Statement by Daniel Molokele
Johannesburg
10 March 2012Â
ZDESI Hails the Consultation Meeting With the Minister of Education as a Big Success!
The Zimbabwe Diaspora Education Support Initiative (ZDESI) is so pleased to announce that it recently held a successful meeting with the Minister of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart.
The ZDESI is a loose network of various Diaspora organisations and individuals that have an active interest in contributing to the development of education in Zimbabwe.
ZDESI’s vision is a big dream of an education system in Zimbabwe that is world class. While its mission is to seek to promote the active role of the Diaspora in supporting the progressive and sustainable development of Zimbabwe’s education system.
In this regard, the members of ZDESI are inspired and motivated by both their patriotic duty and also their appreciation and love for their beautiful motherland, Zimbabwe.
The successful meeting was held on Saturday 10th March 2012 between 2pm and 5pm at the Gold Reef city hotel at Marshalltown in Johannesburg.
The meeting was hosted by the Global Zimbabwe Forum with the active administrative support from the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition Regional office and funding assistance from the Open Society Institute of Southern Africa (OSISA)
Initially, it was anticipated that a maximum of about 25 people would attend the event but eventually, the turnout ended up being bigger than expected with over 35 people in attendance.
The participants were mostly representatives from the various Zimbabwean civil society and community organisations that are actively based in South Africa. Most of the said organisations and individuals are already actively involved in fundraising for or working on various education initiatives in Zimbabwe.
Please find below the list of the resolutions of the 10th March meeting:
Preamble
The Zimbabwe Diaspora Education Support Initiative notes that in the past decade there has been a deterioration of Zimbabwe’s once world class education system.
During this period, declining public funding for education, the political situation and the harsh socio-economic conditions all combined to have a negative impact on education.
We acknowledge the efforts by the Government in particular the Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture and its development partners to revive the education sector and the significant efforts to allocate more resources to education, increase enrollment, cater for under privileged school children and improve the quality of education.
We note that despite the problems facing this sector, Zimbabwe still has the highest literacy rates in Africa and this is in part due to the efforts of the inclusive government to make education a critical part of the country’s broader reconstruction and recovery strategy
We agree that education is critical in combating inequality, eradicating and poverty, achieving gender equality, eradicating illiteracy
We acknowledge the philanthropic efforts of thousands of Zimbabweans around the world who continue to contribute to the recovery of the education sector.
We therefore as a collective resolve to do the following:
1.      To set up a Zimbabwe Diaspora Education Support Trust. The Trust shall be recognised as a public platform that shall seek to link up the key education stakeholders both in Zimbabwe and in the Diaspora community. It will facilitate donations from the Diaspora community to the education sector in Zimbabwe
2.      To encourage the Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture to make available to the Diaspora Initiative, its education policy and the ministry’s priority areas in order to facilitate the involvement of the Diaspora and fundraising for some of the initiatives.
3.      To create a database of Zimbabwean education experts both in the country and in the Diaspora. Such individuals would have expertise in a variety of areas including curriculum development, e-learning, sport development, teacher training and other areas. It is further envisaged that both Government and individuals working in the education sector could tap into this database.
4.      To create a database of Diaspora organisations working in education. Such a database would be regularly updated to map which areas each organisation is working on to avoid duplicating efforts.
5.      To expand the Zimbabwe Education Consultative Forum. The forum has already been set up and has a current membership of almost one hundred subscribers. This is an interactive platform which enables Zimbabweans in the Diaspora to engage all the key stakeholders in the education sector both in Zimbabwe and in the Diaspora community and share their experiences.
The forum, it is envisaged will use radio, television, public meetings/debates, and internet based platforms like mailing lists, Skype, Facebook, Twitter, among other ways to engage on education issues.
6.      To support the setting up of various Diaspora initiatives and philanthropy projects aimed at fundraising for education and contributing to its development.
7.  To engage the Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) on streamlining and simplifying the process of obtaining duty free concessions and where possible duty-free certificates for items donated towards education.