Against the Odds: A History of Zimbabwe Project

8. Becoming a Bureaucracy, 1984–1985

— 97 — The development and expansion of ZimPro’s programmes after 1984 was matched by changes in the philosophical foundation as well as the structures and practices of the organisation. When Judith Todd’s leadership of ZimPro came under attack in 1983, one of the accusations levelled at her was that she was running the organisation as her own personal project, without consultation with staff or members of the management committee. To a significant extent this was true. The establishment and rapid growth of ZimPro after her arrival in Zimbabwe in June 1981 depended almost entirely on her own energy, commitment, capacity for a punishing pace of work and her judicious use of connections with well-placed people, both in Zimbabwe and in the donor community overseas. Few others could have achieved what she did. One of the reasons that Todd worked in this way was her vision of the nature of the work. Her conceptual framework was one of humanitarian response to great need. This was what ZimPro had been doing before 1981 and it was what it would continue to do in the post-war demobilisation phase. It did not exclude a developmental aspect, but the work mode was one more suited to charitable activities. In describing ZimPro’s strengths in a 1983 report, one of the funding agencies, PACT, commented: ‘Its flexible and non-institutionalised approach means that it can respond quickly to changing circumstances.’1 In response to a question of how ZimPro viewed its role, Todd wrote: It is difficult to explain how the ZP ‘sees itself’ in any way. It does 8 Becoming a Bureaucracy 1984–1985 — 98 — Against the Odds: a history of Zimbabwe Project not generally look on the future as ‘how can we fit in?’ It is pulled from development to development by its very constituency. It may well be ‘pulled’ into completely new and as yet unforeseen areas of work. The areas would not be selected. They would all of a sudden be staring us in the face. Then, we would respond to them.2 This emergency response approach was also reflected in the requests which went out to donors, especially those traditionally associated with the Catholic Church. In late 1983 Todd wrote as follows to Contre la Faim et Pour le Dévelopment (CCFD) based in France: ‘The budget of the ZP depends simply on how much is contributed to its work by overseas agencies. The demand on the resources of ZP is inexhaustible.’ The amount requested was ‘just as much as you can [give]’.3 Her request to Christian Aid early in 1984 described ZimPro’s continuing work to rescue ex-combatants reaching the end of their two-year allowances, mentioned the establishment of an emergency relief fund for individuals, and then went on to say that ‘we hereby request any amount of assistance you might be able to make available to us. We cannot ask for a specific sum as our needs are infinite.’4 An interesting afterthought in the letter to CCFD was the comment that ZimPro would require aid ‘probably for three years’. The thinking behind these comments is revealing. First, ZimPro still saw its mandate as relatively short-term, working with a specific group of Zimbabweans who needed assistance. They would respond to the needs of ex-combatants as long as they required assistance to reintegrate themselves and become selfreliant and productive, and able to sustain their families. They did not look for a raison d’être beyond that, even though the impact would be long-term both for these families and for the peaceful progress of the nation. Second, ZimPro responded to their clientele, not to the interests of donors. Third, because of this approach, planning and working out specific budgets was problematic. Considered from the point of view of the twenty-first century, and the aid industry that NGOs and donors have between them created, this type of thinking appears rather quaint. Perhaps it — 99 — Becoming a Bureaucracy works for appeals to church organisations based primarily on the idea of charity, but for established donors such Oxfam and government aid agencies there were bound to be problems. On the other hand, given many NGOs’ current complaints about donor-driven programmes, with log-frame analyses and compulsory ‘mainstreaming’ of issues perceived by donors to be critical, the approach seems quite refreshing. ZimPro would certainly not...