social policy by Lovemore Chirubvu

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Agere (1990), postulates the colonial history and the capitalist economy created some differences in society creating rural and urban areas. The urban areas had historically and hitherto have better facilities than the rural areas,this is because many rural areas have poor infrastructure development. Inadequately poor communication patterns and facilities make health and medical care inaccessible in most of the remote areas of Africa. In many rural parts of Zimbabwe in particular , there is still neither transportation nor roads leading to the nearest health centers which have made it difficult for some rural dwellers to access health and other related social facilities. In some of these rural areas there are neither no private doctors nor phamacies that sells medicinal products the majority of the people in those areas still rely on traditional medicine (Agere 1990) . The reason for these uneven allocation of resources is blamed on capitalism because it tended to prioritise the placement of these infrastures in areas where they think they can make profits. Therefore it can be noted that, the industrial capitalism has proved the market’s unsuitability as an allocative agent for the provision of social services. Industrial capitalism demonstrated the market’s unsuitability as an allocative agent to the provision of social services. This can be seen in the case of Structural Adjustment Polices in Zimbabwe.The neo-liberal polices advanced by the Western financial institiutions which introduced the SAPS took hostile stance towards the free social services that were put in place by the Zimbabwe government since the attainment of Independence. The adoption of SAPS made a lot of Zimbweans to be unable to get essential social servises.According to Bayliss, 2002 people lost their jobs,school droputs picked in African countries that agreed to the SAPs . Magdah et al (2006) added that, in African countries, water prices rose after privatization such that the poor were not able to access tape water. Thus social policy aim was to improve human welfare rather than increasing capital profits. Therefore in this light the industrial capitalism has proved the market’s inability to provide social policy since it made the poor more vulnerable to poverty than before . According ,Bayliss, (2002) , the fact that after independence the African countries for instance Zimbabwe adopted SAPS was not a genius idea beacause these SAPS led to the introduction of user fees in the critical sectors such as education and health. The adoption of SAPS was a clear evidence that the government used market-led principles imposed by capitalist financial institution such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. These market based principles pounced on the underprivileged .the poor and the minority who found it difficult to afford essential services. In this light it is clear that market-driven services affected the poor more than the rich.The effects were more negative and gruesome in rural areassuch as Binga because resources essential for a person to experience a better and at least decent life were allocated in urban areas were the capitalist could generate huge profits more than in rural areas(Agree, 1990). Thus one can safely argue that the marketdriven mind set is gravely opposed to social public sector expenditures devoted to welfare, poverty alleviation.healthcare, education among other basic social needs. On the other hand, although neo-liberalism can be percived as a direct or indirect product of industrial capitalism, it has its merits in the social service provision in Zimbabwe. This idea can be illustrated by the fact that after the implemantation of SAPS in 1991 the prices of


commodities fell considerably (Agree,1990 ). There was an increase in competition on the market which consequently led to the decrease in price of basic commodities such cooking oil and bread.. The opening of markets and the flooding of foreign products made consumers to be able to afford goods from the market . Agere, S.T, (1990) Issues of equality in and access to Health Care in Zimbabwe. Journal of Social Development in Africa. Babson, J, (1972) Health care delivery systems: A Multinational Survey. Pitman Medical. Baylis, K. (2002) Privatization and poverty: the distribution impact of utility privatization. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics. Vol 73, No.4.


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