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Sustainability of Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Constituency Information Centres

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Published/Copyright: July 13, 2017
Libri
From the journal Libri Volume 67 Issue 2

Abstract

This paper assessed the sustainability of Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Constituency Information Centres (PCICs) as one of many parliamentary constituency projects through examining support from development partners and central government. With the advent of constituency development funds (CDFs) it was expected that PCICs would become increasingly important as centres for disseminating parliamentary information, as an interface between parliament and constituents as well as a communication and coordination hub for constituency activities. These aspects have the effect of improving the Member of Parliament’s (MP) work within the constituency, consequently having a positive impact on the constituency as well as improving MPs’ contribution in parliament. The study was based on theoretical assumptions of interpretive paradigm leading to the belief that respondents are subjected to the external world, with a mixed method approach (Ngulube 2010, “Mapping Mixed Methods Research in Library and Information Science Journals in Sub-Saharan Africa.” The International Information & Library Review 42:252–261) used to allow for convergence of both quantitative and qualitative data. It sampled 25 MPs and 25 office assistants from 25 constituencies, the administration of parliament and development partners, using questionnaires and interview schedules as instruments of data collection. Findings of the study showed that PCICs are poorly resourced due to a lack of funding which has led to the failure to sustain a promising and widely accepted PCIC project, among other drawbacks. It is expected that the findings of this study will contribute to an understanding of the need to plan and properly manage limited resources when addressing the issue of developing constituency projects.

Keywords: Constituency Development Funds; development partners; Constituency Information Centres; parliamentary information; Zimbabwe

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Received: 2016-7-26
Accepted: 2017-6-2
Published Online: 2017-7-13
Published in Print: 2017-7-26

© 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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  12. Libri: The International Journal of Libraries and Information Studies
https://doi.org/10.1515/libri-2016-0090
Keywords for this article
Constituency Development Funds; development partners; Constituency Information Centres; parliamentary information; Zimbabwe

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Articles
  3. Search Strategy, Self-Concept and Metacognitive Skills of Secondary School Teachers in Selected Cities in Nigeria and South Africa
  4. Relations between Privacy Behaviors and Social Capital on Facebook
  5. International Students’ Information Needs and Seeking Behaviours throughout the Settlement Stages
  6. Student Award Papers
  7. When Ethics and Law Clash a Look at the Ethical, Legal, and Moral Issues Arising from the Boston College Belfast Oral Project
  8. Descriptive Metadata: An Analysis of British Pathé Newsreel Collections from World War Two
  9. Article
  10. Sustainability of Zimbabwe’s Parliamentary Constituency Information Centres
  11. Call for Papers
  12. Libri: The International Journal of Libraries and Information Studies
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