For UNDP Zimbabwe, support to Governance and Human Rights remains a critical pillar for enhancement of good democratic governance, upholding the rule of law, promotion and protection of human rights in Zimbabwe. This is aimed at creating an enabling environment for Zimbabwe to attain its Millennium Development Goals' (MDGs) targets as well as align itself with the regional and international human rights treaties that the country is a signatory.

In synchrony with the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa Strategy on "Capacity Development for Pro-Poor Growth and Accountability" (CD-PGA) and Zimbabwe United Nations Development Assistance Framework (ZUNDAF) Programme Cycle 2007-2011, UNDP Zimbabwe Country Office recently launched a new Governance and Gender Mainstreaming Programme Support Document focusing efforts on strengthening national capacity of strategic governance institutions and actors, gender mainstreaming, dialogue and conflict transformation in Zimbabwe.

The year 2008 was characterised by political uncertainties due to the two successive contested elections in March and June which resulted in a political impasse. This crippled the government’s capacity to respond to the deteriorating socio- economic crisis. Political dialogue led to the formation of a new Inclusive Government in September 2008 that came into office in February 2009. This national development provides new opportunities for the UNDP Country Office to support the new government in strengthening the systems, institutions, mechanisms and processes that promote good governance, dialogue, gender equality and the rule of law.

National Priorities

The new government of Zimbabwe has sought UNDP support in the following priority areas:

- Technical Assistance in the Area of Aid Management and Aid Effectiveness
- Institutional Capacity Needs Assessment
- Restoration of Basic Freedoms
- Electoral Support
- Constitution Making Process
- Resolution of Residual Issues related to Land
- Early Recovery
- Establishment of National Economic Council

UNDP Zimbabwe Country Office support to Governance and Human Rights is premised on building strong partnerships with Government, Civil Society Organizations, the Donor Community, UN Agencies, the Private Sector and other development partners with the aim of improving governance, justice and service delivery. Currently, UNDP support in the practice area of democratic governance incorporates the above 8 priority areas and includes the following:

1. Parliamentary Reform: UNDP provides technical support under the auspices of the "3 Year Multi Donor Support Programme" to enhance the quality of the national governance system in cooperation and consultation with partners and stakeholders, strengthening the capacity and effectiveness of the Parliament of Zimbabwe to exercise its legislative, representational and oversight roles.

2. Public Sector Reform: With the UNDP funded project " Strengthening Government Capacity for the Implementation of the Results Based Programme (RBM), the Government of Zimbabwe has embarked on a programme to strengthen the public sector reforms that date back to the early 1990s. These reforms are aimed at strengthening the national capacity for participatory planning processes, coordination, implementation, monitoring and evaluation mechanisms, as well as the consolidation of on-going donor support by developing strategic linkages between key Government systems and processes in public administration. This is inclusive amongst other strategic UNDP efforts to support the national anti-corruption initiative to promote efficiency, accountability and transparency in the public service.

3. Socio-economic dialogue and Conflict Transformation: In the recent years, UNDP has up scaled its support for social cohesion initiatives in Zimbabwe. In this regard, UNDP support the creation of strategic national dialogue platforms for broad consensus building to promote a culture of national dialogue, participatory policy development and social cohesion instrumental to sustainable development. The Office continues to be associated with strategic dialogue initiatives such as the church led Ecumenical Peace Initiative for Zimbabwe (EPIZ), the Tripartite Negotiation Forum (TNF) and National Economic Consultative Forum (NECF). Increasingly, UNDP Zimbabwe is actively engaged in capacity building in negotiations skills, dialogue and conflict transformation for State and none State actors to promote a culture of collective problem solving, cooperative/ mutual gains negotiation and dialogue.

4. Promotion and protection of Human Rights: UNDP is increasingly supporting work in strengthening the capacity of the national institutions and actors in the integration of human rights and the rule of law in the national development processes. Some of the initiatives covered including training human rights, human rights programming and capacity assessment of the judiciary through such support projects as Human Rights and Capacity Support for the Judiciary. 
 
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