One of the hallmarks of good governance is good faith – leaders, and not just leaders, but good leaders, exist for the exclusive purpose of serving the best legitimate interests of the people, of the governed.

And the best legitimate interests of the people are not incapable or impossible of figuring out.

They consist of that which is assuredly designed to sustainably, and tangibly secure and enhance as well as enrich the quality of life of a people through the pursuance and implementation of policies and programs that are inherently good across time.

The ability of policies and programs to improve the quality of life of a people must be visible, or at the very least, realistically “envisageable”. In other words, the prospects of people’s lives improving as a result of economic policies and programs pushed and implemented by government must not just be conceivable, but also realistic and realisable.

Selfless leadership, coupled with foresight and visioning, as well as good faith in the formulation and implementation of policies is key.

This extends to the economic sphere and well-being of a society.

Zimbabwe requires reconfiguration in many facets, built on a foundation that is lasting, without of course betraying the heritage of our forbears that they have carved out for us over the ages.

So, for example, a society that is incapable of feeding or producing enough to feed itself is doomed. And there might be plausible explanations for a state of perennial food insecurity, yet explanations that do not result in coming up with sustainable solutions to address food deficits are just that: futile.

The ability of a society to (produce enough to) feed itself is so fundamental and foundational that without it, there isn’t any economy to talk about at all.

This is the quandary that Zimbabwe finds herself in. Is she available to attend to and address this elementary imperative – the ability to feed herself? At present, it doesn’t seem so.

Does she have the capacity to do so? Absolutely, of course.

Now, unless this foundation is laid and the hurdle cleared, any talk of or effort at economic prosperity is in vain.

Food security is therefore key to Zimbabwe’s economic prospects after which other economic key pillars can be sustainably built and arranged.

Land has to be thus seen as a finite resource with endless possibilities, especially when it comes to generating a sustainable means of existences for a people.

The land reform program, within the context of irreversibilty, must be rationalized to answer and attend to the one critical need of ensuring food security for the nation, and making this a building block on which other key economic imperatives take their stand.

Without food security, prospects of economic progress are slim, if not non-existent.

Any attempt to build an economic model that doesn’t recognise the essentialness of food security premised on a viable and sustainable agricultural foundation is lopsided. It defies logic for a nation that register record sales of tobacco every year to have perennial deficits of cereals. Or worse still, to focus on cash crops production like tobacco, the proceeds of which are then expected or used to buy food.

So let ensuring food security be the entry point to planning for sustainable economic development. It is both basic, and elementary, yet not so obvious, it would seem.

[To be continued…]