Green energy for all: Zimbabwe will need a new social contract to roll out projects like solar power
The Zimbabwean government is racing against time to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 7: affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. However, the race towards green energy is top-down and mostly privatised. New technology is being introduced or sold to individuals or small families, but renewable energy is not being made part of a decent life for the entire community. Sustainable transitions researchers Ellen Fungisai Chipango and Long Seng To have researched ways to use the communal ethic of African ubuntu, expressed as “a person is a person through other persons”, in the rollout of renewable energy.
What are the competing views of sustainable development?
Zimbabwe’s National Renewable Energy Policy aims to promote investment in the uptake of renewable energy technologies, especially off-grid solutions in rural areas. Both private sector independent power producers in the solar sector and development agencies have set up some renewable energy projects in the rural areas.
The elite view: Government authorities, international development agencies, non-governmental organisations and experts are inclined to the “western” and modernist view of sustainable development. This reduces progress to that which can be measured by tools and indicators. It overlooks local knowledge and human interdependence. This further marginalises indigenous knowledge, creating room for the continued domination of the western models of sustainable development.
View from the grassroots: Contrary to the elitist view, communities argue that sustainable development must be ubuntu-centric. That is, it must be part of a life lived in harmony and cooperation for the welfare of others. As one participant in our study said:
We believe in living a life of mutual concern for the welfare of others. It should not be about heating and cooking only but also how those technologies foster our relationships between us, a people and our surroundings…
Where did you test your ideas?
We conducted research between 2016 and 2022 with 13 people in the Zingondi Resettlement Area, east Zimbabwe. We interviewed power utility employees, energy ministry officials, non-governmental organisation staff and smallholder farmers.
Each home has three hectares of land and the residents depend on smallholder farming. Most families live in thatched mud houses and are dependent on fuelwood for heating. Those who have family working abroad and sending money home can afford to buy solar lanterns. But those who don’t, cannot. When renewable energy is only available to people who can pay, this increases inequality in the community, which undermines local practices of ubuntu.
Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines.
It has been awarded five stars in the independent QS Stars university rating scheme and named the best university in the world for sports-related subjects in the 2024 QS World University Rankings – the eighth year running.
Loughborough is ranked 6th in The UK Complete University Guide 2025, 10th in the Guardian University League Table 2024 and 10th in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024.
Loughborough is consistently ranked in the top twenty of UK universities in the Times Higher Education’s ‘table of tables’, and in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 over 90% of its research was rated as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally-excellent’. In recognition of its contribution to the sector, Loughborough has been awarded seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes.
The Loughborough University London campus is based on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and offers postgraduate and executive-level education, as well as research and enterprise opportunities. It is home to influential thought leaders, pioneering researchers and creative innovators who provide students with the highest quality of teaching and the very latest in modern thinking.
The Zimbabwean government is racing against time to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 7: affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. However, the race towards green energy is top-down and mostly privatised. New technology is being introduced or sold to individuals or small families, but renewable energy is not being made part of a decent life for the entire community. Sustainable transitions researchers Ellen Fungisai Chipango and Long Seng To have researched ways to use the communal ethic of African ubuntu, expressed as “a person is a person through other persons”, in the rollout of renewable energy.
What are the competing views of sustainable development?
Zimbabwe’s National Renewable Energy Policy aims to promote investment in the uptake of renewable energy technologies, especially off-grid solutions in rural areas. Both private sector independent power producers in the solar sector and development agencies have set up some renewable energy projects in the rural areas.
The elite view: Government authorities, international development agencies, non-governmental organisations and experts are inclined to the “western” and modernist view of sustainable development. This reduces progress to that which can be measured by tools and indicators. It overlooks local knowledge and human interdependence. This further marginalises indigenous knowledge, creating room for the continued domination of the western models of sustainable development.
View from the grassroots: Contrary to the elitist view, communities argue that sustainable development must be ubuntu-centric. That is, it must be part of a life lived in harmony and cooperation for the welfare of others. As one participant in our study said:
We believe in living a life of mutual concern for the welfare of others. It should not be about heating and cooking only but also how those technologies foster our relationships between us, a people and our surroundings…
Where did you test your ideas?
We conducted research between 2016 and 2022 with 13 people in the Zingondi Resettlement Area, east Zimbabwe. We interviewed power utility employees, energy ministry officials, non-governmental organisation staff and smallholder farmers.
Each home has three hectares of land and the residents depend on smallholder farming. Most families live in thatched mud houses and are dependent on fuelwood for heating. Those who have family working abroad and sending money home can afford to buy solar lanterns. But those who don’t, cannot. When renewable energy is only available to people who can pay, this increases inequality in the community, which undermines local practices of ubuntu.
Loughborough is one of the country’s leading universities, with an international reputation for research that matters, excellence in teaching, strong links with industry, and unrivalled achievement in sport and its underpinning academic disciplines.
It has been awarded five stars in the independent QS Stars university rating scheme and named the best university in the world for sports-related subjects in the 2024 QS World University Rankings – the eighth year running.
Loughborough is ranked 6th in The UK Complete University Guide 2025, 10th in the Guardian University League Table 2024 and 10th in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024.
Loughborough is consistently ranked in the top twenty of UK universities in the Times Higher Education’s ‘table of tables’, and in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 over 90% of its research was rated as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally-excellent’. In recognition of its contribution to the sector, Loughborough has been awarded seven Queen's Anniversary Prizes.
The Loughborough University London campus is based on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and offers postgraduate and executive-level education, as well as research and enterprise opportunities. It is home to influential thought leaders, pioneering researchers and creative innovators who provide students with the highest quality of teaching and the very latest in modern thinking.
