The transformative role of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme as a social policy instrument : a case study of Goromonzi District (Zimbabwe)

Abstract

The fast track land reform programme which was implemented in Zimbabwe from 2000 has been a subject of much antagonistic and polemical debates which have polarised academia for over a decade. The FTLRP was criticised for being a politically motivated programme which destroyed agriculture in Zimbabwe contributing to economic collapse and food shortages. As scholars attempted to analyse and understand the processes, implementation and short-term impact of the FTLRP, they adopted different analytical and epistemological frameworks which further contributed to the polarity in academia on the FTLRP. In the past few years, the focus of scholars on the FTLRP has gradually shifted with focus now being on the consequences of the FTLRP, especially its impact on livelihoods of peasant households. Empirical data gathered so far on the FTLRP by different studies has shown that the outcomes of the programme are diverse and there is need for more research and nuanced analysis to fully comprehend and appreciate the impact of the programme. This thesis contributes to the nascent body of knowledge which in recent years has presented field based pragmatic evidence on the consequences of the FTLRP. In this thesis, the social policy outcomes of the FTLRP are presented. Focusing on Goromonzi, a district which is situated in the Mashonaland East Province (Zimbabwe) as a case study, the thesis explores the degree to which the FTLRP can be said to have been a social policy tool which has had consequences which can be labelled as social policy outcomes. It acknowledges that there is a lot of contemporary literature on the FTLRP which unearths some social policy outcomes of the programme but this is not presented as such. Scholars have tended to present their findings based on their different approaches, analytical frameworks and epistemological positions and these have tended at times to be antagonistic and conflictual. This thesis transcends these approaches and positions and it proffers a unique conceptual approach to understanding the FTLRP by means of the transformative social policy framework. The major contribution of the thesis to knowledge is that it explores and presents on the extent to which redistributive land reform has had social policy outcomes. It considers land and agrarian reform as an important social policy tool which unfortunately is not acknowledged as such in mainstream literature on the subject. This can be credited to the domination of the social policy literature by OECD scholars who have contributed immensely to the social policy discourse. The focus of these scholars has been on social policies which are applicable to the European context. Social policies, as they have been used in the global south for example in some countries in our context in Sub-Saharan Africa can be seen as being dominated by a neo-liberal dispensation which has seen them adopting a reductionist and residual approach. A consequence of this has been that social policy has not been prophylactic. It has been largely palliative and remedial in its quest to address social problems and inequality. In this context, social policy tools like land reform are largely ignored although they have been shown as having the ability to reduce vulnerability. Consequently, land reform has not featured prominently in social policy work and it has not been accepted as an alternative social policy intrument which can be used to bring about sustainable development and economic growth. It is this gap in literature which this thesis fills. This thesis uses the transformative social policy approach as a conceptual and evaluative tool to analyse the outcomes of the FTLRP. Under this approach, land reform is considered as a social policy instrument which can be used in tandem with other policies to improve the quality of life of citizens. The transformative social policy approach recognises that social policy has five multiple functions. These are redistribution, social reproduction, social cohesion, social protection and as well as reproduction. These functions can be used to bring about developmental outcomes. Using these multiple functions of social policy (except for social cohesion) this thesis explores the extent to which these functions have been realised. It adopts pragmatism as the research paradigm and uses a mixed-methods research approach with 150 small-scale A1 farmers in Goromonzi being the focus of attention with reference being made to farmers in the other sectors. The thesis is able to show that the FTLRP was redistributive with 180 000 households benefitting from the programme. This was in the backdrop of the country inheriting an agrarian structure that was racially tilted with only 6 000 large-scale white farmers owning most of the prime agricultural land and water resources in the country at independence in 1980. The thesis confirms the findings by other scholars that the country due to the FTLRP now has a tri-modal agrarian structure which is different from the colonialist inspired bi-modal agrarian structure, which was a feature of Zimbabwe’s agriculture, showing that the story in the aftermath of the FTLRP is complex. Through the new emergent tri-modal agrarian structure, the thesis shows that households have benefitted through accessing land which has become an important means of production. Key findings indicate that land access has opened up new livelihood trajectories and access to natural resources which have enhanced the welfare and wellbeing of beneficiaries of the FTLRP. There are many discernible social protection and social reproduction outcomes of land reform which are extensively explored and presented in thesis.These include land reform allowing beneficiaries to access shelter and the musha/ekhaya (rural home), food security for beneficiary households is shown as having been enhanced with poverty levels being lower in the resettlement areas compared to other areas and this has been attributed to land reform. There has been seen the accumulation of productive and non-productive assets which have transformed the lives of people. The thesis also shows that land reform has impacted on families in different ways, it has had diverse labour as well as education outcomes. From a transformative social policy perspective, the thesis provides empirical evidence showing that redistributive land reform has positively changed people’s lives. A key contribution of the thesis to knowledge is that it is able to provide empirical evidence that land reform is a social policy tool which has redistributive, productive, protective and reproductive outcomes. In the search for inclusive development by countries in the global south which have uresolved land questions, this approach is shown as deserving some consideration by policy makers and further empirical enquiry by academics. In the Zimbabwean context, the thesis has important theoretical and practical contributions on the production question and it provides insights on social protection and reproduction in the resettlement areas.Key recommendations are proferred and they centre on tenure security, the land audit, extension and finance services in agriculture, food supply improvement and enhancing the welfare and wellbeing of women and farm workers after land reform.