Innovative ways of engaging stakeholders in managing droughts : the case of Mutoko district,

The main focus of the research was on innovative ways of engaging stakeholders in managing droughts. The research focused on Mutoko district’s wards fourteen, fifteen and eighteen which are naturally drought prone areas in the district. The research was aimed at establishing an effective way of managing droughts in the district, identifying and assessing the impacts of droughts in the district, assessing the capacity of institutions responsible for managing droughts in the district and assessing the coping strategies that are used to manage droughts by the indigenous people themselves as well as those provided by institutions. The research also sought to provide recommendations to stakeholder engagement and other problems that are faced in managing droughts in the district. The word drought was contextualised and conceptualised in this research – that is the provision of the meaning of the word drought, classification of droughts as meteorological, hydrological, agricultural and socio-economical; an outline of the causes of droughts which are natural and human factors and effects of droughts. The drought management processes and approaches – which included a discussion on the proactive and reactive drought management approach, the ten step drought management planning process and management of droughts in Zimbabwe, were also discussed. The stakeholders’ engagement process as a vital tool in drought management and empirical case studies on successful drought management in which stakeholder engagement was a key factor – that is the case study of the State of Nebraska in the United States of America and case study of Rajasthan in India were also given. As such the research subscribed to a descriptive approach of doing a research. Stratified random, simple random and purposive sampling techniques were employed to come up with a total of seventy two respondents. Stratified sampling was used to come up with five strata of respondents, the householders, traditional leaders, agritex officers, councilors, and key district informants. Simple random sampling was then used to pick householders, agritex officers and traditional leaders (village heads) whereas purposive sampling was used to pick up councilors, traditional leaders (chiefs) and key district informants. A participatory appraisal modus operandi – Focus Group Discussion – was used to elicit data from householders, questionnaires with both closed and open ended questions were used for key district informants and agritex officers and an interview guide was used to get data from traditional leaders, councilors and one of key district informants. A total of sixty two respondents have provided data, for this research, which has been analyzed and presented in tabulations and narratives. The results of the research reflected that there are various impacts of droughts which affect Mutoko district. The results also revealed that the capacity of the drought relief committee is very weak, so as the institutional drought coping strategies. The district drought relief committee lacks resources and proper skill to proactively manage droughts and has weak stakeholder engagement mechanisms which exacerbate the inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the institution. There are no effective ways of engaging stakeholders to ensure that a tight fit is maintained between the District Drought Relief Committee and various stakeholders. The committee does not have subcommittee and prerequisite structures at village and ward level to complement district drought relief committee’s efforts and initiate drought management at the lowest level where droughts affect people. To this matter the drought management approach in place has been found as reactive which is very weak and causes the district to respond to droughts than prepare for them thus making people to suffer from droughts which can be avoided. A proactive drought management approach was thus established as the most effective way that can be used to manage droughts. The household coping strategies have however been found effective. Innovative ways of engaging stakeholders that were identified include the use of working groups, websites, publications, newsletters, surveys and web 2.0 tools and among others. Recommendations that have been given include that the district drought relief committee must always be active at any given time of the year, create sub – committees and village and ward drought committees, strengthen the stakeholder engagement process and use a variety of engagement methods so as to identify new and keep in touch with knowledgeable and resourceful stakeholders and among others