The socioeconomic base of communities in the National Resources Management Project (NRMP Area)

Abstract

This report presents and discusses some of the socio-economic information collected in the 1991 survey of households done by the Centre for the Natural Resources Management Programme. The NRMP involves areas in the Matabeleland South and Matabeleland North Provinces of Zimbabwe. It is supported by the United States Agency for International Development and is an extension os Zimbabwe's CAMPFIRE programme which extends to local communities the rights to manage and profit from wildlife. According to the terms of the grant from USAID, CASS was to collect socio-economic information from the areas involved in the programme. The survey was our response to that mandate. During 1991, CASS field staff interviewed representatives of more than 3200 households in the program area. t This report briefly describes that process and reports some of the basic socioeconomic information that was collected. It tabulates information by ward in the study area. Because of this format, it is difficult to present anything that is at all analytical. Because we present information wara by ward, there is simply not enough room on the page to contain crosstabulations or other more informative analyses. We are limited to an overall profile and description of some basic socioeconomic information. Other reports using the data take a more analytical approach. The tables to accompany this report are included separately from the body of the paper so that the reader can easily refer to them while reading. The subtitles of the paper are keyed to the table numbers for the convenience of the reader. The body of the text is intended as a commentary and interpretation of the tables. The paper will make even less sense than it does if the reader does not attend to the tables.