HARARE - Zimbabwe has been ranked number five out of 44 African countries, having half capacity with respect to managing resources, a new report says.

Titled “Capacity Development for Natural Resources”, the report released by the African Capacity Building Foundation, ACBF, outlines Zimbabwe’s strong areas and weaknesses.

 Frannie Leautier, executive secretary for ACBF said: “We covered 44 countries and Zimbabwe has a composite index of 50,3 out of a 100 so it is about at half capacity and we rank it as having half capacity with respect to managing resources. It ranks at number five among the 44 countries.”

“Zimbabwe scores high marks on gender equality, mainstreaming, social inclusion and assessment of needs.

The weakest area has to do with development agencies and effectiveness of aid-related to development capacities. The other area that the country has to improve on is on outputs related to capacity development, in terms of making use of the money it has for capacity development.”

Capacity Development for Natural Resources has a case study on the mines, looking at the role that international agencies play — like the Kimberly Process and other such initiatives. It was outlined that Zimbabwe should improve on other areas.

Leautier said: “We have a case study on Botswana diamonds an area that Zimbabwe can work on improving, to move from extraction to actual processing. Processing the diamonds before export is working well in Botswana resulting in employment creation.”

Although Zimbabwe has suffered in terms of foreign investment due to the political crisis, it has benefited on the other hand on the fortunate commodity prices.

A country report on Zimbabwe would be launched of June 28.

ACBF has been assessing capacity in Africa since 2011 when it turned 20.

The first research was on capacity to manage fragility. - Margaret Chinowaita, Community Affairs Editor