This article examines trends and developments in science and technology in Zimbabwe since 2009.
Socio-economic context
Between 1998 and 2008, the Zimbabwean economy contracted by a cumulative 50.3%, causing GDP per capita to decline to less than US$400. In July 2008, inflation peaked at 231,000,000%. By this time, 90% of the population was unemployed, and 80% were living in poverty. Infrastructure had deteriorated, the economy had become more informal, and there were severe food and foreign currency shortages. The economic crisis was accompanied by a series of political crises, including a contested election in 2008, which resulted in the formation of a government of national unity in February 2009.
The economic crisis coincided with the implementation of the Fast-track Land Reform Program from 2000 onward, which compounded the decline in agricultural production by reducing the cropping area of traditionally large commercial crops such as wheat and maize. In parallel, FDI shrank after the imposition of economic sanctions and the suspension of IMF technical assistance due to the non-payment of arrears.
Hyperinflation was brought under control in 2009 after the adoption of a Multi-currency payment system and economic recovery program. Once stabilized, the economy grew by 6% in 2009, and foreign direct investment (FDI) in Zimbabwe increased slightly; by 2012, it amounted to US$392 million.
Zimbabwe continues to score poorly on governance indicators. In 2014, it ranked 156th (out of 175) in the Corruption Perceptions Index and 46th (out of 52) in the Ibrahim Index of African Governance. The economy remains unstable.
Following a change in government after elections were held in 2013, the Medium Term Plan 2011–2015 was replaced by the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Economic Transformation 2013-2018 (Masset ).
The African continent plans to create an African Economic Community by 2028, which would be built on the main regional economic communities, including the Southern African Development Community (SADC), to which Zimbabwe belongs.
Industrialization
The Zimbabwe Academy of Science (est. 2004) has recognized that the country's industrialization requires a national vision as to which separate materials should be targeted to obtain added value. This vision should be accompanied by the identification of specific technological skills, equipment and infrastructure required by the targeted industrial areas to accompany the process of value addition. Zimbabwe has an agro-based economy, with a growing mining sector: platinum, diamonds, tantalite, silicon, gold, coal, coal-bed, methane, among others. Skills development is needed in these areas to add value but this needs to be supported by matching equipment and appropriate policy instruments.
A poll conducted by the World Economic Forum in 2014 determined that lack of finance was a major impediment to promoting innovation and greater competitiveness in Zimbabwe's productive sector, along with policy instability and inadequate infrastructure. The outcome of this survey is consistent with the findings of a 2013 survey of the manufacturing sector conducted by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries.
Policy environment Zimbabwe has relatively well-developed national infrastructure and a long-standing tradition of promoting research and development (R&D), as evidenced by the levy imposed on tobacco-growers since the 1930s to promote market research.
The country also has a well-developed education system, with one in eleven adults holding a tertiary degree. Given the country's solid knowledge base and abundant natural resources, Zimbabwe has the potential to figure among the countries leading growth in sub-Saharan Africa. Zimbabwe was ranked 129th in the Global Innovation Index in 2025.
To do so, however, Zimbabwe will need to correct a number of structural weaknesses. For instance, it currently lacks the critical mass of researchers and engineers needed to trigger innovation. Although the infrastructure is in place to harness R&D to Zimbabwe's socio-economic development, universities and research institutions lack the requisite financial and human resources to conduct R&D and the current regulatory environment hampers the transfer of new technologies to the business sector.
Nor does the development agenda to 2018, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Economic Transformation contains any specific targets for increasing the number of scientists and engineers, or the staffing requirements for industry and other productive sectors. The lack of coordination and coherence among governance structures has also led to a multiplication of research priorities and poor implementation of existing policies.
Zimbabwe is considered as having a fragile national innovation system.
Status of national innovation systems in the Southern Africa Development Community in 2015, in terms of their potential to survive, grow and evolve Category Country DescriptionFragileDemocratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Swaziland, ZimbabweFragile systems tend to be characterized by political instability, be it from external threats or internal political schisms.ViableAngola, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, Tanzania, ZambiaViable systems encompass thriving systems but also faltering ones, albeit in a context of political stability. EvolvingBotswana, Mauritius, South AfricaIn evolving systems, countries are mutating through the effects of policy and their mutation may also affect the emerging regional system of innovation. Source of table: Mbula-Kraemer, Erika and Scerri, Mario (2015) Southern Africa. In: UNESCO Science Report: towards 2030. UNESCO, Paris, Table 20.5.
Second Science and Technology Policy The Second Science and Technology Policy was launched in June 2012, after being elaborated with UNESCO assistance. It replaces the earlier policy dating from 2002 and has six main objectives: Strengthen capacity development in STI; Learn and utilize emerging technologies to accelerate development; Accelerate commercialization of research results; Search for scientific solutions to global environmental challenges; Mobilize resources and popularize science and technology; and Foster international collaboration in STI.
The Second Science and Technology Policy cites sectorial policies with a focus on biotechnology, information and communication technologies (ICTs), space sciences, nanotechnology, indigenous knowledge systems, technologies yet to emerge and scientific solutions to emergent environmental challenges. The policy makes provisions for establishing a National Nanotechnology Programmed.
Zimbabwe has a National Biotechnology Policy which dates from 2005. Despite poor infrastructure and a lack of both human and financial resources, biotechnology research is better established in Zimbabwe than in most sub-Saharan countries, even if it tends to use primarily traditional techniques.
The Second Science and Technology Policy asserts the government commitment to allocating at least 1% of GDP to GERD, focusing at least 60% of university education on developing skills in science and technology and ensuring that school pupils devote at least 30% of their time to studying science subjects.
Impact of ZimAsset on research Following the elections of 2013, the incoming government replaced the Medium Term Plan 2011–2015 elaborated by its predecessor with a new development plan, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Economic Transformation (ZimAsset, 2013–2018). One objective of ZimAsset is to rehabilitate and upgrade national infrastructure, including the national power grid, road and railway network, water storage and sanitation, buildings and ICT-related infrastructure.
In 2013, the Ministry of Science and Technology Development (dating from 2005) was disbanded and its portfolio relegated to the newly established Department of Science and Technology within the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development.
In 2013, the government approved four national research priorities proposed by the Research Council of Zimbabwe: The social sciences and humanities; Sustainable environmental and resource management; Promoting and maintaining good health; and The national security of Zimbabwe.
Financial investment in research In 2009, the Zimbabwean Academy of Sciences estimated gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) to be equivalent to 0.12% GDP. However, the authors of Zimbabwe's National Survey of Research and Development estimated GERD at US$76.3 million just three years later. The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development having estimated GDP at US$10 068 million for the same year, domestic research spending should thus have represented 0.76% of GDP in 2012.
The National Survey of Research and Development (2012) also provided a rough estimate of the share of research spending provided by the government sector (48%), the higher education sector (46%), foreign sources (3%), private non-profit organizations (2%) and the business enterprise sector (1%).
As a signatory and Party to the SADC Protocol on Science, Technology and Innovation (2008) since 2018, Zimbabwe had committed to raising GERD to at least 1% of GDP by 2020. This was an ambitious target, given that a national African Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators Survey concluded in 2015 that Zimbabwe’s GERD amounted to less than 0.001% of GDP.
Researchers Zimbabwe has a long research tradition dating back a century. However, the economic crisis has precipitated an exodus of university students and professionals in key areas of expertise (medicine, engineering, etc.) that is of growing concern. More than 22% of Zimbabwean tertiary students were completing their degrees abroad in 2012, compared to a 4% average for sub-Saharan Africa as a whole.
In 2012, there were 200 researchers (head count) employed in the public sector, one-quarter of whom were women. This is double the continental average (91 in 2013) but only one-quarter the researcher density of South Africa (818 per million inhabitants).
The government has created the Zimbabwe Human Capital Website to provide information for the diaspora on job and investment opportunities in Zimbabwe.
Despite the fact that human resources are a pillar of any research and innovation policy, the Medium Term Plan 2011–2015 did not discuss any explicit policy for promoting postgraduate studies in science and engineering. The scarcity of new PhDs in science and engineering fields from the University of Zimbabwe in 2013 was symptomatic of this omission.
Likewise, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Economic Transformation contains no specific targets for increasing the number of scientists and engineers.
Academic teaching and research
Despite the turbulence of recent years, Zimbabwe's education sector remains sound. In 2012, 91% of young adult and teens aged 15–24 years were literate, 53% of the population aged 25 years or more had completed secondary education and 3% of adults held a tertiary qualification. The government is planning to establish two new universities with a focus on agricultural science and technology: Marondera and Manicaland State Universities.
Zimbabwe's investment in education was among the lowest in Southern Africa in 2010, 2% of GDP. However, 40% of this (0.4% of GDP) went on higher education.
Linkages between academia and industry Public–private linkages remain weak. With the exception of the long-standing tobacco industry and agricultural sector, there has traditionally been little collaboration between industry and academia in Zimbabwe. In 2014, the regulatory framework was hampering the transfer of technology to the business sector and the development of industrial R&D, despite the commercialization of research results being one of the major goals of the Second Science, Technology and Innovation Policy.