Our focus in this book is public governance and community leadership, a broader concept than simple traditional management. The term management is too formal and limited in its scope. In its narrow sense it focuses on the formalised administrative tasks of chief executives and managers within organisational settings. Although the book utilises the traditional management process as a point of reference, public management is too complex a subject to be limited to the classical management model. Public management is multifaceted. It covers developmental, political, administrative, cultural, sociological and ecological aspects of concerned communities, among other related issues.

In this handbook we sensitise the student and development practitioner (in the public service, civic organisations, local authorities, community organisations and other community development institutions) on the challenges HIV poses for all their development efforts and on the significant role they can play to reduce the effect of the disease on the people. Public authorities and other development agencies can take concrete steps today to ensure that people know about HIV and AIDS and how they affect society. This handbook is designed to meet a number of specific learning objectives in the field of public management, governance and community development. In this handbook we take a human rights approach to HIV/AIDS that argues for gender equality. We stress the fact that successful HIV/AIDS prevention will depend on "more equal gender relations and the empowerment of women."

This is a "how-to" book, intended for community mobilisers who want to stimulate social change in a community to work towards poverty eradication, good governance, increased transparency -- in short community empowerment. This book identifies key steps in the community mobilisation process; it stresses the role and responsibility of the community leader or coordinator of an activity, community networks and other Civil Society groups, including local citizens. This book examines the theory of group dynamics, advocacy, social mobilisation and grassroots communications. The major objective of the book is to enhance knowledge and skills among students, development workers, managers and support agencies on the management of Community Based Organizations (CBO) as basic civil society units for realizing community transformation and sustainable development.

The current crisis and unending talks between bickering political parties in Zimbabwe, Africa and other third world countries prompted us in the Zimbabwe Open University, Masvingo Campus Academic Research and Publications Coordinating Committee (ZOU MC ARPCC) to think of researching and writing a text on conflict management for tertiary curricula. This is the product of the effort. Our intention is to inculcate new thinking and progressive ways of dealing with conflict among youth and other stakeholders. The African political terrain has been characterized by intolerance, violence, murders and sexual abuse among other inhuman behaviours. Right from the imposition of colonialism through the first chimurengas, the armed struggles (second chimurengas), gukurahwindis, and the imposed economic structural adjustment programmes (ESAPs) to the current political impasse, it has been violence through and through. We strongly believe that there is a better way to deal with our differences. We pray to God that one day sanity will prevail.

The aim of this research was to determine the causes, impact and ways of closing the funding gaps in polytechnics in Zimbabwe.The study focuses on how polytechnics can close their funding gaps. Almost all polytechnics have been found to be facing challenges especially in their engineering divisions. While technology has continued to improve globally, equipment in polytechnics in Zimbabwe has remained static. Government and institutional heads have cited lack of financial resources as the major cause of this situation. Some polytechnics have, with the aid of government, introduced the concept of production units in their various departments in an effort to raise funds required for operational expenditure including consumables and lately, expenditure on staff retention or staff incentive. To improve the situation government should be the first to carry the burden of securing funding on behalf of polytechnics, and polytechnics should set up projects in farming, guesthouse operation, clothing manufacture and make use of available staff to conduct workshops in various trades of the economy

Countries emerging from conflict situations are almost always plagued by social upheaval, damaged infrastructure, reduced productive capacity, severe revenue shortfalls, seriously weakened human resources and greatly diminished security. The challenges are daunting as post-conflict governments strive to ensure peace and security, foster social reconciliation and promote development. Yet recovery is possible if the political leadership and public administration can earn the trust of the people, effectively provide services to all and operate in an efficient, effective, transparent and accountable way. This book is about how countries can rebuild the foundations and establish the conditions for self-sustaining, inclusive socio-economic development in the immediate aftermath of violent conflict. The book emphasizes that because post-conflict situations are heterogeneous, there are no 'one size fits all' solutions to governance challenges. In each country, political leadership and public administration reforms should be tailored to local needs.

High staff turnover is a result of both pull and push factors and has a negative impact on oganizational performance. Major factors leading to high staff turnover in Zimbabwean polytechnics include poor working conditions, macro-economic and political factors, education and training and better opportunities elsewhere. High staff turnover has impacted negatively on the quality of polytechnic education, operations and service delivery. Staff turnover rate was estimated at between 33% and 40% by the end of 2006. it is thus recommended that government should review salaries and other conditions of service for staff at polytechnics as a way of retaining, attracting and motivating staff. The study also recommends that further research be conducted in vocational training centers, polytechnics in other regions and in universities across the country in Zimbabwe to establish the causes and impact of staff turnover in those institutions in order to come up with a national document that will help to control this problem, not only in higher education, but also in other sectors of the economy.

Economics for southern Africa high school students prepares students for meticulation, advanced level, first year university/professional business courses examinations in economics in southern Africa. This book defines economics, traces the evolutional development of economics, identifies its divisions and distinguishes between positive and normative economics in simple terms. Economics is defined as a social science focusing on how human beings make choices regarding the alternative application of limited production factors. A distinction is made between macroeconomics and microeconomics. Each chapter and subsection ends with some exercises to ensure active learning.

This book presents a series of techniques, practices and processes to help project managers and project staff to manage information in a systematic way that will help improve the project interventions. It is through information management that we can improve decision making process, learn and create new knowledge. Knowledge derives from information, as information derives from data. Information becomes knowledge when people do the work and realize an action that generates experiences. The creation of valuable knowledge depends on the adoption of a holistic approach to information management; an approach that takes into consideration organizational culture and politics, information economics and processes, information standards and policies, information strategies and governance. All this translates to an information ecosystem that puts people at the centre and technology as an enabler. Managing a project information system has to do more with managing human behaviours than managing technology.

Most African governments have attempted improving performance of their civil service through reforms. All ended up failing meeting the desired results because of a combination of factors. The Zimbabwean experience is a typical African reforms effort that failed because of both internal weaknesses and external pressures. Since Independence in 1980, Zimbabwe has tried a number of change programmes to improve performance among civil servants. Some of the major reform and revitalization of the public service programmes attempted by the government are blackenisation, performance management, professionalisation. Yet, as shown by Bologun (2003) on African attempts at reforms, there is no evidence that the efforts had any positive significant impact on performance. The Public Service in Zimbabwe has been associated with poor management, corruption, nepotism, poor communication, and rude, frustrated and unsympathetic Civil Servants (Public Service Performance Management Training Manual, 1998). A Civil Servant has been known to be slow in responding to demands and in decision-making.

Single mothers in Gweru are among the most vulnerable to poverty and disease.The GWAPA project is an attempt to rescue them from this predicament. This study established that most of the GWAPA projects which started well were suffocating under the current (2000-2010) economic hardships. Main challenges faced by GWAPA include the political and economic environment, HIV/AIDS, limited educational levels among GWAPA members, limited access to resources, community cultural biases and negative attitudes towards single mothers and commercial sex workers, government regulation on financial transactions and work overload among members. The Zimbabwean government and municipalities are encouraged to invest more in the small enterprise sector as it has proven to have the capability to create employment and develop communities by mobilizing the grassroots. The study also recommends a more detailed and deeper participatory study, related comparative studies that show differences and similarities between related projects in different areas in Zimbabwe, and similar studies on DNGOs that work with both sexes in different areas in Zimbabwe.