According to an article in the Mail & Guardian last week, “donors have stepped in with an estimated USD 74-million in seed packs and fertiliser,” to help Zimbabwe through a long dry spell and the threat of a poor harvest this year. An estimated two million people will need food aid this year, and so the UN has issued a USD 378-million appeal to assist them.
At the same time, the Constitutional reform process needs at least USD 43-million to be completed. Foreign governments such as the US, European Union and Australia have pledged their assistance for this.
In 2007, Gideon Gono estimated that Zimbabwe was losing USD 50-million per month through gold and diamond smuggling. Given the size of the alluvial field at Marange, this figure could be even higher if the diamonds had been professionally, and commercially, extracted – not just smuggled out of the country.
With just ten months of properly managed diamond income, Zimbabwe could be addressing all of the costs listed above. Even if the country chose not to spend the money on these matters, an extra USD 600-million worth of income for the coming year is nothing to sniff at – it’s more than a quarter of Zimbabwe’s national budget.
So, as essential as things like food aid are to protect vulnerable Zimbabweans, and as important as a genuine, inclusive, responsive constitutional reform process is for Zimbabwe’s future, what is the role of donor aid in perpetuating bad governance, and the mismanagement of natural resources like diamnds, in Zimbabwe.
