Unemployment is the most important problem that Zimbabweans want their government to address, a new Afrobarometer survey indicates.
Citizens’ other top priorities are food shortage/famine, health, education, water supply, corruption, and management of the economy.
Large majorities of citizens lament the government’s performance on these priority problems, the survey shows.
Key findings
- Unemployment outranks other issues as the country’s most important problem that citizens want their government to address, cited by 45% of respondents as one of their three priorities (Figure 1).
o Food shortage/famine (32%), health (31%), education (21%), water supply (20%), corruption (20%), and management of the economy (19%) follow closely behind. - Large majorities of citizens say the government is performing “fairly badly” or “very badly” on creating jobs (91%), narrowing gaps between rich and poor (81%), improving the living standards of the poor (80%), keeping prices stable (78%), fighting corruption (77%), providing water and sanitation services (70%), managing the economy (68%), addressing educational needs (61%), and improving basic health services (61%) (Figure 2).
- While men and women are equally likely to say government is performing poorly on managing the economy, youth (71%), urbanites (72%), the poor (80%), and degree holders (80%) are more likely than their older, rural, well-off, and more educated counterparts to say the same (Figure 3).
- Negative assessments of the government’s performance on creating jobs increase with respondents’ level of education, ranging from 88% among those with primary education or less to 95% among those with post-secondary qualifications. They also increase with respondents’ experience of lived poverty, ranging from 85% among the wealthy to 95% among the poor (Figure 4).
- Residents of Bulawayo/Mat South/Mat North (76%) are most likely to disapprove of the government’s performance on improving basic health services (Figure 5).
Afrobarometer surveys
Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan survey research network that provides reliable data on African experiences and evaluations of democracy, governance, and quality of life. Nine survey rounds in up to 42 countries have been completed since 1999. Round 10 surveys are currently underway. Afrobarometer’s national partners conduct face-to-face interviews in the language of the respondent’s choice.
The Afrobarometer team in Zimbabwe, led by the Mass Public Opinion Institute (MPOI), interviewed 1,200 adult citizens between 1 June and 15 June 2024. A sample of this size yields country-level results with a margin of error of +/-3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. Previous standard surveys were conducted in Zimbabwe in 1999, 2004, 2005, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2021, and 2022.
Charts
Figure 1: Most important problems that government should address|Zimbabwe|2024
