Due to the unilateral coercive measures, water and sanitation infrastructure deteriorated. This engendered cholera and typhoid epidemics, notably in 2008 and 2018. The two outbreaks led to over 3 000 deaths and affected lives and livelihoods of countless more.
Zimbabwe is prone to natural disasters, experiences frequent and severe floods and droughts. Therefore, budgetary constraints caused by unilateral coercive measures, have effectively prolonged disaster response times, with the country effectively still grappling with the infrastructural damage caused by Cyclone Eline (2000) and Cyclone Idai (2019).
Impact on Women, children and other vulnerable groups
Women and youth organisations and other vulnerable groups like children, the elderly and the disabled were severely affected by sanctions.
Besides, the livelihoods of women and youths have become precarious as they cannot access financial assistance and lines of credit from local banks. The group can no longer access development and entrepreneurship funding from regional and international financial institutions due to sanctions.
The sanctions caused a fall in the country’s revenues and devaluation of national currency, resulting in high inflation and unemployment. This resulted in the deterioration of people’s overall welfare and lowering of their ability to access the necessities of a standard life such as nutritious food, healthcare and medicine.
In essence, the illegal sanctions have caused significant worsening of public health conditions and economic well-being of the majority of Zimbabweans. While the number of people who could have died due to poverty is difficult to ascertain, the above figures reveal that the effects of sanctions directly contributed to poverty in the country which now perpetuates the cycle of poverty, resulting in poverty-related deaths.
Impact on the Region
The imposition of sanctions saw an increase in outward migration of skilled and non-skilled labour force to neighbouring countries. This human capital flight heavily affected the economy of Zimbabwe which was already under stress. In turn, this impacted on resources in terms of social services delivery in the recipient neighbouring countries. The sporadic attacks on foreigners in some of the neighbouring countries could be directly attributed to sanctions as the recipients of our citizens have to put more resources towards social services.
Before 2000, Zimbabwe used to enroll and train a high number of students from the SADC region in its colleges and universities. However, the situation has changed due to sanctions. Internationally, Zimbabwe has been struck off from a number of scholarships programmes that complemented Government’s human capital development efforts.
On infrastructure that support regional trade, Zimbabwe provides road and rail links for many SADC countries due to its strategic central location. The deterioration of road infrastructure due to financing challenges has resulted in high cost of operations for road users from the region. Zimbabwe could not revamp the railway system that could have benefitted the region due to sanctions.
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