Sustainability of Rural Entrepreneurship as a Livelihood Strategy in Zaka District, Zimbabwe

Abstract

Rural entrepreneurship emerged as a panacea to persistent hunger and starvation that hindered community development in Zaka. This was exacerbated by the economic downturn, in 1999- 2008 period which affected Zimbabwe due to the political stalemate that led to hyper-inflationary environment, income deficit and rampant unemployment. A mixed method approach comprising questionnaire survey, interviews, focus group discussion and observation were conducted to 100 randomly selected entreprenuers to assess the sustainability of rural entrepreneurship as a rural livelihood strategy in the district. Analyzes was done using Tesch interactive model of data analysis aided by descriptive statistics. Findings revealed that more of necessity –driven entrepreneurial activities were more prevalent than opportunity –driven ones. Despite the fact that the majority were preoccupied with these activities, sustainability is a function of social capital maintenance, economic capital, environmental and institutional alignment among entreprenuers. The human, social, financial, natural and physical could not manage to influence or allow them to access resilient and sustainable livelihood strategies that would give positive livelihood outcomes that bring intra and inter-generational equity. Therefore, need is there to establish financial, social, technical, economic and institutional linkages with the already establish organizations for the sustainability of entrepreneurship in rural Zaka.