Zimbabwe

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 * Zimbabwe - Country Report**

Recent History *Still Being Edited* - Emir ﻿- Ehab
The United Kingdom annexed Southern Rhodesia from the [British] South Africa Company in 1923. In 1961, a constitution was formulated that favored whites in power. In 1965 the government unilaterally declared its independence, but the UK did not recognize the act and demanded more complete voting rights for the black African majority in the country (then called Rhodesia). UN sanctions and a guerrilla uprising finally led to free elections in 1979 and independence (as Zimbabwe) in 1980. Robert Mugabe, the nation's first prime minister, has been the country's only ruler (as president since 1987) and has dominated the country's political system since independence. His chaotic land redistribution campaign, which began in 2000, caused an exodus of white farmers, crippled the economy, and ushered in widespread shortages of basic commodities. Ignoring international condemnation, Mugabe rigged the 2002 presidential election to ensure his reelection. The ruling ZANU-PF party used fraud and intimidation to win a two-thirds majority in the March 2005 parliamentary election, allowing it to amend the constitution at will and recreate the Senate, which had been abolished in the late 1980s. In April 2005, Harare embarked on Operation Restore Order, supposedly an urban rationalization program, which resulted in the destruction of the homes and businesses of 700,000 mostly poor supporters of the opposition. In June 2007, President Mugabe instituted price controls on all basic commodities causing panic buying and leaving store shelves empty for months. General elections held in March 2008 contained irregularities but still amounted to a censure of the ZANU-PF-led government with the opposition winning a majority of seats in parliament. MDC opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the most votes in the presidential polls, but not enough to win outright. In the lead up to a run-off election in late June 2008, considerable violence enacted against opposition party members led to the withdrawal of Tsvangirai from the ballot. Extensive evidence of vote tampering and ballot-box stuffing resulted in international condemnation of the process. Difficult negotiations over a power-sharing government, in which Mugabe remained president and Tsvangirai became prime minister, were finally settled in February 2009, although the leaders have yet failed to agree upon many key outstanding governmental issues.

ZANU-PF: (Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front), an African socialist party that was the ruling government in Zimbabwe since their independence in 1980. MDC: (Movement for Democratic Change), a Zimbabwean political party and the largest party in the House of Assembly of Zimbabwe. The MDC was founded in 1999 as an opposition party to the ZANU-PF.
 * Key Terms: **


 * Sources: **
 * https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/zi.html
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Zimbabwe
 * http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1064589.stm

Economic situation - trade, debt, etc Foreign relations - allies, enemies, organisations Current Issues - Karim E Society - population, population growth rate, literacy rate, education level - Zeyad []
 * Zimbabwe is the country with the highest amount of public debt in the world
 * The Zimbabwe Dollar was introduced in 1980 as one of the most highly valued currency unitys
 * As a result of hyper inflation and political turmoil the Zimbabwe dollar was abandonned on April 12 2009
 * GDP -1.3 (2009) -14.4 (2010)
 * Export Partners: Democratic Republic of the Congo 14.82%, South Africa 13.39%, Botswana 13.23%, China 7.82%, Zambia 7.3%, Netherlands 5.39%, UK 4.93% (2009)
 * I found that this site was sufficient for an overall background on foreign relations (all citations check out [sites at bottom of page])[| http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_Zimbabwe]
 * I found this document was extremely useful as a good over view on issues[| http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/46401.pdf]
 * Population: 11,651,858
 * 72nd largest in the World
 * Population Growth Rate: 2.954% (Reduced due to the effects of excess mortality rates due to AIDS)
 * Literacy Rate: (15 years old or older who can read and write English)
 * Total Population: 90.7%
 * Men: 94.2%
 * Women: 87.2%
 * Education Level: (Years in primary to tertiary school)
 * Men: 10 Years
 * Women: 9 Years

Development level - GNI per capita, HDI, - Stephen

Membership of international organisations, treaties - Jose [] News links
 * Zimbabwe is part of/ member of:
 * International Monetary Fund (IMF)
 * African Development Bank
 * World Trade Organization
 * Southern African Development Community (SADC)
 * African Union (AU)
 * Zimbabwe is a former member of the Commonwealth
 * Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
 * United Nations (UN)
 * United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
 * United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
 * World Health Organization (WHO)