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ZIP: An International Collaboration
Promotes Development in Zimbabwe
The University of Washington and the University of Zimbabwe have a five year old exchange agreement which has grown over the years to involve faculty and students in several departments including music, public health, literature, and library sciences. Last year, while I was teaching at the University of Zimbabwe's education administration department, I began initiating discussion with the Dean of Science there, Dr. Henri Dzinotyiweyi, about possible collaboration and exchange with his faculty which includes mathematics, biochemistry, biology, chemistry, computer science, and applied physics. This past August (1997) I visited the UZ and followed up with Dr. Dzinotyiweyi about developing our exchange to include more science and math students and faculty. Our conversation took a sudden different direction when Dean Dzinotyiweyi turned to me and asked with a smile: "Do you care about the real world?" He then went on to tell me about an exciting new project he has been instrumental in developing - a newly formed association known as ZIP - Zimbabwe Integrated Programme - designed to promote successful development in Zimbabwe.
Dr. Dzinotyiweyi describes ZIP as:
"an independent non-governmental organization that aims to promote projects and activities that contribute extensively to national development issues. The name ZIP is used to mean both the organization and the programme. Our logo is a zip. You know what a zip does: it brings two sides of a garment together thereby integrating them. We also use the thumbs-up sign to show that we are only interested in formulas that win." (Zimbabwe Integrated Programme: Route-map to National Success" 1997)
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country in southern Africa whose neighbors include Mozambique to the east, Zambia to the north, Botswana to the west, and South Africa to the south. Over 70 % of Zimbabwe's 11 million people live in rural areas. Zimbabwe has a mixed economy with agriculture as the driving force. Much of the effort aimed at developing Zimbabwe has been uncoordinated and dis-integrated, therefore the need for ZIP.
Education is one of 15 sectors ZIP selected as a critical area of need. Since 1980 when Zimbabwe gained independence, the education system has been expanded and transformed from a highly segregated system to one where the majority population now has access. Aligning curriculum, teaching, and learning resources with Zimbabwean economic and social reality is a critical issue at this point. The major weakness which ZIP identifies in the current education system is that there is no systematic linkage between the education system and the economic needs of the country.
ZIP represents both a strategy and a program. They have incorporated 10 "winning points" which they believe crucial to successful development strategy.
Three of the 10 points which are particularly relevant to education are:
- Sustainability
- Promotion of development which enhances and builds on cultural values
- Integration of activities across sectors
ZIP's overall rationale that all activities and issues are interlinked and affect each other positively and/or negatively as they change will transform how development is approached and implemented in Zimbabwe. While Peter Senge's work on systems thinking is not widely known in Zimbabwe nor by the leadership of ZIP, they have created a program which shares many of Senge's concepts.
Perhaps the most powerful notion underlying ZIP's integrated approach is their belief that individuals and grassroots communities must be actively involved in change in all sectors including education. For cultural and historic reasons there are many within education and other sectors of Zimbabwean society who have developed a passive attitude toward development and change; within many schools and organizations there is passive reliance on those from "above" to make decisions, set policy and decide future direction. ZIP endorses a radically different idea about development. As Dzinotyiweyi, chair of ZIP, says: "Equitable national development starts when the people move away from the culture of blindly following and accepting positions dictated from above, to a culture where people question and demand a stake to participate in issues at hand at all times."
Organizationally ZIP is run by a program steering committee which has satellite branches throughout the country. All Zimbabweans committed to the ideas which ZIP endorses are invited to join the organization. We are also looking at how schools and community organizations in the Seattle area might interact with ZIP members and be involved in their projects.
Kathryn Hubbard
Assistant Vice Provost
for International Education
516 Schmitz Hall Box 355815
Seattle, WA 98195-5815
E-mail: khubbard@u.washington.edu
Copyright © January 1998 New Horizons for Learning.
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