Citizens of Zimbabwe
The Citizens’ Cabinet is a platform to give unprecedented collective national citizens’ voice on important matters affecting Zimbabwean citizens’ lives and priority concerns for national development with the goal to shape policy from the perspective of ordinary citizens and a clear people-centered stance.
Such a collective voice is needed now, more than ever, given the accelerated pace of top-down policy prescriptions by the government that marginalizes citizens and result in pain and suffering for the majority. This is particularly so with regards to the painful economic reforms and austerity measures being championed by the current administration following an anti-poor economic model that relegates citizens to the periphery and typically results in devastating socio-economic consequences.
“The Citizens’ Cabinet will reflect a diversity of voices and will pioneer radically democratic and innovative models of engaging citizens and building solutions from the bottom-up,” says Citizen’s Manifesto Convenor, Briggs Bomba, “The Citizens’ Cabinet will use technology to crowdsource citizens’ views nationally and will put forward concrete people-centered policy alternatives. The platform will also serve, in close coordination with other citizens’ movements, as a vehicle for concerted campaigns to ensure that citizens’ demands find expression in progressive new policy formulation that benefits the people.”
The Citizens’ Cabinet arises from sustained consultations among progressive civic formations and individual citizens under the banner of the Citizens’ Manifesto and similar platforms around which citizens have converged over the past two years to build consensus on the future they want grounded in day to day lived realities of ordinary Zimbabweans and united by a shared vision of a better Zimbabwe for all. Most significant, is the National Citizens’ Convention of 20 July 2018 where citizens gathered and deliberated in participatory ways on the future of the Zimbabwe they want.
Devolution of power is a core-principle of the national Citizens’ Cabinet. Accordingly, the Citizens’ Cabinet will actively promote the establishment of Provincial Citizens’ Councils that will discuss local issues and champion a local policy agenda and inform national discourse guided by the local reality and priorities. The Citizens’ Cabinet will champion issues of social and economic justice.
Respective portfolio leads of the Citizens’ Cabinet are designated based on thematic and technical know-how, however, deliberations will be guided by a radically participatory approach, collective thinking and unprecedented citizen consultations. All portfolio leads will be supported by a Reference Group for each thematic area. Additionally, the Citizens’ Cabinet will tap into technical support from Zimbabweans at home and in the Diaspora to ensure that policy positions are guided by cutting-edge thinking and solid evidence.
Deliberations of the Citizens’ Cabinet and agreed positions will be communicated transparently to all stakeholders and serve as the basis for sustained campaigns to address the most pressing citizens’ concerns and spur transformation towards a better Zimbabwe for all.
The operations of the Citizens Cabinet shall be characterized by participatory democracy and a diversity of voices reflecting a living and dynamic movement and will draw technical expertise and support from a network of professional and patriotic Zimbabwe locally and in the Diaspora.
GOING FORWARD, we the citizens, commit to engaging all citizens to sustain a collective civic voice and hold those elected to public office accountable to their mandate to make Zimbabwe a better place for all!