrepreneurial poor in accessing housing, institutional resilience and household transformation in post disaster situations, the national housing policy and how it accommodated the entrepreneurial poor in Zimbabwe and lastly how assets and transforming structures and processes contributed to the transformation of the entrepreneurial homeless households into a secure, vulnerability free and more secure Chimanimani town.
Gendered impacts of Climate Change in Africa
This paper seeks to discuss the nexus between climate change and social relations in Africa using... more This paper seeks to discuss the nexus between climate change and social relations in Africa using a case study approach of Cyclone Idai in Chimanimani district, Zimbabwe. Disaster induced displacement remains another affirmation of the flawed notion of pre and post-disaster preparedness and human security as a gendered caveat. This paper theoretically and empirically unravels the incessant feminisation of socio-economic insecurity in the contexts of forced displacement post Cyclone Idai. The researcher alludes to the prevalence of epitomising gender dichotomies of victimhood among displaced men and women, yet again framing social relations and human security on masculine-feminine asymmetries. The article empirically espouses feminized intricacies of security from the everyday experiences and narratives of men and women in the case study area as a basis for pragmatic solutions that should inform strategies and policies meant to deconstruct the androcentric anchorages militating again...
Irrigated agriculture is one of the major economic activities for generating employment, income a... more Irrigated agriculture is one of the major economic activities for generating employment, income and foreign currency earnings. It contributes towards the achievement of food security in semi-arid areas where mid season droughts are experienced and offers a chance to modernise peasant agriculture. However, it is constrained by biophysical and socioeconomic factors. This study analyses the influence of plot size, distance from the main canal, seed sowing rate, fertilizer input supply and farmer experience on irrigated wheat crop yields in Chinyamatumwa smallholder irrigation scheme in Bikita District of Zimbabwe. The irrigation scheme gets its water from a dam via a night storage dam. Data were collected from 48 randomly selected farmers representing a sample size of 43%. Data were entered and analysed in a spreadsheet, Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) Version 13.0. Research findings indicate significant (P<0.05) differences among mean wheat yields as a result of th...
Although the establishment of Panganai small scale irrigation was in an endeavour to improve the ... more Although the establishment of Panganai small scale irrigation was in an endeavour to improve the welfare of the people it remains a pressing issue as economic and social problems continue to affect plot holders which results in the scheme being undermined. The purpose of this research is to assess the impact of small scale irrigation scheme on the people’s livelihoods in Panganai Communal area. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used in the investigation of the impact of the scheme on rural livelihoods. A sample of fifty respondents out of a total of two hundred plot holders was selected using random sampling. Data was collected using interviews, questionnaires and observation. Analyses were done using descriptive statistics. Tables and graphs were employed in presentation and analysis. Results were that the irrigation scheme has managed to create employment, income generation, supply water throughout the year, acquisition of assets such as scotch carts and livesto...
Sustainability of centralized contract farming among tobacco smallholder farmers in Makoni North District, Zimbabwe
Cogent Social Sciences, 2021
The study explores centralized contract farming sustainability among tobacco smallholder farmers ... more The study explores centralized contract farming sustainability among tobacco smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe. Despite studies on centralized contract farming to date, little has been theorized with...
This paper argues a case for reducing urban poverty through fuel wood business in view of the pli... more This paper argues a case for reducing urban poverty through fuel wood business in view of the plight of load shading in Zimbabwe. Although the use of firewood is not a welcomed source of power in urban areas, it emerged to be wide spreading fuel for domestic use. Electricity shortages have made Zimbabweans opting for firewood for heating, cooking and other domestic chores to cushion the times when electricity is off. Since the start of this sell of firewood, the viability of the enterprise in poverty reduction has not been tested. Firewood harvesting has caused untold environmental degradation in Masvingo urban and the surroundings. Although this affected the ecology, it has created sound opportunities for urban poor who are in transport business, hired to fetch firewood from the bush. The undeveloped commercial stands are being turned into firewood wholesales. This has created entrepreneurial activities for urbanites that had nothing to do. However, fuel wood trading would sustain ...
Rural entrepreneurship emerged as a panacea to persistent hunger and starvation that hindered com... more Rural entrepreneurship emerged as a panacea to persistent hunger and starvation that hindered community development in Zaka. This was exacerbated by the economic downturn, in 19992008 period which affected Zimbabwe due to the political stalemate that led to hyperinflationary environment, income deficit and rampant unemployment. A mixed method approach comprising questionnaire survey, interviews, focus group discussion and observation were conducted to 100 randomly selected entreprenuers to assess the sustainability of rural entrepreneurship as a rural livelihood strategy in the district. Analyzes was done using Tesch interactive model of data analysis aided by descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that more of necessity –driven entrepreneurial activities were more prevalent than opportunity –driven ones. Despite the fact that the majority were preoccupied with these activities, sustainability is a function of social capital maintenance, economic capital, environmental and instit...
Asian journal of social sciences and humanities, 2013
The turbulent economic environment that has been bedeviling Zimbabwe for quite some time, punctua... more The turbulent economic environment that has been bedeviling Zimbabwe for quite some time, punctuated by uncertainties over entitlements and endowments(access to basic necessities of life) has rendered many households particularly female headed ones in urban areas vulnerable to poverty. This article is based on a study that was conducted in the suburb of Mucheke F, in Masvingo town in 2012 to examine the role of internal savings and lending schemes as a livelihood strategy for female-headed households. The study employed qualitative research methodology with Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), unstructured and in-depth interviews providing the data elicited from the respondents. The focus group discussions held in Mucheke F suburb included women engaged in internal savings and lending schemes, with unstructured and in-depth interviews employed to get information from officials in the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development. The key findings from this study indicate th...
Rural District Councils (RDCs) were established to promote rural development in their areas of ju... more Rural District Councils (RDCs) were established to promote rural development in their areas of jurisdiction through the provision of social and infrastructural services. Thus, they play a major role in the development of rural areas. However, RDCs are failing to deliver these services. This study sought to investigate the challenges facing Chivi Rural District Council in the provision of social and infrastructural services. Through interviews, questionnaires and focus group discussions, the research managed to gather information from RDC workers, NGOs, councilors, responsible ministries, business people and Chivi residents. The research established that a number of factors were constraining the delivery of social and infrastructural services in Chivi District. These included financial deficit, unstable political environment, poor budget performance as well as lack of qualified personnel. These constraints were retarding the development of the district. The study thus found it necess...
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Papers by Bernard Chazovachii