By Staff Reporter
HARARE — The City of Harare has urged residents and businesses to cooperate with enumerators conducting a nationwide survey aimed at measuring the performance and competitiveness of Zimbabwe’s 92 local authorities, as authorities seek data to improve governance, service delivery and investment attraction.
The survey, known as the 2026 Rural and Urban Councils Competitiveness Index (RUCCI), is being conducted by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) in partnership with the National Competitiveness Commission (NCC).
Fieldwork is expected to run throughout July and follows pilot exercises conducted in 2024 and 2025 before the first full national rollout.
In a statement, Acting Harare Town Clerk Warren Chiwawa called on residents and selected business establishments to participate in the exercise.
“The City of Harare encourages residents and selected establishments to cooperate with ZIMSTAT enumerators and support this important national initiative,” said
Chiwawa.
He said Harare was among all councils participating in the survey, which seeks to establish a national benchmark for local authority performance across governance, service delivery, investment attractiveness, innovation, sustainability, inclusiveness and resilience.
According to Chiwawa, trained ZIMSTAT enumerators will conduct face-to-face interviews with selected households and business establishments throughout Harare Province using Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) technology.
He assured participants that all information gathered would remain confidential and be protected under the Census and Statistics Act (Chapter 10:29) of 2007.
“The RUCCI Survey is expected to generate evidence-based data that will help Government and local authorities identify strengths and gaps in council performance, improve service delivery, enhance investment competitiveness and support sustainable local development,” he said.
The survey comes against the backdrop of long-running challenges confronting Zimbabwe’s local authorities, particularly urban councils, which have struggled for years with deteriorating infrastructure, unreliable water supplies, poor waste collection, ageing sewer systems, road maintenance backlogs and constrained revenue bases.
Harare, the country’s largest municipality, has repeatedly faced criticism over water shortages, burst sewer pipes, refuse collection failures and pothole-ridden roads, problems that have fuelled public dissatisfaction while discouraging investment.
Government has in recent years intensified efforts to improve accountability and performance in local government through performance contracts, devolution funding and results-based management systems, arguing that efficient municipalities are essential to economic growth and improving the ease of doing business.
The NCC says the RUCCI initiative is designed to provide objective indicators that will enable councils to benchmark themselves against peers, identify weaknesses and implement reforms to improve municipal services.
The commission says competitive local authorities play a critical role in creating business-friendly environments that attract investment, stimulate enterprise development and create employment.
Annual scorecards are also expected to encourage greater transparency and healthy competition among councils.
The survey will assess councils across key pillars including governance efficiency, economic dynamism, infrastructure, innovation, resilience, smartness and cleanliness, with findings expected to inform policy reforms under the National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2) and Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030 agenda.
Its rollout also follows a recent government performance assessment which found that nearly three-quarters of Zimbabwe’s local authorities fell below their performance targets in 2025, with major urban councils, including Harare and Bulawayo, among those requiring significant improvements in service delivery.
Source – Zimbabwe Today
