Zimbabwe Democracy Institute (ZDI) recently launched a report on the levels of public awareness of the government’s economic blueprint policy, Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset).

The research culminated in the production of a research report titled, “Knowledge, Attitude and Perceptions towards the ZimAsset Policy in Mashonaland West Province”.

The research was conducted in 13 Mashonaland West districts and the 384 of the respondents approached revealed that they were not significantly knowledgeable of ZimAsset.

“The aim of this research was to determine the public reception and buy-in into the policy”, said Getrude Mhlanga ZDI Programmes Manager.

The research was conducted so as to provide an insight into the opinions of the people’s perspective on the economic blue print and to try and determine the level of awareness on the part of the masses as they are ones that are affected by these policies.

Mhlanga added, “We looked into factors shaping citizen’s perceptions and attitudes towards the policy and the implications of these towards the successful execution and attainment of the policy objectives.”

From ZDI’s research findings 66% of the respondents were unaware what the economic blue print was all about and this might be due to ignorance or poor relay of information about the policy to the populace; indicated Ethel Muchena ZDI Programmes Officer

“The research findings show that the majority of Zimbabweans have no idea what the policy is all about and so there is the need for policymakers to educate the citizenry on what the economic blueprint is all about; what it stands for and how it would help in improving the livelihoods of the people in Zimbabwe”, said Natasha Justin a concerned citizen.

Muchena emphasized that failures of previous economic blueprints in the country can be attributed to disintegrated policy implementation systems.