I am shocked to learn that the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) says its costly for them to deploy meter readers countrywide. Its now very clear why the pre-paid meters were never a favourite for the power company. I wonder what would be the outcome if we all had prepaid meters and we all pre-pay $20 a month since in Zimbabwe electricity is only sometimes available. I am sure most household accounts would  always have a credit balance.
- Sophia, Harare

Individual Consultancy Services for the Results Based Programme: Cordaid Zimbabwe
Deadline: 20 July 2012

The Cordaid Zimbabwe Office is seeking qualified individual consultants as following:

Background
The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare (MoHCW) and the World Bank have appointed Cordaid Zimbabwe, to manage the Results Based Financing (RBF) program in Health focusing on Maternity Child Health (MCH) Care in Zimbabwe, in close partnership with the MoHCW and the World Bank. Cordaid has established an office in Harare and has rolled out the programme into 18 districts of Zimbabwe.

The RBF program, which is being implemented by Cordaid, provides subsidies, directly linked to services delivered at primary health care level, i.e. rural health clinics and district hospitals, based on output performance indicators with the aim to improve the availability, accessibility and utilisation of quality health services at district and rural health centre level.

As we continuously seek to improve the programme, we are building a database with experts in the fields of Health System Strengthening, Quality of Care, Maternal and Child Health, Health Financing, Health Economics and/or Public Finance, Statistics. Cordaid Zimbabwe would like to call upon individual consultants with demonstrated experience in one of these areas and who are interested to offer consultancy service during the programme to submit their full detailed Curriculum Vitae and include the past consultancy services that has been executed before for our reference.

Scope of Assignment
Assignments will be of varied nature and may run from 1 week to 3 months according to the requirement, activity and outcome expected. Any field visit will depend on the scope of the assignment and the stage of the programme. The full scope of the assignment will be detailed in the Terms of Reference when the Cordaid Zimbabwe calls up consultants from the listed database.

Based on your qualifications, an individual consultant will be selected in accordance with the procedures set out in the World Bank’s Guidelines: Selection and Employment of Consultants by World Bank Borrowers (current edition).

Qualifications
-Consultants must have completed higher professional education (master level), preferably in public health, health economics, health system management, health administration, business administration, database development/data management and analysis and community health.
-Fluency in English – both verbal and in writing is a must. Ability to speak read and write one of the local languages will be an advantage.
-Understanding of health systems strengthening approaches and service delivery within a constrained operational environment, with Zimbabwe experience.
-Experience of working with different stakeholders and providing advice and skills development will be an added advantage.

The interested consultants are invited to submit their application to the following email address: Hr.zimbabwe [at] cordaid [dot] net

For additional information, please contact Arjanne Rietsema: arjanne.rietsema [at] cordaid [dot] net

Cordaid Zimbabwe will compile the consultancy database according to your field of experience and subsequently we will approach you and update on any opportunities that may arise.

Work in and for Zimbabwe. Help grow our nation. Check out the vacancies below. If you’d like to receive this sort of information, as well as civic and human rights updates, by email each week drop us a note saying “subscribe” to info [at] kubatana [dot] net

Please note that the job vacancies we carry are related to the NGO and civil society sectors only.

Head of Finance: ActionAid
Deadline: 16 July 2012 (5pm)

Salary: £23,439 per annum
Location: Harare, Zimbabwe

ActionAid is an international anti-poverty agency working in over 40 countries, taking sides with poor people to end poverty and injustice together.

We seek to employ a self-starter with a high regard for integrity as Head of Finance.  The Head of Finance is a member of the Senior Management Team of ActionAid International (AAI) Zimbabwe reporting to the Country Director, and is technically supported by International Director of Finance based in Johannesburg and the Finance Coordinator based in Nairobi. This post involves a full range of financial oversight and general management functions.

The purpose of the position is to ensure the financial, management and legal integrity of AAI Zimbabwe within the legal framework of policies and procedures established internationally and to ensure that the requirements of local and international law are adhered to and complied with.  The position is also responsible for providing strategic direction to AAI Zimbabwe; to help ensure all of AAI Zimbabwe’s overall strategic objectives are met; and ensure the continual improvement of monitoring, control and expenditure of partner NGOs of funds given by AAI Zimbabwe.

The successful candidate will have, a Bachelors of Commerce in Accounting/ Business Administration or equivalent, an MBA in Finance will be an added advantage; membership of a professional accountancy body; work experience with an NGO would be of added advantage; a minimum of eight (8) years relevant experience in a reputable organization with a minimum of three (3) years post qualification in a senior management position;

In addition, the position requires very strong experience in financial management and accounting practices at a senior management level; proven experience in implementing financial and administrative control systems; excellent team building and leadership skills, interpersonal and communication skills, high degree of maturity and sense of good judgment are also essential; proven experience in running donor funded projects; sound practical knowledge of spreadsheets, knowledge of one Information Technology accounting systems is a must and knowledge of SUN system is an advantage; practical understanding of development programming challenges and appreciation of the financial support requirement; willing to and has skills to develop capacity of Action Aid International Zimbabwe staff in sound financial management practices.

To apply, please submit your curriculum vitae with a motivation letter to jobs.Zimbabwe [at] actionaid [dot] org

Please Note: While we value all applications, we can only respond to short listed candidates. Whilst all applicants will be assessed strictly on their individual merits, qualified women are especially encouraged to apply.

A group of people reading newspapers for free at newspaper vendor stacks has become the order of the day in Zimbabwe. However, with the display of notices like this one, the free reading habit is most likely going to come to an end.

A sit-in protest in Bulawayo by members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) in Bulawayo led to the arrest of 100 of its members. The protests were organized to push for devolution of power, an immediate release of the constitution and expose the disrespect to the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo whose statue is still to be put up in the city.

The police in Bulawayo arrested over 100 members of the Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) pressure group, as they conducted a sit-in protest on Wednesday calling for the immediate release of a draft Constitution. According to WOZA, many members in custody were handcuffed, which is a violation of women’s rights protocols.

Over 100 members of Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) are in custody at Bulawayo Central Police station, many are handcuffed in violation of women’s right protocols. Riot Police ran wildly around the Main Street and 8th Avenue intersection on orders of their Officer Commanding Bulawayo who was present to demand they arrest members.

Lawyers have been denied access on three separate occasions. Those in custody include WOZA leader Magodonga Mahlangu, three minor children who are not members of WOZA and 3 breastfeeding mothers in custody. WOZA national coordinator Jenni Williams was not arrested.

Ten protests were due to start at 11am Wednesday 27 June 2012 but Riot police had already arrested 40 members and by-standers by 10:30am. Only 3 of the ten protests made it to the sit-in location will be the road surrounding the space where the memorial statue of late Joshua Nkomo should be.

Four additional protests were conducted after 11:30 am marching from the Statue to the Bulawayo Central Police station. Riot police were deployed to refuse them entry into the police station and threatened to beat them before dispersing them from handing themselves in.

Read more here

Government has put an end to the distress of mothers who after giving birth could not foot their medical bills. Some women who face complications while giving birth at clinics are usually transferred to hospitals and this results in them facing a higher medical bill than they had budgeted for and most likely beyond their reach. Thus after giving birth, the joys of holding your newborn are sometimes not enjoyed by many women in Zimbabwe because of the financial constraints they faced in paying for their medical bills. In some cases women would be detained at the hospital or clinic until their bill was cleared or in the worst scenarios have their belongings confiscated. But alas, this is going to be a thing of the past as rural clinics and hospitals have scrapped maternity fees. Next week this same waiver will be introduced in provincial and central hospitals as reported by Newsday.