Tender Invitation For Youth Sector Analysis
Deadline: 10 April 2012 (4pm)

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) invites tenders for an analysis of the Youth Sector in Zimbabwe (young men and young women).  The main goal of the assignment is to carry out a gender sensitive, high quality analysis of the youth sector in Zimbabwe.  The assignment will consist of a variety of data collection techniques resulting in the compilation of both qualitative and quantitative data (sex disaggregated).  The consultant (s) is/are expected to involve young women and men, representatives from Civil Society, Government Officials, Donor Representatives, Multilateral Agencies among others through research, direct interviews and focus group discussions. The consultant(s) will be required to assess what Sida, other funders, Government, Civil Society and the Private Sector, are currently doing in the sector.

The tender should consist of a technical proposal, which shall include:

- Understanding of the consultancy (max. 10 pages):
- Description of the relevant context
- Proposed approach and methodology to complete the task
- An outline of the instruments to be used for gathering data
- The matrixes and tables to be used
- Targeted stakeholders
- Proposed time frame for completion of the task
- Proposed budget (including fees per day and itemised reimbursable)

The assignment will commence in April 2012 and should be completed no later than 24 May 2012.

The tenders should adhere to the tender documentation, which is all available at www.swedenabroad.com/harare

This just in – the Macdonald Park Pool (Avondale’s city/public pool) has changed it’s opening times. It will be closed Sunday, and only open 0800 to 1200 Saturday. It will also be shut at 1600 everyday, not the 1800 it used to shut. But it will be available to hire for functions on those days. No reason has been given. This is city wide, directive from above.

I ‘understand’ things, since I have been involved in getting the Mac Park Pool rehabilitated and opened.

The first thing I know is that it was rented for functions at $300 a time. Weddings usually. And the area residents complained non-stop about the noise involved.

The second thing I know, on a warm weekend day, the pool would take in over $300 in gate proceeds. In a day! And, or course, the residents generally work on the weekdays, so can only swim on the weekends.

Conclusion. The City of Harare has decided to stop getting up to $500 (two and a half days’ income) and instead rent it out for $300. The City of Harare is trying to NOT make money. The City of Harare is trying to keep the citizens of Harare out of their pool.

Another thing known – The City of Harare takes all the gate takings. Banked straight to them. And rental of the place as a venue means the money goes to the pool, which then takes what it needs for chemicals and upkeep, and banks the remainder to the City of Harare. The City of Harare, however, never gives or pays for any chemicals or pool maintenance. So, the only way to keep the pool running is to shut it to the public, rent it to a private function, and use that money to keep it running for the public.

Is this not short-term policy to long-term disaster?

Please can we have the City of Harare run the pool for the Harare Public and make money?

Yesterday, in pursuit of a morning cup of coffee (at Freshly Ground – the best), and while negotiating Harare’s rush hour, at least three drivers let me get onto very congested roads making my journey so much easier. Something to think about … give and take is what it’s all about.

Cartoon: The Herald, 6 March 2012

The announcement recently that ‘litter bugs face arrest’ has been met with understandably mixed reactions. The requirement that shops and combi ranks have rubbish bins is welcome – but what good are rubbish bins if, as Bev Clark pointed out last week, refuse isn’t collected from bins, or elsewhere? Without regular, reliable rubbish collection, bins just over flow and become health hazards in their own right. Rubbish dumping is free at Pomona Dump on weekends – for those with the wherewithal to take their rubbish there. But the city needs to uphold its side of the bargain. Rubbish hasn’t been collected in my suburb for over three weeks. In desperation, residents have taken to leaving their rubbish out on the street day and night – on the off chance the city finally comes round to collect it – turning our entire road into an effective dumping site.

The City of Harare (CoH) hit on a great way to save us rates bills by making money in another way. They rent out public spaces (our parks) to weddings. At $300 a time, it is cheap for the wedding party, and makes money for CoH.

However, it annoys the neighbours. Mainly the noise, at very high volumes, until the early morning hours. And then, the next renter is setting up very early (the same day) for the function they have rented it for that evening, which again goes into next morning. There were seven weddings in April 2011. Over four weekends. Which means the CoH was making good money, but the residents of the residential neighbourhood were not getting much rest on their weekends away from work.

Aside from the noise, the events are simply dangerous.

Parking is all conducted on the residential streets, verges, driveways, in the park on the grass and flowerbeds, even the street itself! I once observed the wedding party arriving, all in very high spirits right up to the moment the Mercedes did not stop as the 4WD pickup in front of her stopped and a loud crunching sound was heard with smashing glass. This is a residential neighbourhood – what if a residents child had been the one the Mercedes did not stop for?

The noise, both hooting in joy and rapture, and the PA system with the music. A wedding may be a once in a lifetime event for some lucky people. But if you live nearby, it happens seven times a month. And not just at times in the weekend, but for up to 24 hours of the day. A great party, but not everyone is happy for them, after a while.

In addition, while there is a function, or setting up for the function – the public, the residents of the area, the rates payers they are saving money for – are not allowed to use their park!

Toilet facilities? Who needs them? If there is no toilet available, just sneak off behind the bushes, plenty of them in a park! But when you are one of the one hundred and fifty people at the seventh wedding of the month, it rather smells behind every single bush. It smells in front of every bush for the month after. And sanitary?

So, the residents around Florence Chisholm Park got together. Or were mobilised, by one persistent resident. Meetings were held in the Park (from February 2011) with Staff Members of the Harare Gardens and correspondence was had with the Director of Public Safety. They heard and understood. They made promises (in April 2011). They would look at the rules. They would enforce the regulations. They would phone. They would stop taking bookings (but they were already completely booked up to the end of 2011 – 8 months in advance!). They would try to move them to Harare Central Gardens. Other residents complained. And held meetings. And were given promises. And the CoH staff went to observe the weddings.

And what happened? They parked in the street. The noise was too loud (and late). But, additional ablutions appeared (from one port-a-loo to six!).

And since January 2012 (a year later), there have been no weddings. It is now a residential neighbourhood again. And weddings are still being held, but elsewhere. So, residents can make a difference. Your voice can be heard. You can get what you want. It may take a long time, requires some persistence, and a volume of complaints, but results can be obtained.

On the big issues, just say for example, stimulating the manufacturing industry, reducing the levels of unemployment in Zimbabwe, not to mention a generally repressive human rights environment, the Unity Government, (those fellows the MDC and Zanu PF cuddling together in the same bed), are also right, royally, screwing things up on a local level too.

Where I live, in Greendale, there hasn’t been rubbish collection for three weeks. In the hope of catching a City of Harare refuse collection vehicle (a rare and uplifting sight) home owners have taken to leaving their rubbish, and adding to it, out on the street. Rubbish is piling up. It smells. Its ugly. Its a health hazard.

Then there’s the trickle of municipal water sporadically dripping out of our taps. A common sight on our neighbourhood streets is men and women heaving under the weight of water, being carried either on their heads, or pushed in wheelbarrows. The water having come from friendly and helpful homes that have boreholes.

Then there’s the issue of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) and their inability to deliver power. During the past week we’ve had power between 9pm and 5am. While we’re sleeping, ya dig.

Oh. And then there are the pot holes, or craters, as people like to call them. They are  getting deeper, and deeper, and wider and wider.

Meanwhile along Borrowdale Road, the President’s drive-way, we have minions cutting the grass on the island, with … wait for it: hand held grass cutters. Whoa. Of course, why be surprised by both the inequity and the stupidity of initiatives like this?

However, nothing would be more stupid than all of us voting in (again) or letting our vote be stolen (again) these people who treat us like dirt.