Lawrence Kamwi

There is a way in which a new day opens with the pregnant promise of new possibilities, and opportunities for higher levels of success. With some luck, people on a team, in an organisation, or institution, may even attain the benchmarks that have previously seemed elusive.

Author of Atomic Habits, James Clear, simplifies the choice: “I do not think there is something about imposing limits upon yourself. Basically, if you commit to nothing, you’ll be distracted by everything.”

Business leaders thus agree that one of life’s timeless lessons is the challenge of focusing on the value of each day.Not even Artificial Intelligence (AI) can, or should hinder, the need to pay more attention to what is described as “uniquely human.” I am heartened by the intimation here that AI will not, after all, totally overrun human life.

Commenting on “How to Improve Employee Engagement,” consulting firm Development Dimensions International (DDI), reports that “among all engagement factors, employees reported that they were most satisfied with their co-workers, their workspace and their commute”.

In similar themes, Ferda Erdem, Janset Ozen and Nuray Atsan, have a trending research paper entitled The Relationship between Trust and Team Performance. They argue that “infrastructure components of policies and procedures relating to selection, training, development, supervision, etc, should recognise that building trusting relationships is a key part of the management agenda.”

Further, their paper says “an increase in trust among colleagues leads to higher instances of team performance,” and happily, “a decrease in critical quality errors”.
The research team calls trust a “hygiene factor” because a “collective effort that is not based on trust,” leaves team members unable to explain their ideas fully and sincerely, unable to display their actions intimately, and refraining from helping other teammates.

“Where there is a lack of trust, there will be failings in communication, delegation, empowerment and quality.”DDI also notes that “for leaders and organisations to succeed with AI, it means continuing to grow essential human skills such as communication, empathy and trust, which our research shows cannot be mastered by AI now or in the foreseeable future.”

Josh Epperson of Navalent Consulting similarly contends that “trust is a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of someone or something. It’s what draws you to another’s thoughts, ideas and beliefs — it’s what bonds you. Trust also enables debate, disagreement and collective outcomes while keeping the relationships intact.”

“When people don’t contribute to the discussion or pay attention to what’s being said, the team fails to reap the full benefits of convening, and the meeting wastes everyone’s time.”
Epperson is concerned that many organisations still “endure the triple whammy of meetings that are too frequent; poorly timed and badly run, leading to losses in productivity, collaboration and well-being for both groups and individuals.”

While meetings are unavoidable, it is the other label attached to them that concerns companies; namely, that meetings are time wasters. Ashley Stahl says: “Nine out of 10 people daydream during meetings, and 73% of employees admit to multitasking during meetings.” Apparently, one of the reasons is that a mere “37% of meetings use an agenda”.

A Harvard Business Review study reported that “62% of respondents said meetings miss opportunities to bring teams closer together. If your meetings fail to create closeness, your team’s performance will gradually erode.”

Stahl employs the following illustration to emphasise the cost and benefit of meetings: “Walking indoors, even on a treadmill staring at a blank wall sparks far more creative solutions and thoughts compared to someone sitting down.”

Founder and chief executive officer of Elsey Enterprises, Wayne Elsey, makes the following appeal: “Not all meetings have to be a pain. In our team, we have a countdown clock to ensure that our sessions don’t end up going down redundant paths. When you have a countdown clock…everyone feels that their time is respected and that they’ll be able to get back to their work.”

After all is said and done, it seems possible that organisations and institutions, and their employees, can avoid the pernicious and often prejudicial act of pulling in different directions.

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Newsday

DESPITE the age-old and enduring axiom having instructed that “silence is golden” many, and chiefly politicians, have failed to pay hid to this wise counsel. Many politicians, while finding it quite difficult, if not impossible, to speak when it matters, most have instead zealously gone into overdrive yapping about when they should be keeping quiet.

More than two years down the line after the so called new dispensation’s austerity measures have decimated livelihoods and knocked Zimbabwe’s economy upside down, as well as inside out the southern African nation’s 2030 middle income dream, Defence and War Veterans deputy minister Victor Matemadanda has suddenly found his voice and is now telling this trodden, bruised and hapless people that the hardships they are enduring will help achieve economic stability at a time there are no signs of any light at the end of the tunnel. This is nothing short of absurd.

“The last dispensation did not have financial discipline that resulted in printing of unsupported bond notes. President Mnangagwa embarked on austerity measures to re-rail the economy, but these have not been properly communicated to the people. These (austerity measures) have to be packaged well such that everyone knows where we are going and what we are going through. (The late former President Robert) Mugabe’s dispensation bled the economy.

Zimbabwe is like a person being treated of extreme blood loss whose recovery is painful,” Matemadanda is telling us.

Granted, the old dispensation printed bond notes that were not supported, however, Cde Matemadanda, if you may allow us to ask: Why did the new dispensation not get rid of the useless bond notes soon after it took over power in November 2017? And are the $1 billion-worth of new notes and coins now being printed in the same green and purple bond note colours supported? If they are supported, may our dear comrade care to school us on what exactly is now supporting this new currency and the bond notes they inherited when productivity is nearly zero? Has, since the old dispensation days, managed to manufacture a single gold bar to start building up the country’s reserves that hopefully will help strengthen the local currency?

Matemadanda is also telling us that the country’s disastrous austerity measures were not properly communicated. Who failed to communicate well, by the way? Is he insinuating that some among the new dispensation are poor communicators? And if “Zimbabwe is like a person being treated of extreme blood loss whose recovery is painful”, why does it appear that the person is being drained of all the blood left, given that incomes and savings have all been drained? Honestly speaking, what Matemadanda has told us is not making sense under the circumstances. With Zimbabweans now poorer than they were in the old dispensation, it sounds nonsensical that the austerity measures are fixing things.

Was the new dispensation not supposed to add more blood to the little blood it found in the system, rather than to drain the little left and hope to add its own new blood? Some things are better off if they remained unsaid, Cde Matemadanda.

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By NQOBANI NDLOVU

TSHABALALA residents on Thursday last week forced the abandonment of a maize distribution exercise as they protested the hijacking of the programme by Zanu PF officials in the area, Southern Eye established.

Government, in partnership with the World Food Programme (WFP), is distributing food aid to hungry urbanites, particularly the vulnerable such as the elderly and orphans across the country.

Food monitoring agencies estimate that over 1,5 million urban dwellers are facing severe food shortages, a situation worsened by the harsh economic climate.

There have been several reports of Zanu PF officials hijacking the food aid programme despite the ruling party’s denials, and on Thursday, frustrated Tshabalala’s ward 21 residents protested the unfair distribution exercise, forcing it to be abandoned.

The incident took place at Tshabalala Hall. Ward 21 councillor Tinewimbo Maphosa (MDC Alliance) confimed the protests.“What happened on Thursday is that known Zanu PF members were distributing aid to their supporters and disgruntled residents, including war veterans and youths, then confronted the officials and told them that what they were doing was illegal,” the councillor said.

Maphosa said following an intervention by the Labour, Public Service and Social Welfare ministry officials, the residents agreed that going forward, the food distribution would be done by church representatives.

“The residents agreed that no politician should be involved in the distribution of food. These Zanu PF politicians were leaving out deserving people and giving the aid to their own people. If you look at Sizinda and Tshabalala, there are a lot of widows and orphans,” he said.

About three weeks ago, Zanu PF politburo member Absalom Sikhosana complained to Vice-President Kembo Mohadi that social welfare officials were sidelining Zanu PF officials from food distribution in the city.

Last week, Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo said those who claim party officials were hijacking the government food aid programmes must report to party offices.

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By Cristiano D’Orsi

Tens of cities in Africa, such as Johannesburg, Dar es Salaam and Kampala are overwhelmed by an inflow of people fleeing conflicts in different parts of the continent. In particular people living in Mali, Somalia and South Sudan flee their home countries to seek safety.

About 17,5 million refugees worldwide don’t live in camps, but live in urban areas. The 2018 World Refugee Council report shows that 60% of all refugees and 80% of all internally displaced persons are living in urban areas.

This is a result of conscious policy. For example the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) recognises that camps can turn into de facto prisons. But it’s also because many refugees don’t want to live in camps.

Since the 1967 Biafra civil war the first major refugee crisis in independent Africa – international aid organisations have primarily housed refugees in rural camps, where they were provided basic assistance. That year the then UNHCR commissioner Sadruddin Aga Khan commented that urban refugees were viewed as a problem, even by the most sympathetic commentators.

It wasn’t until three decades later that the UN refugee agency issued its first official policy statement on urban refugees. Concerned that making it easier for refugees to live in urban areas might pull them away from remote camps, it promoted a model of “self-reliance” to keep them at bay. This approach involved pressing governments to allow refugees to be able to generate income, including being able to work.

The agency has continued to update its policies. Its 2009 policy paper reflected the reality that more than half of all refugees were living in urban areas. This was the first major shift away from giving primary attention to camps. The policy ensured that cities were recognised as legitimate places for refugees to live in and exercise their rights.

The UNHCR went further in 2014 when it advocated that camps should be the exception. And that where they existed they should be phased out at the earliest possible stage.

Despite these policy changes, the tension between camps versus urban living continues. For example, recently in South Africa refugees camped outside the UN refugee offices in Pretoria demanded that they be put in camps. This followed attacks on foreigners in the country. South Africa has, to date, refused to go down this path.

This is unusual. For the most part, host governments favour camps because they see camps as a means of isolating potential troublemakers and forcing the international community to assume responsibility.

African governments have historically favoured camps, because they offer basic protection and a logistically uncomplicated means of delivering assistance.

In addition, too many refugees arriving at once in a city can create a host of challenges for city officials.There is confusion on the policy front. Though the UNHRC’s current strategic plan acknowledges that more refugees are moving to cities, it offers few recommendations on how cities could serve them better.

In practice, that means urban refugees mostly take care of themselves. Some can afford to rent apartments. Others stay with family and friends. Many end up homeless and indigent.

Their undocumented status makes self-reliance difficult. Thousands of refugees and asylum-seekers living in cities around the world are denied work permits, pushing them into poorly paid, black market jobs. Few can access formal education or health services.

Politics is one reason that the UNHCR has been sometimes slow to address the urban refugee crisis. It has faced immense pressure from member countries to continue building and administering rural camps rather than to help refugees integrate and resettle in cities.

Right-wing politicians everywhere – from Uganda to Kenya – often portray displaced people as a national security threat.

A 2010 report by the global think tank the Overseas Development Institute found that in Kenya refugees were politically unpopular. The government played down refugee needs because it didn’t want to draw attention to them. Once refugees entered Nairobi, they essentially disappeared.

In Kenya, for many years, the government’s policy was that refugees should live in the complexes of Dadaab or Kakuma. But in recent years, Kenyan authorities have turned to closing them. The intention has been less to do with favouring the integration of the refugees into Kenyan society and more to do with repatriating or resettling them elsewhere.

In the past few years, things have slowly started to change.In November 2017, the International Organisation for Migration and the umbrella group United Cities and Local Governments organised 150 cities around the world to sign a declaration on the rights of urban refugees.

Asserting that refugees can “bring significant social, economic and cultural contributions to urban development”, they called on international organisations and national governments to support cities politically and financially to care for refugee populations.

Yet, poorer cities need both national and international economic support to meet the needs of their newest residents. Cities cannot change national laws to make refugees more welcome. But with qualified help – and a lot less hindrance from national governments – they can provide better basic protection.

On the other hand, the UNHCR also has an interest in taking account of the opinions of these other stakeholders. This is even though it has significant autonomy in its policymaking and isn’t obliged to seek formal approval for its policies, or the steps it takes in the interests of refugees.

Recently, important initiatives to support urban refugees have been taken undertaken in Africa. One example is the Jesuit Refugee Services efforts to build community centres and subsidise school fees in South Africa.

Sentencing refugees to life in a camp could be a terrible burden. But, as xenophobic attacks in South Africa show, the alternative may be worse still.On top of this, all across the continent non-camp refugees are still, for the most part, invisible, untraceable and in need of help.
– The Conversation

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Peter Makwanya

AS the discourse of climate change continues to unfold, taking new twists and dimensions, at various international gatherings, it’s the political voices and views that are shaping the nature of discussions as opposed to purely environmental concerns.

While issues of climate change, from the environmentalists and climate change experts’ points of view, are sufficiently clear and empowering thereby needing no introductions nor amplifications, it is the political climate change that has overtaken everything including voices of reason, while the climate change experts and knowledge brokers are controlled in the background. These are the new power games that are charting the new climate impetus and championing the nature of climate funding around the world.

The contestation of climate change ideas has become too prescriptive and partially inclusive, according to who pays the piper plays the tune. The ideas are people friendly on paper while in practical terms they are highly political and less environmental centred. As nations continue to gather annually at prescribed venues, be it in Chile or Spain, that won’t stop or slow down the amount of carbon emissions that are released into the atmosphere every time.

Even if delegates from around the world are to meet under water, nothing much is going to change, until and unless the one who pays the piper is satisfied or got things done their own way. In this regard, one would wonder if the climate change discourse is seen through human friendly lenses, exaggerated or rather politically massaged.

Furthermore, many delegates who travel to these international climate gatherings such as the conference of parties, are not necessarily environmentalists, but connected politicians in government, going there to get their palms greased. These politicians out number scientists and other useful climate change experts, with potential to deliver.

Of course, it would be naïve to say that they are no efforts taking place, but they are not much, as the targeted situations would anticipate. These are peace-meal and lip-service gestures meant to calm nations that have not even contributed any significant carbon footprints into the atmosphere.

The billions of dollars that have been raked in by multinational companies from their fossil fuel businesses cannot be compared to what is given to poor nations around the world for adaptation purposes. Those small amounts which trickle into the coffers of developing nations, for adaptation purposes are received with great joy by host politicians and few of it may never reach the intended beneficiaries. As such, this becomes a political valueless chain of a bottomless pit.

The continued nursing of the climate change impacts around the world, has a potential and hallmark of becoming national security threats hence politicians need to take care. In principle, politicians appear to be concerned about climate change issues yet they are pre-occupied with their personal and political interests, not the environment. In this regard, the existential nature of climate change issues should make everyone concerned unsettled, including the politicians themselves, before the situation turns terribly wrong.

As political climate change interests continue to cloud the thinking and world-views of political actors around the world, not even scientific break-throughs, grim events of climate disasters unfolding around the world have done much to shake the standpoints of political actors.

There is lack of political will or action to confront the climate change phenomena, ranging from carbon emissions, wetland destructions, deforestations, land degradations and burning forests, among others. These are currently taking place in the name of development, in many developing countries, as political actors continue to mortgage the environment as if there is no tomorrow. Political climate change has been characterised by double-speak, half-truths, misinformation and communication massaging.

Failure to punish polluters or carbon emitters is not only an environmental sin, but a highly charged political sin as well. A closer analysis would reveal that all these carbon footprints unfolding before everyone’s eyes are in the interest of political actors who are not accountable to anyone. For this reason, it would be difficult for ordinary people and lay-persons alike to trust politicians even if they do something good.

It is also this lack of trust in political actors that would derail adaptation programmes, as politicians will always be in the forefront of trying to spearhead these programmes. In this regard, it would be difficult, for these politicians to deliver people from climate change impacts into climate paradise. Furthermore, they lack collective and integrative efforts to do so.

One of the most problematic aspect, especially in developing countries is that, politicians, ordinary citizens and laypersons, all lack climate change competence or a firm grasp of climate change issues. This lack of climate change literacy tends to affect the majority of people when issues of climate change adaptation are introduced. Of course, politicians being politicians will pretend to know these things yet they also need climate education, training and awareness as well.

The Paris Agreement is a brainchild of political manoeuvres aimed at pampering polluters around the world to pollute more, check how much they can regulate themselves, that is if they wish to do so. Then how can these polluting nations remove themselves from the polluting business, which has given them so much money by choosing to pollute less? Polluting benchmarks were set, which no one would adhere to because they are in business and not to please anyone.

Despite their desire to effect emission targets, many countries have been failing to do so. Only some European countries have managed to do so as well as introducing new green products and services designed to make climate change impacts manageable. The reason behind this is that these countries take climate change seriously than others.
Many developing countries take climate change issues as one of those distant aspects, not the real problem, denying it the urgency and seriousness it deserves. Even when climate change is reported in many developing countries, the focus would be on the political leader not the climate change problem.

In this regard, climate change is a problem, first and foremost, and it should be treated as such, so that results, solutions and resilience can be realised. It is also important for these countries to make peace with the environment in order to manage their greed through reciprocal relationship with their environments for the sustainable future that the future generations always yearns for.

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By Elinera Manyonga

CBZ Holdings Limited last week held a two-day young entrepreneurs mentoring programme to capacitate youths with skills to sustain and grow globally competitive businesses.

Speaking at the fourth edition of the CBZ youth entrepreneurship programme workshop, group marketing executive Matilda Nyati said the initiative created a platform for youths to network.

“I am glad that this programme has provided a fertile ground for youths to meet and enrich their entrepreneurship skills. “This initiative is designed to offer training services to entrepreneurs with the capacity to sustain and grow them locally and globally.

“The two-day training workshops, will basically be a learning and bonding journey for participants and an ultimate winner will be announced at the end, but I would say every participant is a winner and will gain knowledge from this workshop,” she said.

Empowered Life Trust director Jonah Mungoshi said: “It is a practical and results-based initiative to produce growth-oriented and profitable businesses that are run professionally by youths from all the country’s 10 provinces.”

Since 2016, 3 000 young people have been trained under the programme and 400 business have been started.“Many young Zimbabweans graduating from universities, colleges and high schools have no option, but to become entrepreneurs due to lack of employment. The programme seeks to improve Zimbabwean youths, including those who are in the rural areas, through offering business opportunities which will in turn create employment opportunities,” Mungoshi said.

The programme started in 2016 as CBZ’s strategy to nurture economic and social development by increasing fiscal space for previously marginalised key players.These groups included smallholder farmers, women and youth, together with small-to-medium scale enterprises in the formal banking sector.

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BY STEPHEN CHADENGA

GWERU town clerk Elizabeth Gwatipedza’s bid to challenge her suspension has hit a snag after an independent tribunal, led by Melusi Moyo of Dube-Banda Nzarayapenga legal practitioners, dismissed the application, Southern Eye has established.

Mayor Josiah Makombe yesterday confirmed the dismissal of the application and said disciplinary hearings against Gwatipedza will continue tomorrow.“Yes, she (Gwatipedza) had challenged the validity of her suspension, but it was dismissed,” he said.

“The disciplinary hearings continue on Tuesday (tomorrow). The lawyers for both parties have commitments on Monday hence the pushing of proceedings to Tuesday.”

Gwatipedza, who appeared before the independent tribunal last week, through her lawyer Valentine Mutatu challenged the suspension, arguing that Moyo’s appointment was not done procedurally.

The defence legal team argued that the presiding officer’s appointment was not done by a duly constituted special council meeting.They also argued that Makombe did not append his signature on the suspension letter and that a councillor signed on his behalf, which they said was not procedural.

Gwatipedza was suspended three weeks ago on allegations of dereliction of duty, incompetence, mismanagement of council affairs and corruption, among others.
Chamber secretary Vakai Chikwekwe is currently the acting town clerk.

Meanwhile, the Mayor’s Christmas Cheer Fund, launched on Friday last week, was snubbed by the corporate world.Makombe said this year’s target was $500 000 and appealed to well-wishers to donate towards helping the less-privileged.

He said the fund-raising team has so far managed to get $74 000 through a golf tournament.

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BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

ZIMBABWE’S pork value chain is facing multiple challenges including poor nutrition and husbandry skills, lack of good quality breeds among others, that needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency.

In its latest update, Livestock and Meat Advisory Council (Lmac) said that the local value chain was facing viability challenges that should be addressed to make it vibrant.

“The pork value chain is facing a multitude of challenges including poor nutrition and husbandry skills, lack of good quality breeds, disease and poor access to lucrative markets,” Lmac said.

In a bid to address these challenges, the Zimbabwe Agricultural Growth Programme (ZAGP) has since launched a US$45 million pig and goat production project aimed at boosting household food, nutrition and income of smallholder farmers. The programme is spearheaded by Action Aid under ZAGP’s Value Chain Alliance for Livestock Upgrading and Empowerment (Value) programme.

“Value seeks to build the capacity of smallholder farmers to improve their goat and pig breeds and access viable markets in partnership with private sector players,” the council said.
Recently, the Pig Producers Association of Zimbabwe held its annual symposium to discuss the challenges faced by farmers.

PIB director Andrew Shoniwa reportedly provided an update on pig production in the smallholder sector and noted that 40 000 sows are owned by smallholder farmers out of the national herd of 57 000.

Producers also discussed about pig nutrition and alternative food sources, at a time the cost of stockfeed continues to increase. Pig diseases and African Swine Fever (ASF) were also under the spotlight and all participants were reminded about the regulations governing ASF and mandatory fencing requirements.

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Tapiwa Gomo

By definition, democracy is a form of a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections. It also presumes that the people have the authority to choose their governing legislation. Some cornerstones of democracy include freedom of assembly and speech, inclusiveness and equality, membership, voting, right to life and minority rights.

Democracy places power on the people than the elected leadership. And the leadership that arises from democratic leadership is supposed to be servant leadership, which answers to the wills of the electorate.

It is a concept that rose to challenge many centuries of unchecked autocratic leadership which was based on either ascribed leadership of the monarchies or religious institutions of governance. The problem with this mode of governance was in its lack of guarantee that progenies or heirs apparent of these institutions would produce people capable of effectively running the affairs of a nation. Because of this astrictive nature, it meant that competition or alternative ideas towards national development were not allowed space.

While democracy has a much longer history, it gained momentum during the second industrial revolution when labour movements, academics and industrialists protested calling for the introduction of a people-driven democratic system of governance independent from traditional institutions of governance. Traditional government systems were seen as barriers to emerging capitalism, technological revolution and competition of ideas.

Modernisation, an offshoot of industrialisation, has become a pillar of social change and economic development. Once industrialisation is allowed to flourish, it triggers a penetration into all aspects of life of a society, creating social, economic and political opportunities, which together transform and improve the standards of life of a society. And these together result in self-reinforcing processes that transform social life and political institutions, empowering the masses to participates on issues to do with their lives – thus growing democracy.

In Africa, since independence, there has never been a time when the people’s political will has been respected and allowed to dictate the course of a country without powerful politicians meddling in the electoral processes. In fact, politicians have exercised more power over the people than the other way round. If political power retention delivered economic growth, perhaps, there would be less qualms, but most if not all the time, it delivers poverty and destitution.

In most cases, where people’s will be at logger heads with the powerful politicians, there has tended to be impasses which have held most countries’ progress hostage for no other reason than political power.

People argue, through the voice of the opposition parties, that they have disapproved the status quo through vote casting. They often appeal to the regional and international community to intervene and rescue their stolen wishes from the autocrats who wield the means of political power.

Once this happens, all doors to escape the political impasses shut as the sitting and yet unpopular governments claim interference by external forces in its domestic affairs and that becomes an excuse for adopting an arrogant attitude, human rights violations, plunder of national resources and a deliberate disregard for national development. Political opposition in Africa is the biggest excuse for plunder and abuse of national resources.

The international and regional community may be tempted to react by imposing sanctions on the sitting government as a means to force behaviour change, while funding civil society organisations to sabotage the sitting government into submission. Both sanctions and internal protests have had the effect of disrupting the normal functioning of a nation, but most importantly, they create a situation of insecurity which dissuades investment and economic growth.

A government whose power is sustained by plundered national resources is now pitted in a long standing battle with donor-funded opposition parties and civil society organisations. The tendency of investors has been to either wait until this battle or impasse is over, or fund one of the sides to access free natural resources. Again, the biggest loser is national development.

There are several examples of these impasses across Africa which perpetually block progress. In South Sudan, the major political problems oscillate between President Salva Kirr and his former vice-president Riek Machar. They often drag their tribes into what looks like personal differences to give it national significance. This has led some analysts to argue that South Sudan can only have a new and promising beginning if both leaders left the political arena. Zimbabwe is in a similar situation where the opposition, civil society organisations and the West are pitted against Zanu PF and the African leadership. And again, it can also be argued that if Zanu PF and the MDC vacate the political arena, Zimbabwe will see better days.

The challenge with these arguments is that vacation from political office must, in most cases, occurs through an electoral process which is managed by the same people who need to vacate political office. Democracy favours outcomes from its processes. It is these processes that African leaders have mastered and are manipulating to retain power. In the absence of an alternative mode of changing power, most African countries will remain in the throes of destitution because democracy is unable to rescue them from these impasses.

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BY FIDELITY MHLANGA

A HUGE chunk of Zimbabwe’s insurance firms do not have software to analyse and debunk risks associated with their business, a survey conducted by African Actuarial Consultants has revealed.

The survey conducted under the Zimbabwe Integrated Capital and Risk Project (Zicarp), spearhead by the Insurance and Pension Commission (Ipec), seeks to bring about transition from capital threshold compliance to a more integrated framework that looks at credit, strategic, operational and insurance risks associated with Insurance companies.

The new framework is expected to improve the regulator’s oversight of the industry will focus on compliance based on risks associated with insurance firms.

“At least 62% do not have a software for analysing risks in their business. There is need for investment in technology resources in order to ensure adequate preparedness in the new regulatory regime,” said African Actuarial Consultants researcher, Tinashe Mashoko.

Mashoko was presenting preliminary results for the Zicarp study undertaken on local short term, life, funeral and reinsurance firms.

Zicarp was launched in March this year by Ipec and contracted African Actuarial Consultants to carry out a broad-based study among local insurance firms.

According to Mashoko, the study discovered that insurance firms board members were willing to embrace Enterprise Risk Management and cooperate with Zicarp when it comes in place.

While 96% of insurance staff members considered risks in their day to day operations, the study revealed that more training was required to capacitate employees.

“Sixty percent of insurance firms said they hold training, but the positive risk culture needs to be underpinned by regular training, not only at board level, but across all members.

Forty percent of firms who do not undertake regular training is too much a number. All organisations will need to invest in training to make Zicarp a success,” said Mashoko.

Nearly half of funeral assurers did not have risk committees at board and management levels, highlighting the need for the funeral sector to push for a robust risk governance.

Only 54% firms had documented policies and procedure manuals for managing material risk and 42% partially had, suggesting that the industry had challenges in implementing good corporate governance.

The research also unearthed that certain entities did not have documented framework for managing underwriting risk.Ipec director of pensions Josphat Kakwere urged insurers to give as much information as possible for the programme to succeed.

“Let’s do our best so that we develop the final template. By end of November we expect you to have completed,” said Kakwere.The entire framework is envisaged to be complete by February, 2020.

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