THE NGO NETWORK ALLIANCE PROJECT - an online community for Zimbabwean activists  
 View archive by sector
 
 
    HOME THE PROJECT DIRECTORYJOINARCHIVESEARCH E:ACTIVISMBLOGSMSFREEDOM FONELINKS CONTACT US
 

 


Back to Index

Consolidated residents' update
Harare Residents' Trust (HRT)
March 02, 2012

Download this document
- Word 97 version (115KB)
- Acrobat PDF version (133KB
)
If you do not have the free Acrobat reader on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking here.

Executive summary:

The HRT has demonstrated its ability to rally most stakeholders in local government, bringing together service providers, residents and their elected representatives in a non-partisan manner. Through residents' committees which are elected by the residents of a particular community, the HRT has demonstrated a grassroots approach to problem solving. The established committees are made up of Chairpersons, Vice Chairpersons, Secretaries, Vice Secretaries, Treasurers and not more than five committee members. They exist as champions of residents' rights. By so doing, the HRT has demonstrated that it is there to ensure that residents move away from being silent victims of violations and injustice to become active agents of change in their communities. This is in line with some of the HRT strategic priorities of 'Developing the HRT to perform and maintain a Non-Partisan Approach to Development, Membership Mobilisation and Development, Lobby and Advocacy on Social Service Provision, Establishing Monitoring/Observatory Committees at Community Level in Order to Conduct Social and Public Services Audit and Developing a Responsible Citizenry.' The HRT has managed to stay in touch with communities on the situation on the ground, a major characteristic of evidence based advocacy.

This report is a consolidation of HRT suburban structures experiences composed of key issues that emerged from the Full Residents' Council Meeting successfully hosted on Saturday 11 February 2012. The Full RC brings together all the HRT residents' committees in Harare suburbs whose chief responsibility is monitoring community service delivery and the performance of elected councillors. The Full RC is an important component of the HRT which meets annually to seriously debate on community service delivery issues, make recommendations and resolutions on how to deal with issues affecting communities. This report focuses on the status of community service delivery by key service providers for Harare; City of Harare, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority and the Police. By so doing the HRT is fulfilling its set strategic goals of building a solid base of concerned residents in Harare Metropolitan Province who are united for their welfare at community level, building the capacity of residents of Harare to lobby and advocate for quality and affordable services to their communities and creating a formidable organisation that can withstand economic, political and social challenges between 2011 and 2016. Community leaders identified service delivery challenges and shared experiences in their respective suburbs at the meeting. The meeting also provided a platform to engage service providers for a way forward in best addressing these challenges which is in line with the organizations' mission statement: "To build capacity for productive engagement among citizens, their elected representatives and service providers as means to improve living standards in communities/ suburbs". This report also details key achievements, recommendations and resolutions by the HRT residents' committees on service provision, the key focus are of the HRT.

Download full document

Visit the Harare Residents' Trust fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP