A follow-up study explored the attitudes of these rural communities to aid and economic growth, an element which has frequently been neglected in development policy. Using semi-structured group interviews the research found that the beneficiaries' attitudes to the role of aid in reducing poverty supported current development orthodoxy. "What was reassuring from this exercise was the convergence between villagers' perceptions of poverty, growth and the role of aid with current economic thought" Owens explains.
Villagers were asked what they understood by the concepts of poverty and wealth. Most agreed that the signs of wealth were ownership of assets such as cattle and tools, good housing and the standard of children's health and education. The villagers believed that economic prosperity was determined mainly by working hard at farming. They identified the determinants of growth as 'investing in equipment and cattle' and 'accumulating knowledge'. Planning, budgeting, using inputs, investing in equipment and cattle, and using extension advice were all regarded as important.
Villagers' thoughts on the role of aid were also explored. They were encouraged to discuss what they thought the government could do to reduce poverty in both drought and non-drought years; what types of aid they thought had protected them from poverty; and what type had assisted them in growing out of poverty.
Villagers clearly distinguished between aid that had promoted them out of poverty (extension advice, land, fertilizer and seed), and that which had protected them from poverty (grain loans, food handouts, supplementary feeding). Similarly, they distinguished between aid that would help reduce poverty in the future (construction or repair of dams and boreholes, and the supply of irrigation equipment), and that which would simply protect them from poverty in the event of another drought (food aid and/or grain loans).
Although the researchers do not claim that their study is representative of all farmers in Zimbabwe, or elsewhere, Trudy Owens says there is enough good evidence that with a redistribution of relief aid back to development assistance, millions of smallholders throughout Africa could make use of their skills and ability to work their land productively and insure themselves against economic shocks.
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