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On the 17th of March 2022, the Zimbabwe Coalition and Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) launched the #HOWFAR 2.0 Campaign which is aimed at re-igniting the pace for the previous campaign that was launched in September 2021.
The agenda remains the same – To demand the government to be transparent and accountable in the management of public resources. The launch drew from the first campaign’s challenges, successes and lessons learnt noting that it had received resounding attention from the general public and activists who showed keen interest in holding various levels of the government of Zimbabwe to account.
Amongst the successes of the #HowFar Campaign was its ability to unlock the government’s appetite to respond to citizens’ questions, which was a clear shift from the prevailing culture of withholding information. Through the #HowFar 2.0 Campaign ZIMCODD will engage on various social media platforms while billboards will remain in place to foster public dialogue and debate and to remind us of our lived realities that remain unaddressed. The second phase will bring something new and exciting to look forward to as it will see the introduction of the #RealTalk show and The In4, which will be ZIMCODD’s uncensored public finance management news channel.
The ZIMCODD Executive Director’s keynote speech at the HOWFAR 2.0 Launch detailed the journey of the first phase of the campaign and re-emphasized the purpose of the #HowFar Campaign and the citizens’ expectations on the need for public accountability:
“Ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends we are here again to talk about the major deficiencies, concerns and worries in our beloved country, Zimbabwe. The launch of the #HowFar 2.0, is not just for nostalgic purposes where we reminisce of the problems in Zimbabwe, talk about the initial #HowFar campaign and go home. It is about us reflecting and contributing to the building blocks of rebuilding this beautiful country as it is said; “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo.”
“This must give everyone a sense of duty, belonging, ownership and responsibility to make Zimbabwe a great, prosperous, and resilient nation positioned to tackle the disruptions posed by modernity. We believe, the bedrock of building this nation is accountability. Our government must be accountable to the citizens on how public resources are managed. The citizens must be empowered to put the public officials under scrutiny and ask critical questions without fear or favour.
“In efforts to tackle the accountability question and bring the citizens and government in the public space and open up and build a culture of accountability, on 3 September 2021, we launched of the #HowFar Campaign. A campaign designed to raise awareness and promote public dialogue on the lack of transparency and accountability by our various levels of government in public resource management. Citizens asked many questions through multichannel platforms directly to the government and some responses were indeed received on some of them.
“Building on the successes, challenges, and opportunities of the first phase of the campaign, we are excited that today we are launching the #HowFar 2.0. This is an effort to keep the public debate and dialogue between the citizens and the government relevant to the context, refresh it and pivot towards pertinent issues emanating from the engagements that have gone on since the launch of the #HowFar campaign in September 2021.”
Despite the challenges encountered during the first phase, the campaign has been a worthwhile learning journey. It received an overwhelming response from the general public and activists who have shown keen interest to hold duty bearers to account.
The debate on #HowFar raged on social media which saw the hashtag becoming one of the the top 10 trending subjects on Twitter with each Tweet getting an average of 1500 impressions. To date, our estimated direct reach through social media, physical meetings, collaborations, and through Information, Education and Communication (IEC) material combined is in excess of 500 000 people.
“We are also definitely confident and proud to claim that the government’s campaign #So far, #ThisFar EDelivers was born out of an attempt to respond to the #HowFar questions and update citizens on what the government has done to improve service delivery since the second republic assumed power. While we found the responses to focus on the “what” question, we always sought comprehensive answers, in particular on the use of the public funds- due diligence processes, procurement, timeliness of projects among other key questions to promote accountability in its proper sense.
“We also witnessed the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and Publicity, Mr. Nick Mangwana showing a willingness to appear on ZIMCODD facilitated platforms specifically the ZIMPAPERS Television Network and Capitalk FM to respond to and give updates on some of the questions raised on the mega-deals that the government signed under Zimbabwe is Open for Business mantra among other public service delivery concerns. Nonetheless, we are not yet there and must continue to demand more. Answering publicly the #HowFar question must become a culture.
“While we recorded key successes, the path we have traversed so far was not a walk in the park. The campaign was also received with hostility and suspicion from some overzealous members of the society who thought and still think that the campaign is an attack. These sentiments were expressed through the defacing and destruction of the #HowFar billboards, particularly those that were focusing on corruption and misuse of public funds,” Janet Zhou said.