Zimbabwe’s Emergency Management System: A Promising Development

Abstract

Zimbabwe’s encounter with droughts, in particular, combined with economic and political challenges, has denigrated the country’s former status as the “breadbasket of Southern Africa” (Hunter-Gault 2006; Maphosa 1994; Swarns 2002). Zimbabwe is particularly prone to a number of natural and man-made hazards such as droughts, floods, veld fires, storms (PreventionWeb 2012), and HIV/AIDS (United Nations Development Programme 2010) among other epidemics. Between 1980 and 2010, PreventionWeb (2012) documented 35 natural disaster events, which resulted in 6,448 deaths, averaging 208 deaths from disasters annually. Of the 35 natural disasters, 6 were drought occurrences, 7 were floods, 2 were storms, and 20 were epidemic occurrences. Chikoto (2004) 1 also counted the number of public transportation disasters that plagued Zimbabwe between 1982 and 2003, which claimed over 700 lives and injured over 400 people. To mitigate and prepare for these and other hazards facing Zimbabwe, the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) created the Department of Civil Protection and charged it with the onus of coordinating and managing disasters and reducing hazards. This chapter traces the history of Zimbabwe’s emergency management system, with a focus on the factors contributing to the nation’s vulnerability to disasters and hazards. In addition to tracing the impact of past disasters, the chapter also discusses some of the opportunities and challenges confronting the country’s emergency management system. The chapter concludes with recommendations for improving this system.