Zimbabwe Power Sharing Agreement-Views from Civil Society

Pursuant to a research,on the positions of the civil society in Zimbabwe on the then ongoing talks, carried out by Zimbabwe watch and the Europe External Policy Advisors (EEPA) ,we hereby present a follow up brief, which is a summary of the positions of the civil society in Zimbabwe after signing of the deal on September 15 2008.The brief was produced in partnership with the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition.

The initial research sought the positions of Zimbabwean civil society on the then ongoing talks, their recommendations and benchmarks for engagement.These were summarized and presented in a document that can be viewed here.

The follow up brief captures the views,benchmarks,monitoring mechanisms and recommendations as presented by the civil society in Zimbabwe after the signing of the deal.The views range from skepticism to cautious optimism with no clear celebrations about the deal.The skepticism being largely due to the vagueness of the deal on key issues such as the allocation of key cabinet posts and the optimism can be attributed to the absence of a viable alternative. Emphasis was put on the suffering of the people due to the worsening economic and political crisis as official figures for inflation are now pegged at 231 million %.

Click here to view or download the brief