The Role of Donors in Influencing the Nature of Peace Interventions in Zimbabwe: The Case of Harare Based Donors

Abstract

Zimbabwe’s history is replete with conflicts. There have been numerous donor funded initiatives to deal with issues of peace building, conflict transformation and national healing at several critical moments. The involvement of donors and the asymmetrical power relations between donors and recipients begs the questions, “What Peace?” and “Whose peace?”This study sought to determine the role of Harare based donors in influencing the nature of peace interventions in Zimbabwe. In this study 18 Western donors based in Harare were used as the research subjects. The research instruments used were questionnaires and interviews. Mordenisation was used as the theoretical framework to ground the study. Literature review was also used to provide information on the role of donors in the peace field. Neo-liberalism is the dominant development paradigm favoured by donors. This paradigm and its attendant values and policies manufacture conflicts and crisis in the Global South. The study revealed that donor funds are created with little input from the locals as the terms of reference are decided in Western capitals. The donors push for liberal values through their funds. These values emphasize the rights of the individual and are not always in sync with indigenous practices that emphasise community rights. It was also established that the funds established do not seek to make connections between conflicts and crises in Zimbabwe with the geopolitical factors. This study recommends that locals actively and creatively assert themselves to ensure that their agendas are pushed and their needs addressed. It is also recommended that project beneficiaries be involved in their own right in engagements with donors as opposed to representations by agencies. Further, it is also recommended that further research be undertaken in order to establish the full extent of the donor influence and embeddedness of local project holders.