100 day agenda for a new Zimbabwe

ASI produced a report setting out a 100 day agenda for a post-Mugabe Zimbabwe. The report specifies clear actions for a new regime and for western governments who will need to step in quickly to help that government rebuild Zimbabwe. It was the first major policy report setting out a coherent and comprehensive programme for a new Zimbabwean Government and has been the subject of keen interest both within and without Zimbabwe.
The report sets out sixty recommendations for action by the new Government within its first 100 days of office.  Some of the key ones include:

• Liberalise and unify official exchange rates.
• Demonstrate commitment to greater fiscal responsibility.
• Scrap price controls
• Build the capacity of the President's Office and the Cabinet Office to drive the 100 Day Agenda
• Build the capacity of the Ministry of Finance and line ministries to operate basic budgets.
• Encourage the return to government of competent civil servants
• Ensure government salaries can be distributed efficiently.
• Replace inappropriate high level police officials and develop a code of conduct for all police officers.
• Bring back competent police officers from the Officers' Pool
• Collaborate with UN agencies and NGOs to rapidly upscale their provision of basic health services.
• Prioritise the restoration of electricity and water supplies to hospitals and health centres.
• Help teachers return to school.
• Restore vital water generating infrastructure; build ZINWA's capacity to fulfil its core functions.
• Design a simple constitutional reform process and publicise it well.
• Repeal repressive media legislation and encourage independent media organisations.
• Repeal legislation restricting academic freedom
• Establish a Central Communications Unit to direct a comprehensive communications strategy in support of reform

 
The report suggests that from the outset all efforts must be focussed on fostering a sense of national identity and a shared vision for the future of the country. It highlights the need for the new government to develop a very clear and coherent short-term policy agenda that manages expectations of what can be achieved and creates enough political space to begin solving many of the more long-term and intractable problems that will face the country.