HowFar 2.0 campaign was recently launched. Below we share you the keynote speech delivered by ZIMCODD’s director, Janet Zhou, at the launch. Be inspired!
Ladies and gentlemen, comrades and friends we are here again to talk about the major deficiencies, concerns and worries in our beloved country, Zimbabwe. The launch of the #HowFar 2.0, is not just for nostalgic purposes where we reminisce of the problems in Zimbabwe, talk about the initial #HowFar campaign and go home. It is about us reflecting and contributing to the building blocks of rebuilding this beautiful country as it is said; “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo.” This must give everyone a sense of duty, belonging, ownership and responsibility to make Zimbabwe a great, prosperous and a resilient nation positioned to tackle the disruptions poised by modernity. We believe, the bedrock of building this nation is accountability. Our government must be accountable to the citizens on how public resources are managed. The citizens must be empowered to put the public officials under scrutiny and ask critical questions without fear or favour.
In efforts to tackle the accountability question and bring the citizens and government in the public space and to open up and build a culture of accountability, on 3 September 2021, we launched of the #HowFar Campaign. A campaign designed to raise awareness and promote public dialogue on the lack of transparency and accountability by our various levels of government in public resource management. Citizens asked many questions through multichannel platforms directly to government and some responses were indeed received on some of them.
Building on the successes, challenges and opportunities of the first phase of the campaign, we are excited that today we are launching the #HowFar 2.0. This is an effort to keep the public debate and dialogue between the citizens and the government relevant to the context, refresh it and pivot towards pertinent issues emanating from the engagements that have gone on since the launch of the #HowFar campaign in September 2021.
Despite the challenges encountered during the first phase, the campaign has been a worthwhile learning journey. It received an overwhelming response from the general public and activists who have shown keen interest to hold duty bearers to account.
The debate on #HowFar raged on social media which saw the hashtag becoming on the top 10 trending subjects on Twitter with each Tweet getting an average of 1500 impressions. To date, our estimated direct reach through social media, physical meetings, collaborations and through Information, Education and Communication (IEC) material combined is in excess of 500 000 people.
Read the full speech here (119KB PDF)
Source: ZIMCODD
