Exploring Practical Strategies for Promoting Youth Voluntary Participation in Rural Community Development. The Case of Mutoko District, Zimbabwe

Youth volunteering has become a vital tool for development in recent years. Worsening challenges that afflict communities such as HIV/AIDS, Unemployment and poverty, among others have increased the demand for volunteers. However, despite this high demand for volunteers, voluntary participation of youth is decreasing. Yet, it is not clear why this is happening. Consequently, failure to address this problem might deepen poverty, youth irresponsibility and curtail development efforts particularly in developing communities. This paper explored strategies which can be implemented to increase youth voluntary participation in Mutoko District. A qualitative approach involving focus group discussions and individual interviews was employed. Youth participants were selected using a multistage stratified random sampling technique. The qualitative data was analysed using the thematic system and matrix ranking technique. Results indicated that the strategies for promoting volunteering varied with geographical locations and gender. It was therefore deduced that strategies for volunteering must be crafted taking into consideration gender and distance from the urban area. The need for target oriented strategies was therefore apparent. Address for correspondence: E-mail: kativhus@gmail.com INTRODUCTION Effective service delivery has increasingly become a challenge especially in under resourced developing countries. For this reason many African countries have turned to volunteering as a more sustainable way of supplementing human resources in community development (Voluntary and Service Enquiry Southern Africa (VOSESA 2010). To date, various policy frameworks, legal frameworks and advocacy organisations have been established particularly in the SADC region in order to promote youth volunteering. However, despite the noble efforts, the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) and VOSESA (2011) revealed that voluntary participation has not yet met its potential for development in the region. Likewise, youth volunteering in Zimbabwe is not satisfactory. Anyway a critical question that remain unanswered is whether the strategies in place address practical issues on the ground? Do they reflect the voices of youth? Finding answers to these questions might help to unlock youth zeal to actively participate in voluntary work. As such, this paper sought to explore the strategies for promoting youth volunteering. This was done in order to gather youth perspectives from their own lens. This assists in amplifying youth voices and thus establishing practical strategies that can unlock volunteering prowess. Broader literature highlights that strategies for promoting youth volunteering are mainly related to interests, behavioural change and modification of recruiting ways (NYDA 2013; VOSESA 2011; Perold et al. 2011). Based on this body of knowledge, particularly in the Southern African region, it is critical to understand contextual motives to youth volunteering. In addition to the aforementioned facts, Vallinas et al. (2012) suggests that volunteering programmes should be based on youth interest in order for them to attract more volunteers. As such, motivations should be need based age and gender inclusive (Dunn et al. 2016). This is due to the fact that youth have different preferences hence their motives to volunteer vary. Therefore, there is need to match volunteers’ motives and available tasks. Allen and Shaw (2009) also highlighted that the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs should be considered in understanding youth volunteering needs. It is also essential to provide autonomy to young volunteers in executing their Anthropologist, 33(1-3): 38-45 (2018) DOI: 10.31901/24566802.2018/343.1-3.1986 © Kamla-Raj 2018 STRATEGIES FOR PROMOTING YOUTH VOLUNTEERING 39 tasks. When youth are involved in decision making they feel empowered and enticed (Allen and Shaw 2009). Given this background, it is crucial to understand area based strategies while considering age and gender disparities. In Zimbabwe, literature on youth volunteering is still limited. However, a few recent studies revealed critical area specific hindrances to youth volunteering that require customised strategies. Kativhu et al. (2017) revealed major deterrents to youth voluntary participation in development work that encompasses unfavourable mobilising techniques, insufficient knowledge on volunteering, lack of rewards and lack of recognition. Worth noting is the fact that the hindrances varied with gender and distance from the urban area. To this effect, it is clear that strategies to enhance youth volunteering are likely to vary with gender and geographical location. History of a country or community influences youth volunteering trends. As a result, it is essential to understand the background of youth volunteering in the Southern African region. Understanding the past provide insight into the future of youth volunteerism. The concept of volunteering is part of the African traditional philosophy of Ubuntu, which entails sharing, caring and humanity. The United Nations Volunteers (UNV 2011) emphasizes that volunteering forms the backbone of African people’s survival through sharing of scarce resources and helping each other in difficulty times. In the African context, youth voluntary participation is a reciprocal activity which is a way of expressing social responsibility and humanity (VOSESA 2010). Although African youth have traditionally been volunteering informally, political and social changes which occurred in the past reconstructed the way they perceive volunteering. During the colonial era, youth volunteering was largely perceived as forced cheap labor. It was characterized by manipulation by the imperialist governments that sought survival in hostile political situations. During that time, voluntary service was formalized and streamlined to suit colonialist developmental system rather than as a network for social support as it used to be (Patel and Mupedziswa 2007). As such, formal volunteering structures as well as financial and nonmaterial incentives were introduced. However, the reconstruction upset the African system of mutual help, kinship and togetherness as individualism became apparent (Patel and Mupedziswa 2007). In the post-colonial era, many African governments reconfigured youth volunteering through providing Africanised strategies to support youth and public volunteering. This was necessitated by escalating service delivery challenges faced by the newly established black governments. The establishment of National Youth Service programmes (NYS) in most SADC countries typified strategies for promoting youth volunteering in the region (Patel 2007). However, most of the initiatives such as policies are not directly related to youth volunteering. Instead they generally cover public volunteering without considering regional differences, age variations as well as gender distinctions. Like other SADC countries, Zimbabwean also established the National Youth Service established in 2001 (VOSESA 2011). The NYS programme was aimed at renewing the spirit of citizenship, patriotism and community responsibility among youth (Dhemba and Kaseke 2006). In its broadest meaning, the NYS program spells out the need for young people to volunteer and serve their communities in order to manoeuvre development, especially in remote rural areas. However, Patel and Mupedziswa (2007) and Perold (2006) argue that NYS programmes have been in most cases, criticized as being militaristic and a weapon for furthering political interests of the ruling party. This was also typified by the militarist training of the youth as opposed to the idea of instilling the sense of volunteerism. These programs were also designed without engaging the youth, hence they had very little support from the youth. Besides, the NYS program, direct initiatives to promote youth volunteering in Zimbabwe are limited. Based on this observation, Kativhu et al. (2017) recommended the need for direct policies and initiatives for guiding youth volunteering at national and local levels in Zimbabwe. The current paper sought to establish practical strategies that are informed by youth views. The main aim of the paper was to identify strategies for promoting voluntary participation of youth in community development work. The findings of this study would be the first step towards gathering area based strategies. This in turn informs a national strategic framework for promoting youth volunteering. 40 SIMBARASHE KATIVHU, JOSEPH FRANCIS AND SIBONGILE KHOSA