Enhancing Service Delivery at the Local Level in Zimbabwe: Challenges and Future Prospects

Abstract

Whilst provision of basic services and infrastructure play a critical role in stimulating local and national economic development, trends in most parts of the developing world reveal chronic deficits in their provision. This is caused by a combination of intertwined factors that include inadequate human and financial resources, lack of the requisite technical skills, corruption and mismanagement, political interference, poor participatory local governance structures, rapid population growth, and poor economic performance. In their totality, these factors have managed to lock many developing countries into a vicious, ‘low-level equilibrium’ cycle of poor service delivery. According to Savedoff and Spiller (cited in Herrera and Post 2014), this cycle is characterised by low tariffs and non-payment of service charges, which lead to low quality and limited expansion of services, operational inefficiency and corruption, which in turn lead to low consumer willingness to pay, leading to the erosion of public confidence, which then serves to finally block any funds that might be earmarked for further reinvestment in services delivery. Indeed, this problem of inefficient and infective service delivery is afflicting the city of Harare, due to the same low-level equilibrium trap effects cited above, particularly when it comes to the provision of adequate, affordable, and clean water and sanitation services to its residents.