Summary 

The risk of transmission of diseases between livestock and cattle is a major concern in Zimbabwe including Hwange district in Matabeleland North Province as there  is competition for pastures between livestock and wild herbivores. While protected areas are developed on delightful promises and possibly ensure conservation and development benefits, they have also had a huge tendency to impose constraints for people living near their boundaries, such as risks of increased physical aggression by wildlife, crop raiding, predation on livestock and disease transmission.

The potential drivers of exposure to diseases such as foot and mouth diseases, tick borne diseases and anthrax are inclusive of climate change, the pursuit of individual interests, nearness to protected areas, seasonality, the availability of water and pastures and political and economic contexts. While interface between wildlife and livestock has been noted to be critical for disease transmission, the extent and type of the interface are equally important factors. The types of interfaces that facilitates transmission are inclusive of environmental transmission, interspecific transmission and intra specific transmission. In as much as diseases affect communities near protected areas in Zimbabwe, some of them have learnt of disease management mechanisms such as regular vaccination as a disease preventive measure and proper burning or burial as preventive measure against future outbreaks.

Given this background, what is not clear is whether history does predispose people to disease. It is also not clear whether in fact the bridled interests of individual, so called accumulators, are responsible for the exposure to disease. Finally, it is not clear how these interested individuals perceive and manage the diseases both formally an informally. This study  aims to deal with this gap.

General Research Question

What are the dynamics of disease exposure and management by local communities in Hwange?

Specific Research Questions

1. What is the nature of wildlife disease risks that local communities individually and collectively encounter in Hwange?
2. What are the determinants of exposure to wildlife disease risks for Hwange local communities?
3. How are local people affected by wildlife disease risks in Hwange?
4. What are the strategies adopted by local communities to counter wildlife disease risks?

Research Objectives

1. To understand the nature of wildlife diseases risks that local communities individually and collectively encounter in Hwange.
2. To establish the determinants of exposure to wildlife disease risks for Hwange local communities (Map the disease landscape). 
3. To explore how local people are affected by wildlife disease risks in Hwange
4. To explore the strategies adopted by local communities to counter wildlife disease risks

Curriculum 

Musekiwa is a renowned  researcher with an interest in public health and community development, both urban and rural. He has over five years of experience in academic and development research and  holds a BSc Honours Degree in Sociology (2013) and a Master of Science in Social Ecology (2018) both with the University of Zimbabwe. He is also a qualified proactive achiever, results- driven and has strong interpersonal, organisational and communication skills in addition to having skills and knowledge to analyse problems, developing and simplifying procedures, and finding innovative solutions; with a proven ability to motivate and work effectively with community, staff, management and organization boards.

Experience and Achievements

Head of Research and Development- Mayittah (September 2020 to October 2021)

Responsible for research and supported in planning and implementing new programmes. He also supported in planning research strategies to fulfil the needs of specific research projects. His other roles Includes the entry, interpretation and analysis of research data. He was also responsible for report writing and presentation of research data. and successfully supported the development of strategic plans, resource mobilisation strategies and sustainability strategies for both local and international organisations. Also, he  has been responsible for leading operational researches and project evaluation exercises for non-governmental organisations.

Part time Research associate-Dan Church Aid (November 2019- September 2020)

Was responsible for administering door to door household questionnaires and beneficiary registration through the use of data collection softwares such as KOBO collects, Magpi and ODK. He has also been responsible for conducting post distribution monitoring exercises, conducting market monitoring exercises and leading team members during fieldwork and consolidating completed interviews. Where beneficiary registration was done on hard copies, he supported the data entry exercises.

Part time Research Assistant – Centre for Applied Social Sciences (UZ) (January 2017-September 2020)

Was responsible for identifying, recruiting and/or interviewing research participants, maintaining accurate records of interviews and safeguarding the confidentiality of subjects as necessary. He was also responsible for conducting literature reviews for incoming projects preparing and testing data collection tools, field ethnographic data collection and formal data analysis. He also supervised enumerators during data collection and capturing, summarised project results, prepared and presented project reports. In addition, he supported writing of publications and policy briefs on various projects.