Tinotenda Hove- Vice President Kembo Mohadi has called for greater reliance on data and technology to improve Zimbabwe’s development planning, but his message comes against a backdrop of persistent concerns over whether government policies are translating into meaningful improvements for ordinary citizens.

Speaking at the opening of Zimbabwe’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Week in Masvingo on Wednesday, Mohadi said data had become a strategic resource and should be used to determine whether government programmes were achieving their intended objectives.

He urged public institutions to modernise data systems and embrace emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence, while promoting the use of real-time information in decision-making.

Mohadi also called for investment in training young monitoring and evaluation professionals, arguing that Zimbabwe needs stronger local capacity to measure development progress.

“Zimbabweans need to identify our developmental trajectory and track our advancement with instruments that represent who we are,” he said.

He further advocated for evaluation systems that incorporate African-centred methodologies, indigenous knowledge and solutions suited to Zimbabwe’s circumstances.

According to Mohadi, effective local monitoring systems could strengthen accountability, improve service delivery and support the government’s devolution programme by ensuring communities are better represented in development assessments.

At the event, he launched the Key Performance Indicators Handbook for the second National Development Strategy (NDS2), which is intended to provide a framework for tracking national development targets.

However, the renewed focus on measurement also raises a fundamental question: what happens when government data exposes failures but those findings do not lead to corrective action?

For many Zimbabweans, the credibility of monitoring and evaluation will ultimately depend not on conferences, technology or policy documents, but on whether data-driven governance produces tangible improvements in public services and living conditions.
Mohadi toured exhibition stands showcasing monitoring and evaluation innovations before presenting awards to outstanding exhibitors, including foreign delegates and development partners.

The challenge now is for the government to demonstrate that its growing emphasis on data will translate into measurable results on the ground, rather than remain another set of ambitious promises contained in official policy documents.