SUPPORTING THE BUILD UP TO THE NATIONAL CONVENTION
“Zimbabwe – TogetherWeWillFIXIT”
Background
In
the light of the crisis, a group of concerned organisations, convened by the
Citizen’s Manifesto, have been meeting to plan for a National Convention in
August 2019. The focus of the Convention is to bring Zimbabwean together to
discuss SOLUTIONS and not the PROBLEMS, and to canvass as wide a range of
opinions from citizens as possible: essentially to begin to draft a new social
contract for country.
In order to build the widest possible interest and engagement, the Platform for Concerned Citizens and the Core Convenors of the National Convention will hold a series of policy dialogues at SAPES. These will lead into the National Convention and continue in the aftermath of the Convention.
The Policy Dialogues
As
suggested, the aim is not to discuss the many problems faced by the country,
but to propose solutions for the vision of a “new” Zimbabwe, expressed by the
slogan above –
Zimbabwe: TogetherWeWillFIXIT. There
are number of principles guiding these discussions:
- To offer a discussion space for ordinary citizens to follow and interact with the discussions;
- To showcase “new” leaders, and especially the youth and women. Zimbabwe needs new leadership and this will be an opportunity to show the wide range of actual and potential leaders;
- To engage through the use of social media the widest possible audience, both within the country and from the diaspora;
- To focus discussions on
the issues that citizens wish addressed in a
new” Zimbabwe, and here it is hoped that the feed-in from the wider community will shape both the dialogues and the National Convention; - To continue the dialogues after the National Convention in order the build on the discussions and recommendations.
The Content of the Dialogues
Since the aim is SOLUTIONS and not PROBLEMS, the range of suggested issues can be very wider and include the following (but not exclusive) of other issues and themes:
- A social contract for Zimbabwe;
- The land problem;
- Equitable use of resources;
- Pro-poor economic policies;
- Health and education;
- Climate change.