“It Takes a Village to Raise a Child”: Asset-Based Community Development as a Pathway to Integrated Social Protection for Sustainable Child Protection in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Children are some of the most vulnerable members of society who must be protected at all costs. Zimbabwe has a long history of disjointed formal and indigenous social protection systems, which have resulted in the exclusion of many children, leading to high levels of child abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence. In policy and practice, there is a strong bias towards the ineffective statist formal system, yet the indigenous social protection system is the mainstay for the protection of most children. The study aimed to explore how asset-based community development can be used as a strategy to integrate the fragmented formal and indigenous social protection systems for sustainable child protection. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods research design was employed, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data from 76 participants. The study findings indicate that asset-based community development by positioning the indigenous social protection system at the centre of the social protection framework provides a blueprint for a community-led and integrated social protection system, which can translate into effective child protection. This system, which utilises a wider network of community and external resources, can counteract the limits of fragmented social protection and sustainably promote child protection among impoverished households in Zimbabwe and similar contexts. The recommendation is that asset-based community development should be promoted as a strategy towards integrated social protection and sustainable child protection.

1. Introduction

African ways of knowing, being, and doing (ulwazi lwabantu; ruzivo rwevanhu) have not been fully harnessed for community development, social protection and child protection. “It takes a village to raise a child” is an African proverb meaning a child’s upbringing requires the collective effort and support of the entire community, not just biological parents; it advocates for the involvement of the extended family, friends, neighbours, teachers, social workers, community members, and significant others to provide a safe, healthy, and nurturing environment for growth and development of children. This communal approach fosters shared responsibility for instilling values, discipline, and social skills, ensuring children have diverse positive influences beyond their immediate household. In IsiNdebele (a Zimbabwean language), we say “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu”; in Shona (another Zimbabwean language), we say “Munhu munhu nevanhu”; both sayings translated are “A person is a person through other persons” or “I am because we are”. In IsiNdebele, we further say “Isiphala Senkosi ngesokuncedisa intandane labafelokazi”; then in Shona, we say “Zunde Ramambo nderekubatsira nherera neshirikadzi”; both are translated as “The King’s kraal, farm, and granary are there to help the needy and the vulnerable members of the society, especially orphans and widows”. This saying reflects the traditional practice of bringing the community members together as one, for the good of the community. Other structures within the African traditions that have a bearing on child protection include “Idale” or “Padare”, an IsiNdebele and Shona name translated as “A traditional court”. They denote an institution within the Zimbabwean traditions where the Chief (Induna, Mambo) of a clan presides over issues of villagers, including issues of child protection. This is usually done within the structures of existing child protection laws in the country and plays a complementary role within the child protection system. Other African proverbs that denote a collectivist and communal approach to solving problems are: “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion”, and “Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.” These proverbs emphasise community solidarity in addressing societal problems, including impediments that compromise the ability of families to protect children. As the Ndebele people say, “Okulume indlebe ngowakho”, translated, “The one who bites your ear is yours”, meaning, he who advises you means well and wants to protect and promote your well-being. The wisdom of the elders and African traditions has a role to play in child protection endeavours.

As a developing country in the Global South, Zimbabwe faces high levels of poverty caused by high rates of unemployment, climate change, environmental degradation, drought, and floods (Sibanda and Berejena Mhongera 2025; Murenje and Sibanda 2026), which expose many children to abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence. Children, being the most vulnerable members of society, are the worst affected by poverty, which has often been cited as the biggest contributor to child protection violations. Although the post-independence government in Zimbabwe instituted far-reaching reforms in an attempt to reverse the legacy of colonialism in social welfare, the fragmentation of the indigenous and formal social protection systems remains a challenge in the context of endemic poverty (Masuka 2020). Social protection, which refers to the set of policies, programmes, schemes and services designed to counteract social risks throughout the life course (International Labour Organisation 2019), plays a central role in reducing poverty, risks, shocks, and vulnerabilities as well as strengthening the resilience and protection of children, families, and wider communities (Warria and Chikadzi 2021). However, the disjointed approach in social protection has “…induced more exclusion than inclusion of would-be beneficiaries” (Chirisa 2013, p. 151), with children being the worst affected. Harmonisation of the indigenous and formal protection systems, as Olivier et al. (2008) argue, is core to the development of integrated and comprehensive social protection systems that can promote sustainable child protection. What are missing and critical in the post-colonial social protection discourse in Zimbabwe are relevant and practical strategies that can promote synergy between the indigenous and formal social protection systems (Mushunje and Kaseke 2018). Integrating the indigenous and formal social protection systems is critical in the development of an effective and sustainable child protection system. Child protection can be defined as the measures and formal and informal structures that prevent and respond to both intentional and unintentional abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence faced by children across all settings (Save the Children 2025; Sibanda and Lombard 2022). Although poverty and economic hardship alone are not a sufficient justification for removing a child from parental care, they significantly compromise caregivers’ ability to meet children’s basic needs, which leads to unintentional child neglect (Sibanda et al. 2026).

Asset-based community development (ABCD) as a social development strategy can link the indigenous and formal social protection systems because it integrates the frequently overlooked community assets, efforts and external support which foster partnerships and exchange of resources, technologies, and knowledge (Cox and Pawar 2013; UNICEF 2016), but is yet to be widely explored and applied in Zimbabwe. It is against this background that this study was conducted to explore how ABCD can be used as a strategy to integrate the indigenous and formal social protection systems for sustainable child poverty reduction among extremely poor households in Bindura town, Zimbabwe. This paper presents a literature review, research methodology, results, discussion of findings and conclusion based on the findings of the study.

1.1. Objectives of the Study

The specific objectives of the study were as follows:

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To identify the indigenous social protection practices adopted by extremely poor households to protect children.

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To map the types of assets and their level of usage by the extremely poor households in the indigenous social protection practices to protect children.

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To assess the limitations of the indigenous social protection practices adopted by the extremely poor households to protect children.

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To explore how the steps of the ABCD strategy can be used to address the limitations and promote integrated social protection and sustainable child protection.

1.2. The Setting

Poverty, as measured using income metrics, has deepened and widened in Zimbabwe (Murenje and Sibanda 2026). According to World Data Lab (2023), 39% or 7,397,221 people out of a total population of 18,830,740 are living in extreme poverty, and most of them are children. UNICEF Zimbabwe (2023) states that 61% of the children in the country are living in multidimensional poverty, particularly in rural areas and high-density and peri-urban informal settlements. Sibanda and Berejena Mhongera (2025) made similar observations regarding the high levels of poverty in Zimbabwe and their effects on children. The poverty situation has been worsened by shocks that include COVID-19, recurrent droughts, and cyclones (World Bank 2022; Murenje and Sibanda 2026). Although poverty in Zimbabwe is mainly a rural phenomenon, the urban areas have in recent years recorded increased levels of poverty, thereby narrowing the rural–urban poverty gap (World Bank 2022). The burden of poverty is higher in the old and colonial-era-established high-density urban areas because they historically lack infrastructure and basic amenities. The study was conducted in Chipadze, the oldest and most densely populated sprawling suburb in Bindura town (Mugumbate and Nyoni 2016). Bindura town is the administrative capital of Mashonaland Central province and is situated 89 kilometres north-east of Harare, the capital city. Available statistics indicate that 12% of the children in the urban communities of Mashonaland Central province live in extreme poverty (ZIMSTAT and UNICEF 2019). The extreme poverty in such resource-constrained urban areas as Chipadze manifests as low income, poor housing, lack of or limited access to essential services and facilities, low social capital and high rates of anti-social behaviours, all of which are associated with child protection violations (Bartlett 2012; Cox and Pawar 2013; Sibanda et al. 2026).

1.3. Background

Given the hegemony of colonialism on the development of social protection in Africa, Noyoo (2021) suggests that the historical approach is the best way to contextualise and analyse the current dynamics of social protection in post-colonial African countries. In social protection, as in other policies, the successive colonial regimes in Zimbabwe adopted dualism as the overarching philosophy (Mupedziswa and Mushunje 2021), which was underpinned by capitalist ideology and racial segregation. As Mushunje and Kaseke (2018) elucidate, dualism in social protection was characterised by the provision of formal, urban-based, and residual social protection services mainly to cater for the minority white settlers, with the exclusion of most Africans. This was based on the warped notion that the latter relied on indigenous support systems (Mushunje and Kaseke 2018).

Due to resource constraints, corruption, mismanagement, and lack of political will, the post-colonial government has remained stuck with the generally ineffective Eurocentric formal social protection model, and the fragmented formal and indigenous social protection systems persist (Mupedziswa 2018). In response to the increasing prevalence of child protection violations, the government, with support from development partners, has implemented a range of formal social protection schemes targeting children, including health insurance, educational assistance, and social cash transfers (Mupedziswa and Mushunje 2021). However, these schemes are still means-tested social safety nets that only provide rudimentary short-term relief to a small number of children (Chirisa 2013). Yet, the harsh socioeconomic environment has resulted in mass poverty and increased the demand for comprehensive social protection, but in the face of chronic fiscal constraints and high inflation, the formal system is underfunded and overwhelmed (Mupedziswa and Mushunje 2021). Consequently, the coverage of and benefits from the formal social protection schemes have dwindled (World Bank 2022), leaving many children vulnerable to abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence. An increase in vulnerability due to poverty limits the capacity of families to adequately look after children and cushion them from abuse and neglect, which, according to Sibanda (2025b), leads to the activation of statutory child protection processes. Statutory child protection mechanisms may entail the removal of children from the care of their biological parents and placement in alternative care, mainly foster care and institutional care (Sibanda 2025a; Sibanda and Berejena Mhongera 2025).

Formal social protection services for children in Zimbabwe are being delivered using a professional-managerial approach, which, as Patel et al. (2012) state, relies on formal administrative systems, professionals, external agents and rarely taps into local resources. Evidently, in the context of protracted socioeconomic challenges, this approach has proved inappropriate and unsustainable. In their analysis, Mupedziswa and Mushunje (2021) identified a plethora of institutional and capacity bottlenecks in the formal social protection system, namely, lack of decent office space, massive brain drain, few, inexperienced, overworked, poorly remunerated, and demotivated social workers, and poor services. Similar challenges were noted regarding the South African child protection system (Sibanda and Lombard 2015; Sibanda and Ngwabi 2025; Sibanda and Ndamba 2023; Sibanda 2025d). As a result of market and state failures, the formal social protection and child protection systems are unable to provide the basic, comprehensive, responsive, meaningful, consistent, and sustainable social protection floors to prevent or alleviate poverty, vulnerability, and social exclusion for many children (Chirisa 2013; International Labour Organisation 2012). This has led to the multidimensional and overlapping manifestations of child protection violations, such as poor health, school dropouts, poor educational outcomes, child labour, drug abuse and child marriages (UNICEF 2016). In this milieu, most of the children rely on the indigenous social protection system, which includes the extended family network, remittances, social and welfare clubs, and religious groups (Mushunje and Kaseke 2018; Chirisa 2013).

Ironically, compared to the formal social protection system, governments, contemporary social development scholars, and practitioners in African countries have seldom recognised indigenous social protection systems (Noyoo 2021); as a result, the literature on indigenous social protection systems is limited. The indigenous social protection initiatives have emerged, evolved and remained relevant because they are an embodiment of cultural values and norms as well as a response to the absence of a comprehensive formal social protection system (Mushunje and Kaseke 2018). Similar to the principles of a developmental approach to social welfare, which was intended to reverse the legacy of apartheid by transforming and modernising the child protection sector (Sibanda and Lombard 2015; Sibanda and Ngwabi 2025), the indigenous social protection measures are participatory, collaborative, transparent, accessible, appropriate, low-cost, and adaptive, and use local resources (Chirisa 2013; Patel et al. 2012). However, Mpedi (2018) cautions that the indigenous social protection system is imperfect, and hence should not be sentimentalised and viewed as the panacea to all the social protection and child protection problems in Southern African countries like Zimbabwe. A cluster of factors, which include urbanisation, individualism, migration, low organisational capacity, lack of resources and poverty, have limited the efficacy of indigenous social protection practices (Mupedziswa and Mushunje 2021).

Notwithstanding the numerous challenges, the indigenous social protection systems are playing an important role for most poor children in many Southern African countries, Zimbabwe included (Mpedi 2018). Compared to the formal system, the indigenous social protection system has proven to be more effective, resilient, and adaptive in the context of socioeconomic challenges (Chirisa 2013). However, the country is still struggling with the conundrum of a strong bias toward the formal social protection system, while the indigenous social protection initiatives are meeting the welfare needs of most of the population (Mupedziswa 2018). Despite their co-existence, the indigenous social protection system is being sidelined and not mentioned in the national social protection framework (Mushunje and Kaseke 2018; Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) 2017). This confirms Zimbabwe’s long history of disjointed formal and indigenous social protection systems (Chirisa 2013). The anomaly can be addressed at both policy and practice levels by reconfiguring the social protection framework and positioning the indigenous social protection mechanisms at the centre of the social protection system (Mpedi 2018). Terms like harmonisation (Chirisa 2013), co-existence (Mushunje and Kaseke 2018), Africanisation (Mpedi 2018), transformation (Warria and Chikadzi 2021), Ubuntu (Sibanda 2025c), decolonisation (Mupedziswa and Mushunje 2021), developmental approach (Sibanda and Lombard 2015; Sibanda and Ngwabi 2025), and mainstreaming (Noyoo 2021) have emerged from African scholars during the debate on how social protection and child protection systems can be redesigned in many post-colonial African countries, Zimbabwe included. These concepts all underscore the need to embrace and position the indigenous social protection initiatives at the core of a broader social protection and child protection framework, which Warria and Chikadzi (2021) argue is a vital step towards a comprehensive, inclusive, transformed, and responsive social protection and child protection system that can better protect children from abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence. Similar sentiments are echoed by Sibanda and Ngwabi (2025). Linkages between the formal and indigenous social protection systems can ensure that they leverage their respective strengths and counteract their inherent limitations for sustainable child protection (Mushunje and Kaseke 2018).

1.4. Legal and Policy Framework

In recognition of the abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence faced by millions of children, the global community promulgated the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the SDGs as the overarching legal, policy and programme frameworks for child protection, which Zimbabwe has domesticated.

1.4.1. CRC and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

The CRC is both a legal code and a policy instrument that can be used by children and child advocates to transform and protect the welfare and rights of children. Zimbabwe acceded to the CRC in September 1990, and the CRC has since guided the country’s legal, policy and programme frameworks in the field of child protection (Ministry of Labour and Social Services 2011). The CRC sets out a range of political, civil, cultural, economic and social rights under 54 different articles, which Jones and Sumner (2011) grouped into four dimensions, namely child survival, child development, child protection, and child participation rights. As a policy framework, the CRC is also complemented by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Several provisions of the Covenant promote child protection. For example, Article 11 (1) states that, “State parties to the Covenant are required to recognise every person’s right to adequate food, clothing, housing and continuous improvement of living conditions using available resources”. Zimbabwe, as a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, is duty-bound to adopt measures that can promote the rights of children to meet their basic needs. The National Constitution’s section 81 outlines the rights of children, which must be promoted at the household, community and national levels to protect children from abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence. This is further buttressed by the amended Children’s Act of Zimbabwe, which also has provisions for the protection of children from the different forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence (Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) 2002). The National Social Protection Framework under social assistance and social support and care pillars encapsulates policy measures which are pro-child protection in terms of children’s access to education, health, poverty alleviation, food security and nutrition, as well as protective and developmental social welfare services (Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) 2017).

1.4.2. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The provisions of the CRC and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights policy frameworks are currently being operationalised under the programme framework of the integrated SDGs. The SDGs are guiding the international development programmes for the period 2015–2030. UNICEF (2018) emphasises that the SDGs have a strong bearing on the realisation of the aspirations of the CRC as they aim to address a broad range of child protection rights. The SDGs, as Bhardwaj et al. (2017) argue, recognise the link between sustainable development and the realisation of children’s rights. A total of 193 countries are signatories to the SDGs, with their 169 set targets and 232 indicators that are intended to guide and track multi-pronged progress towards addressing a plethora of development issues, including child protection. To ensure that children are not left behind, UNICEF (2018) states that there are 44 child-specific indicators situated across the 17 SDGs, which directly focus on multiple dimensions of child protection.

From a rights-based approach to poverty, Graham et al. (2015) assert that child poverty creates barriers that expose millions of children to different forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence. Child protection, as Cox and Pawar (2013) contend, is about meeting children’s needs and upholding their rights. In addition, the United Nations General Assembly resolution 71/186 of 2016 reaffirms that “the existence of widespread extreme poverty undermines the full and effective enjoyment of human [child] rights…” (United Nations General Assembly 2017, para. 28). To protect children, the first SDG seeks to, amongst other aims, “…end extreme child poverty and halve multidimensional child poverty by 2030” (UNICEF 2019, p. 20).

Zimbabwe is a signatory to the SDGs and has in sequence prioritised SDGs 8, 7, 2, 9, 6, 13, 17, 3, 4 and 5 (Ministry of Finance and Economic Development 2016). The government of Zimbabwe argues that focusing on the ten goals will build a firm foundation for the attainment of the remaining seven outcome goals, culminating in ending poverty in all its varied forms by 2030 (Ministry of Finance and Economic Development 2016). The National Action Plan for Children IV (2026–2030) which, among other issues, seeks to end violence against children and reduce child labour demonstrates the country’s commitment to child protection using a decentralised and community-led approach (The Chronicle 2026), which is aligned with ABCD.

Thus, Zimbabwe, by being a signatory to the CRC, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and SDGs, affirms its commitment to the international community’s vision to protect children from abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence. Consistent with this vision, this study advocates for ABCD as a strategy that can contribute towards integrated social protection and sustainable child protection.

1.5. Selected Formal and Indigenous Social Protection Schemes in Response to Child Poverty

The prominent formal and indigenous social protection schemes targeting children living in extreme poverty in Zimbabwe, namely, the Basic Education Assistance Module [BEAM], Assisted Medical Treatment Orders [AMTOs], and Harmonised Social Cash Transfers [HSCTs], extended family systems, savings and credit clubs, and religious groups, as categorised in

Table 1. The formal and indigenous social protection schemes.

Formal Schemes	Indigenous Practices
Assisted Medical Treatment Orders	Extended Family System
Basic Education Assistance Module	Savings and Credit Clubs
Harmonised Social Cash Transfers	Religious groups

, are discussed below, focusing on the contingencies they cover and their limits.

1.5.1. Assisted Medical Treatment Orders (AMTOs)

The Assisted Medical Treatment Orders scheme is the main state intervention that promotes access to health care by poor children, and is a non-contributory and means-tested health insurance scheme (Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) 2017). The selection of AMTO beneficiaries who usually self-target by approaching the nearest Department of Social Development offices seeking assistance is done by social welfare officers through means testing. The scheme intervenes by settling medical bills and facilitating access to assistive devices for children and adults who cannot afford medical care, older persons and persons with disabilities at government and selected mission hospitals (Mupedziswa and Mushunje 2021). This scheme also has very low coverage; in 2019, only 25,000 people countrywide accessed the medical assistance benefits (ZIMSTAT and UNICEF 2019). In addition, this scheme has been undermined by the acute shortage of medical supplies and personnel, particularly in government hospitals (Mupedziswa and Mushunje 2021). As a result, many poor children lack access to modern health care services, which is a form of neglect and can manifest in life cycles as poor health outcomes such as infant and child mortality, high morbidity, and low productivity during adulthood (UNICEF 2016).

1.5.2. Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM)

The Basic Education Assistance Module is a formal educational support scheme that was introduced by the Government of Zimbabwe in 2001, after noting low enrolment and high levels of school dropouts among poor children due to failure to pay school fees (Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) 2017). The selection of BEAM beneficiaries is done at the community level through the Community Selection Committees, which meet to nominate eligible children who are ranked according to their levels of vulnerability (Ministry of Labour and Social Services 2011). Benefits from the scheme include levy, tuition, and examination fee payments for eligible primary and secondary school children (Ministry of Labour and Social Services 2011). In 2022, BEAM was targeted to assist 1.5 million children (Chikandiwa 2022). However, the scheme has been adversely affected by fiscal constraints as the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education conceded: “We are working with a small cake [but] with a big number of children…we cannot assist all children because government money is limited” (Chikandiwa 2022, p. 2). In this regard, many deserving children are being left out leading to non-enrolment and school dropouts thereby missing out on education which is widely recognised as one of the key mechanisms to transcend intergenerational poverty (UNICEF 2015).

In addition, because of underfunding, BEAM is not comprehensive as it does not cover other requirements for proper learning, such as school uniforms and books (Ministry of Labour and Social Services 2011). This is compounded by dysfunctional schools, lack of learning materials and personnel challenges (Mupedziswa and Mushunje 2021). These challenges are associated with poor learning outcomes, which are strong predictors of chronic poverty that undermine child protection. Education, as Rose and Alcott (2015) assert, primarily contributes to poverty reduction through mastery of literacy and numeracy skills, which are utilised to earn an income.

1.5.3. Harmonised Social Cash Transfers (HSCTs)

The Harmonised Social Cash Transfers scheme was launched in 2011 to provide cash transfers to only 55,509 extremely poor and labour-constrained households in the 19 poorest rural districts of the country (Mupedziswa and Mushunje 2021). The cash transfers enhance child protection through reducing income poverty and boosting food consumption expenditure (Ministry of Labour and Social Services 2011). Targeting of the beneficiaries is done at the Department of Social Development offices through means testing by the social welfare officers who are guided by the results of the annual national assessments conducted by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee. Benefits from the scheme include bi-monthly US$10 to US$25 cash transfers, education fee waivers and free medical assistance (Mupedziswa and Mushunje 2021). The positive outcomes from the scheme include increased dietary diversity, improved food security and asset ownership (Angeles et al. 2018).

On the downside, the scheme has very low coverage, given that since its inception, it has only covered 55,509 households out of an estimated 500,000 extremely poor households in the country (Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) 2017). Thus, many deserving households and children have been left out. A major anomaly of the scheme is the exclusion of extremely poor urban households where children are enduring similar and even worse deprivations than their rural counterparts (Bartlett 2012). As a coping strategy, some children from these households have joined the labour market in the farming, mining, commercial and domestic work sectors. The Zimbabwe Labour Force and Child Labour Survey 2019 established that 289,811 people in the 15 to 19 years age group are working (ZIMSTAT 2019). Child labour compromises the protection of children, undermines human development, and perpetuates poverty (International Labour Organisation 2015). The scheme has also experienced funding delays and unpredictable payments (Mupedziswa and Mushunje 2021), which heighten the extremely poor households’ risk of child protection violations.

1.5.4. Extended Family System

The extended family system is a common and long-standing indigenous social protection institution that has been used to meet the needs of vulnerable children (Mupedziswa and Mushunje 2021; Sibanda 2025c). The importance of this system is acknowledged in the national childcare and protection system (Ministry of Labour and Social Services 2011). Based on kinship ties, grandparents have often taken care of their orphaned and vulnerable grandchildren (Sibanda and Ndamba 2023; Tladi and Sibanda 2025). In times of need, the extended family members support each other through providing cash, food, housing, emotional support, and care (Mushunje and Kaseke 2018). The country has over 1.3 million orphans, and most of them are living within the extended family system (National AIDS Council 2017); only a few are living in institutions (Sibanda and Berejena Mhongera 2025). Although the extended family system is still functional, it has been weakened by factors such as increased individualism, urbanisation, HIV and AIDS, poverty, and migration (Mupedziswa and Mushunje 2021; Sibanda and Ndamba 2023). The weakened extended family system is no longer able to provide adequate and reliable protection, which has led some orphaned children to be homeless in cities and towns (Manjengwa et al. 2016).

1.5.5. Savings and Credit Clubs

Savings and credit clubs are being used to meet the needs of poor children in the country. The main types are the accumulating savings and credit associations [ASCrAs] and rotating savings and credit associations [ROSCAs] (Chirisa 2013). The clubs are known in IsiNdebele as “ukudlala umatshayelana” or “ukudlala iround” and in Shona as “mukando”, “kutamba kukandirana” or “kutamba round”, all translated as “playing a round game whereby I give to you so that when my turn comes you also do the same”. This indicates the reciprocity and rotational nature of the scheme. Families usually wait for their turn to receive the money in bulk so that they can do something significant and tangible with the money. Some families have used the money to pay for children’s school fees for the entire year and buy school uniforms and stationery for the children, and others have used the money to start small-scale income-generating projects. Other initiatives prominent in Zimbabwe include a “grocery club” whereby members buy groceries in bulk throughout the year, store them in one place and then distribute them equally among members at the end of the year in preparation for the December festive season.

Across Africa, the growth of indigenous savings and credit clubs is a response to the exclusion of most poor people from accessing formal financial services (Muiruri 2013). These clubs have become a vital source of financial capital for poor households to kick-start small enterprises (Mushunje and Kaseke 2018) with a view to meeting the diverse needs of household members, including children. Besides the financial capital, club members also provide moral and emotional support during life events like funerals and weddings (Mushunje and Kaseke 2018). However, Chirisa (2013) asserts that challenges such as corruption, dishonesty, loan defaulters, high inflation, failure of business ventures and conflicts are huge threats to the viability of the savings and credit clubs. Linkages with formal financial services can address some of these challenges (Mushunje and Kaseke 2018) for savings and credit clubs to better protect children in extremely poor households.

1.5.6. Religious Groups

Religious groups have emerged as some of the indigenous institutions which, besides their primary function of spiritual faith, are also meeting the social protection and child protection needs of their congregations and community members (Chirisa 2013). In IsiNdebele, churches are known as “Amasonto”, and in Shona they are called “Dzisvondo”. The diverse religious groups in the country that include churches have a long history in the formal and informal delivery of social protection services such as health, education, and food relief during emergencies (Mugumbate and Chigondo 2013). They also render moral and emotional support to members and families during life course events such as births, weddings, and funerals.

Pastors and elders in churches are also known for presiding over child protection issues of their congregants. Most churches in Zimbabwe have a group called “Madzimai eruwadzano”, a Shona phrase translated as “Women of peace and harmony in fellowship”. This is a group of elderly women in church who look after the family and domestic affairs of the brethren. Part of their duties includes the provision of parenting skills, marriage guidance and counselling, and behavioural modification support. The group also plays a mentorship role for young women and girls. Meanwhile, young men and boys are mentored by a group called “Madzibaba”, a Shona word translated as “Fathers” or “Fathers’ committee”. Other groups in churches include the “Scripture Union”, “Youth”, and the “Sunday school”, which are entrusted with the inculcation of biblical, religious and societal values in children. All these groups and activities in churches are significant to child protection in that they mentor, support and capacitate families to better look after their children and empower them to be resilient during difficult times. The intensification of poverty in the country has increased the importance of religious groups in the provision of social protection to vulnerable groups such as poor children.

1.6. Theoretical Framework: Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD)

This exploratory study is anchored in Kretzmann and McKnight’s ABCD strategy. ABCD emphasises the importance of recognising and embracing the indigenous household- and community-led efforts that utilise the assets possessed by the community in meeting human needs and promoting community development (Kretzmann and McKnight 1993). Assets can be defined as the human, social, physical, financial, and natural capital that can be mobilised, combined, and utilised by people to support livelihoods, meet the needs of household members and promote community development (Department for International Development [DFID] 1999; Midgley 2014; Sibanda and Berejena Mhongera 2025). For Kretzmann and McKnight (1993), who conceptualised the ABCD strategy which they well elaborated in their seminal text, Building communities from the inside out: A path toward finding and mobilising a community’s assets, effective policies and interventions to community problems such as child abuse, neglect and exploitation are based on the capacities, skills, and assets of the people and their community complemented by external resources. Ventures that spring from community members’ initiative, ownership, and participation, as UNICEF (2014) argues, stand a better chance of addressing community needs sustainably, because they are sensitive to local social, cultural, political, and economic factors. It is against this background that Kretzmann and McKnight’s (1993) ABCD strategy was selected as a theoretical framework to underpin this study.

The ABCD strategy consists of five basic steps, which can be summarised as asset mapping, building relationships, mobilising assets, developing a community vision and plan, and lastly leveraging outside resources to support asset-based, locally driven development (Kretzmann and McKnight 1993). In this regard, child protection violations can be reduced sustainably by mapping the indigenous social protection system and its asset base and attracting external resources. This is because mobilisation of innovative indigenous social protection mechanisms is central to protecting children from abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence (Warria and Chikadzi 2021). However, no community can be self-sufficient, particularly where poverty is endemic (Cox and Pawar 2013). Thus, there is a need to attract additional external resources to complement local assets and initiatives (Kretzmann and McKnight 1993). Some of the external resources are embedded in the formal systems (Nhapi 2022). These resources can be leveraged through forging linkages between the indigenous social protection system and formal systems, which Olivier et al. (2008) consider as a vital step towards the development of responsive, integrated, transformed, sustainable, and comprehensive social protection and child protection systems. The linkages include training in basic administration, financial management and investment, funding, subsidies, community education, community development, social planning, coordination, and technical assistance from the government and its development partners (Mushunje and Kaseke 2018; Nhapi 2022; Patel et al. 2012). The innovative outcome from the linkages, as Butterfield et al. (2017) posit, is a community-led, dynamic, integrated, sustainable, and developmental social protection model which is underpinned by an effectively mobilised wider network of community and external resources as well as greater cooperation between professionals, paraprofessionals, and local people. This model can better protect children from abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence because the formal systems strengthen rather than replace the indigenous family and community-led practices (Warria and Chikadzi 2021).

2. Materials and Methods

The study employed a mixed-methods approach, specifically, the explanatory sequential mixed-methods research design (Creswell and Clark 2018). In the correct sequence and nature of the design, a survey, which collected quantitative data, was first conducted, followed by a qualitative case study, which explained and interpreted the survey findings. This added depth to the study’s findings. In the survey, the saturation survey option was used, which, in theory, involved studying the entire population of heads of households (Sarantakos 2013). Heads of households were targeted because households are the primary social and economic units that meet the needs of and protect vulnerable members such as children (Patel 2015; UNICEF 2010). A total of 76 participants (73 heads of households and 3 key informants) participated in the study. The survey target population consisted of 106 heads of extremely poor households who were in the database of Bindura Urban Community Support Trust [BUCST], which is a community-based organisation engaged in child protection, child welfare, poverty reduction, and community development in Bindura town, Zimbabwe. However, of the targeted 106 heads of households, 73 were available and consented to participate in the survey, giving a 69% response rate. Nevertheless, the response rate was deemed satisfactory, given that surveys containing 9 to 14 items typically achieve an average response rate of 56.28% (Liu and Wronski 2017).

Table 2. Biographical summary of participants in the quantitative study (n = 73).

Sex	Male 16 (21.9%)	Female 57 (78.1%)	Age range 24–82 years
Education	No formal 11 (15.1%)	Primary 15 (20.5%)	Secondary 47 (64.4%)
Marital status	Single 6 (8.2%)	Married 27 (37.0%)	Divorced 9 (12.3%)	Widowed 31 (42.5%)

below summarises the characteristics of the sample.

The qualitative study participants were selected by means of availability and judgmental sampling methods (Engel and Schutt 2013). The sample sizes were determined by data saturation (Bless et al. 2013). Data saturation was reached with a sample of 12 participants, consisting of nine heads of households who had participated in the survey and three key informants, namely two BUCST staff members and a social worker from the Department of Social Development (DSD) who provided expert insights in the study.

Table 3. Biographical summary of participants in a qualitative study (n = 9).

Head of Household (HH) Codes	Age in Years	Sex	Marital Status	Education
HH-1	45	Female	Widow	Form 2
HH-2	48	Female	Widow	Form 3
HH-3	59	Female	Widow	No formal
HH-4	43	Female	Married	Grade 7
HH-5	38	Female	Separated	Form 2
HH-6	82	Male	Married	Standard 4 *
HH-7	78	Female	Widow	No formal
HH-8	54	Male	Married	Form 4
HH-9	79	Male	Married	Standard 4 *

* Education level used during the colonial-era grading system, which is equivalent to Form 2 in the current grading system.

and

Table 4. Biographical summary of key informants (n = 3).

Key Informant	Codes	Organisation	Work Experience
1	KI-1	BUCST	9 years
2	KI-2	BUCST	9 years
3	KI-3	DSD	5 years

below summarise the characteristics of the samples used, respectively.

Guided by the explanatory sequential mixed-methods research design, quantitative data were first collected from the heads of households at their homes using a survey questionnaire (Babbie 2014), which was pilot-tested for pragmatic and concurrent validity (Engel and Schutt 2013). The questionnaire had closed questions which focused on the indigenous social protection practices and Likert-type questions which mapped and measured the usage of the five types of assets by the households in the various indigenous social protection practices. The list of assets was adapted from the DFID’s Sustainable Livelihoods Approach asset typology, which categorises human, social, physical, financial, and natural assets (Department for International Development (DFID) 1999). Scales were designed to measure the level of usage of the different assets. The level of usage was measured at the ordinal level by the mean scores on the different types of assets being utilised, which were calculated from responses to the Likert questions, and the four ordinal responses from 1 to 4 were: always, frequently, sometimes, and never. The lowest (1) and highest (4) mean scores denoted the most often and least used assets, respectively.

The quantitative data were analysed using the Microsoft Excel computer package. Descriptive statistics were generated on the indigenous social protection practices and the usage of the different assets in the indigenous social protection practices. Regarding reliability, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient method was used to check the internal consistency of the responses to the five Likert-type questions on the assets and their usage. The Cronbach’s alphas for the five questions on human, social, physical, financial, and natural assets were 0.820, 0.501, 0.650, 0.289, and 0.288, respectively, which indicated high to very low internal consistency (George and Mallery 2003). The very low internal consistency on two questions can be attributed to the limited variability of the participants’ responses (Mohanty and Misra 2016).

Subsequently, to verify and elaborate on the quantitative results, rich qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with nine heads of households who also participated in the survey and three key informants from BUSCT and DSD. The interviews, which averaged one and a half hours in duration, were conducted at the participants’ homes and the key informants’ offices using two interview schedules with questions on the indigenous social protection practices and the assets being used.

The qualitative data were analysed following the thematic analysis method’s core steps of data coding, categorisation, and presentation (Hennink et al. 2013). Some concepts from Lincoln and Guba’s (1985) renowned criteria, which consist of credibility, dependability, and confirmability, were used to demonstrate the trustworthiness of the qualitative study findings. Credibility was achieved through data triangulation when the authors collected extensive data from the heads of households and key informants (Yin 2014). To ensure the dependability of the findings, the audit trail strategy was adopted, which entailed meticulous recording of all the data collection and analysis steps and decisions in the research methodology section (Franklin et al. 2010). Confirmability was achieved through reflexivity, which, as noted by Robinson (2014) encompasses researchers’ voluntary disclosure of how their personal background, values and beliefs may have influenced or biased their interpretation and reporting of the study findings. The first author has resided in the study location for the past 12 years, which may have biased his interpretation and reporting of the study findings. However, this limitation was countered by the second and third authors, who also served as the external auditors and ensured objectivity in the interpretation and reporting of the study findings (Morse 2015).

The quantitative and qualitative data were mixed in the presentation and discussion of the findings, which provided an in-depth understanding of how ABCD can be used as a strategy to integrate the formal and indigenous social protection systems for sustainable child protection in Bindura town, Zimbabwe. A combination of quantitative and qualitative data provides a better understanding of issues under investigation (Creswell 2014).

The study was conducted per the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The researchers considered research ethics before, during and after the study. Before conducting the study, permission was sought from the gatekeepers, namely BUCST and DSD, to gain access to the research site and participants (Creswell 2014). A common ethical practice at the commencement of research is to also seek informed consent of the potential participants, usually in writing (Sarantakos 2013). The written consent of all the participants was sought through consent letters and was also confirmed verbally during the study. The principle of voluntary participation was adhered to; participants were informed that although they had agreed to participate in the study, they were free to withdraw from the study at any time without any questions asked or negative consequences. In addition, debriefing sessions were also conducted to avoid harming the participants (Engel and Schutt 2013). The privacy and confidentiality of participants were respected by not asking private and sensitive information, as well as through using identification codes in the interviews and report (Sarantakos 2013). The codes were head of household (HH) and key informant (KI). After the study, researchers are ethically bound to accurately report the results and conclusions (Creswell 2014), which was observed in this article.

Limitations of the Study

Four limitations of the study are noteworthy. Firstly, child protection is a complex phenomenon that is best researched through prolonged engagement with those affected. This study was limited because the data were collected once. As such, the researchers could not investigate all the complexities of child protection in the extremely poor urban households. The best option was to conduct a longitudinal study, which involves collecting data more than once over a period. However, conducting a longitudinal study was impractical because of time and financial considerations. Despite this limitation, the study, through quantitative and qualitative data triangulation, explored the research problem in detail. Another notable limitation of the study relates to its failure to engage children as participants. Data was only collected from adults and is not reflective of the views of children. From a child rights perspective, research involving children’s issues, such as this study, needs to uphold the children’s right to participation as enshrined in the CRC. The third limitation relates to the small population of the participants, especially in the survey, which resulted in the low variability of the responses, resulting in generally low reliability. The fourth limitation relates to the use of a 4-point Likert scale instead of the 5-point Likert scale and the omission of “rarely” as a possible answer in the questionnaire. Although we used “sometimes” as a response option, which we viewed as synonymous with “rarely”, there is a possibility that this might not have been interpreted as such by the respondents, which could have resulted in low variability of the answers.

3. Results

This section expounds the themes drawn from the study findings. Seven themes emerged from the study:

▪

Indigenous social protection practices adopted by the extremely poor households to protect children;

▪

The asset type and level of usage in the indigenous social protection practices;

▪

Connecting the mapped assets for child protection;

▪

Mobilising assets for economic development and child protection;

▪

Developing a child-centred community development vision and plan;

▪

Leveraging outside resources to support locally driven child protection;

▪

Limitations of the indigenous social protection practices to protect children.

3.1. Indigenous Social Protection Practices Adopted by the Extremely Poor Households to Protect Children

To protect children, the participants from extremely poor households indicated that they have adopted diverse indigenous social protection practices, which include the extended family, savings and credit clubs, informal trading, urban farming, and religious groups.

The survey results indicated that 42.5% (31) of the participants’ households had six to ten members, with an average of seven people per household, which suggested that a significant number of the households were taking care of children from their extended families. The qualitative study participants confirmed that they were taking care of children from their extended families and highlighted the challenges they were experiencing in the absence of other family members and government support.

HH-7 mentioned, “I am taking care of my three grandchildren. But it has been difficult because my relatives rarely assist me. Two of my grandchildren only attended primary school as I could not afford to pay for their secondary education.”

HH-5 disclosed, “I stay with my late sister’s children, and we occasionally receive support from my other sister who lives in Harare.”

HH-6 said, “As a household, we are 10 members comprised of my wife, myself, our children, and grandchildren. My other adult children infrequently help us because they also must take care of their own families.”

Savings and credit clubs are recognised as another important type of indigenous social protection. Participants in the survey indicated that they rarely used ASCrAs and ROSCAs, with mean scores of 3.40 and 3.51, respectively. Nonetheless, in the qualitative study, the participants who were members of savings and credit clubs explained that they used this form of indigenous social protection to meet the different needs of household children.

HH-1 reported, “I used the money to buy food and also purchase satellite television equipment for my family.”

HH-8 said, “As a family, we have used the savings club proceeds to pay school fees for our children.”

HH-5 narrated, “Savings and credit clubs are noble because they promote entrepreneurship for one to pay the subscriptions and a culture of saving money. I invested the money from our ROSCA in my small enterprises.”

KI-1 reiterated, “In one of our projects, we have a condition that to receive assistance, the beneficiaries must be active in savings and credit clubs as part of household economic strengthening. To this end, we have been encouraging the establishment of such clubs among our beneficiaries.”

Informal trading emerged as another form of indigenous social protection and was mentioned by 33 (45.2%) of the participants in the survey. This was corroborated by some of the participants in the qualitative phase.

HH-4 remarked, “I used to sell airtime in town, I then used all my capital to partly pay for my child’s school fees when she started Form 1 [secondary education].”

HH-5 reported, “I sell dried kapenta (sardines) which I smuggle from Mozambique. I do all this to make ends meet and prevent my children from experiencing extreme deprivation.”

HH-8 said, “We sometimes give our children freezits (a type of cold beverage) and snacks to sell at church. I agree that some people may consider this as children abuse. This is because the children are working during weekends and have no time for leisure. But we will be saying that is our source of income.”

Urban farming has also been adopted as a source of livelihood and a form of indigenous social protection. This was indicated by 34.2% (25) of the survey participants and further confirmed by some of the participants in the qualitative study.

HH-3 explained, “As a household, one of our sources of livelihood is farming, and in a good season when we get satisfactory harvests, we will not be poor. When we have good harvests, we sell surplus maize to get income, which relieves us.”

HH-5 noted, “We have a farming plot [but] most of the seasons we don’t harvest much. This is because the soils require fertilisers, which we usually don’t have. This is the reason why we realise modest harvests.”

HH-8 elaborated, “We are, for now, using the idle council [local authority] land to grow maize for household consumption. When the council decide to use their land, we have no power to stop them.”

The survey results also indicated that the study participants depended on religious groups for social protection, with a mean score of 3.68, which pointed to very low usage. Chirisa (2013) posits that receipt of assistance from religious groups in some cases is determined by being affiliated with the religious group. In the qualitative study, the few participants who were affiliated with Christian groups reported that they received a wide range of benefits from their religious groups:

HH-4 reported, “We sometimes get assistance from fellow church members in the form of secondhand clothes and shoes for our children, which their own children will no longer be using but are still in good condition.”

HH-5 said, “Besides food assistance…At our church, they teach and encourage us to be enterprising. We have sessions for testimonies when members engaged in different microenterprises narrate what they are doing and the benefits. The testimonies inspire you to follow suit and venture into some form of enterprise.”

HH-8 explained, “Through faith in God, my family has also been helped to be content and have hope for a brighter future. This has also built hope and resilience in my children that, despite the difficulties we are going through, in the future things will be alright.”

3.2. The Assets Type and Level of Usage in the Indigenous Social Protection Practices

In the survey, the participants were asked about the types of assets they were using in the indigenous social protection practices and how often they used the assets.

Table 5. The assets and level of usage by the participants’ households.

Asset	Type	Mean *	Rank
Land for farming	Natural	2.16	1
Labour (Head of household [HH])	Human	2.38	2
Rentals	Financial	2.86	3
Life experiences/wisdom (HH)	Human	3.03	4
Natural talents (HH)	Human	3.21	5
Labour (Other household members [Other])	Human	3.21	5
Remittances	Financial	3.23	6
Community centres	Physical	3.32	7
Kinship	Social	3.37	8
Accumulated savings and credit associations	Financial	3.40	9
Local associations	Social	3.44	10
Rotating savings and credit associations	Financial	3.51	11
Educational knowledge and skills (HH)	Human	3.59	12
Churches	Social	3.62	13
Religious groups	Social	3.68	14
Educational knowledge and skills (Other)	Human	3.75	15
Neighbours	Social	3.79	16
Forests	Natural	3.85	17
Markets	Physical	3.88	18
Government cash transfers	Financial	3.99	19

* Codes 1 = always, 2 = frequently, 3 = sometimes, and 4 = never; the lowest mean is the asset most often used, and the highest mean is the asset used least.

presents the different types of assets and the level of usage.

As shown in Table 5, the participants are not using the available assets to their maximum, as there was no mean score in the always used category. Land (natural asset) emerged as the most frequently used asset, which corresponds with the finding that urban farming is one of the main indigenous social protection practices in the participants’ households. All the participants in the qualitative study mentioned that they used land mainly to grow maize for their households’ consumption. One key informant [KI-1] stated that as BUCST, they are also involved in potato and maize farming under a project titled Fill the Granary that benefitted their service users. The participants also indicated that they relied on their own labour and other household members’ labour (human assets), which were ranked second and fifth, respectively. Labour, usually unskilled, is the main asset available to the urban poor (UNICEF 2012), which in this study was being used in the various indigenous social protection practices.

Savings and credit clubs, namely ASCrAs and ROSCAs, were also being used as indigenous social protection practices. These are usually based on social relations such as kinship and local social networks. This explains why kinship and local associations (social assets) were also mentioned by the participants as some of the assets they are using in the indigenous social protection practices. To promote the use of ASCrAs and ROSCAs, KI-1 earlier explained that in one project they were implementing for beneficiaries to receive assistance, it was a requirement that they must be active in savings and credit clubs as part of household economic strengthening. The clubs have fostered new social relations and networks, as well as the mobilisation of financial capital among the study participants who shared a similar low socioeconomic status.

Community centres were also listed by the participants because they are physical places where local associations and some religious groups usually congregate. Some participants in the qualitative study mentioned that they used the community centres by attending community meetings and workshops on income-generating activities. This was also corroborated by two key informants [KI-1 and KI-2] who said that as BUCST, they used the local community hall to host workshops, awareness campaigns and meetings with service users, community members and stakeholders to discuss the services they were providing to the extremely poor urban households.

Forests (natural asset), markets (physical asset) and government cash transfers (financial asset) were the least used assets. This can be attributed partly to a lack of access and ignorance. A few participants indicated that in the past they have extracted firewood from the surrounding forests and farms for their own household use and to sell so that they could pay school fees and buy stationery, school uniforms, and food for their children. Participant HH-5 revealed that she used to sell firewood but stopped because her firewood was routinely confiscated and she was fined by the Environment Management Authority for causing deforestation. Participant HH-4 reported that as a household during the rainy seasons, they gather mushrooms from the nearby forests to supplement their diet and ensure that the children have a balanced diet. Key informant KI-1 acknowledged that sustainable utilisation of forest products can be a source of livelihoods for the extremely poor urban households. However, the participants identified factors such as distance, private ownership of the forests on the surrounding farms and the illegal nature of some of their activities as barriers to the use of forests to support the indigenous social protection practices for child protection. One participant, HH-1, indicated that she used the designated local markets for informal commodity trading, while others [HH-4, 5 and 8] used undesignated sites near their homes and in the central business district of Bindura town, where they risk being harassed or arrested by municipal police. The government cash transfers were rarely used assets, and some participants cited lack of awareness [HH-9], their unpredictable and temporary nature [HH-4] and rural bias [HH-7]. Key informant KI-3 conceded that the government’s formal social protection schemes, such as cash transfers, had low coverage, especially in urban areas, despite pockets of extremely poor households who struggle to protect their children.

3.3. Connecting the Mapped Assets for Child Protection

After the asset mapping exercise, Kretzmann and McKnight (1993) state that the next step is to establish linkages among the assets in the context of solving local problems. Before establishing linkages of assets, it is important to analyse and understand the connections between the different types of assets being used by the extremely poor households in the social protection practices. The correlation coefficients of the average scores of the different types of assets were calculated using Spearman’s test and are presented in

Table 6. Correlations between the different types of assets.

		Human Assets	Social Assets	Physical Assets	Financial Assets	Natural Assets
Human assets	Correlation coefficient	1.000	0.399 **	0.493 **	0.234 *	1.000
	Sig. (two-tailed)	-	<0.001	<0.001	0.046	-
	N	73	73	73	73	73
Social assets	Correlation coefficient	0.399 **	1.000	0.481 **	0.120	0.118
	Sig. (two-tailed)	<0.001	-	<0.001	0.313 **	-
	N	73	73	73	73	73
Physical assets	Correlation coefficient	0.493 **	0.481 **	1.000	0.195	0.156
	Sig. (two-tailed)	<0.001	<0.001	-	0.098	-
	N	73	73	73	73	73
Financial assets	Correlation coefficient	0.234 *	0.120	0.195	1.000	0.057
	Sig. (two-tailed)	0.046	0.313 **	0.098	-	-
	N	73	73	73	73
Natural assets	Correlation coefficient	0.332 **	0.118	0.156	0.057	1.000
	Sig. (two-tailed)	0.004	-	-	-	-
	N	73	73	73	73	73

** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed). * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (two-tailed).

below.

As illustrated in Table 6, the quantitative study findings indicate that a strong association existed between human and physical assets (rs = 0.493). Human assets were also significantly correlated with social assets (rs = 0.399), natural assets (rs = 332) and financial assets (rs = 0.234). A strong association was also found between social and physical assets (rs = 0.481) and between financial assets and social assets (rs = 0.313). The findings highlight the centrality of human assets in connecting the physical, social, natural and financial assets in the social protection practices adopted by the study participants’ households and are aligned with Moser’s (2006) assertion that in extremely poor households, assets accumulate in a sequence, and their importance varies.

From the qualitative study findings, it is also evident that the existing resources were dotted across the community and needed to be connected for integrated social protection and sustainable child protection in Bindura district. One of the key informants confirmed that they were drawing different types of assets from the various institutions they were working with in the district:

We are working with other organisations within this community. We mainly work with institutions such as the Ministry of Youth, the National AIDS Council and Legal Resource Foundation. This ensures that we achieve our objectives because the different organisations have expertise that we do not possess. We work with each organisation according to its area of specialisation and expertise, for example, with the Ministry of Youth on career guidance and youth empowerment.

[KI-1]

By connecting diverse assets, Cox and Pawar (2013) and Kretzmann and McKnight (1993) posit that poor households and communities can begin to see their inherent strengths and competence for self-help in addressing social problems such as child protection violations.

3.4. Mobilising Assets for Economic Development and Child Protection

In the qualitative study, participants were asked how local businesses as community institutions could help in promoting local economic development, which can contribute to sustainable child protection. Participant HH-6 suggested that the local businesses needed to be encouraged to support income-generating activities of the extremely poor urban households in the district. Participant HH-4 added that the businesses operating in the Bindura district needed to hire local labour, especially the unemployed youths. In addition, key informant KI-1 reported that as an organisation, they had previously partnered with other service providers in training their service users in poultry production. The findings reveal how community assets such as local businesses could be and have been used to promote local economic development, and in the process also contributed towards child protection in the Bindura district. From an ABCD perspective, Kretzmann and McKnight (1993) affirm that assets need to be identified and mobilised for the purpose of revitalising economic development in poor communities. Mobilising community assets for economic development is an important building block of ABCD.

3.5. Developing a Child-Centred Community Development Vision and Plan

In the context of ABCD, Kretzmann and McKnight (1993) assert that a fundamental step of ABCD entails developing a community vision and plan that is based on the answers to questions such as what the community values most and what the citizens want the community to look like in the next five, ten and twenty years. Excerpts from the qualitative study reveal the vision participating organisations had for the Bindura urban community. In his concluding remarks, one of the key informants stated the following:

Our mission is to ensure that the living conditions of the people in Bindura urban are improved. To this end, we must continue sharing our experience and knowledge as well as collaborating with other organisations in this regard.

[KI-1]

In addition, the annual report of one participating organisation had the mantra “Children are our future, let’s join hands and make them survive”. The importance of the phrase is that the organisation was placing the well-being of children at the centre of Bindura’s urban community development agenda, and the need for collaborative efforts using a wide range of assets to address challenges that threaten their survival, such as child poverty. UNICEF (2019) maintains that problems such as urban child poverty require integrated solutions with various stakeholders working together. The findings converge with Cox and Pawar (2013), who assert that a local people-driven development vision and plan constitutes a guiding framework for solutions to local problems. A key informant suggested the need to share the community development vision and plan with a broad array of stakeholders, such as community leaders and businesspeople, as well as representatives of formal and informal organisations. This line of thought is aligned with the ethos of ABCD, as suggested by Kretzmann and McKnight (1993).

3.6. Leveraging Outside Resources to Support Locally Driven Child Protection

Kretzmann and McKnight (1993) contend that a vital step of ABCD is that of leveraging outside resources to support local development initiatives. They further emphasise that this is the final step for a reason (Kretzmann and McKnight 1993). This stance is vital for authentic ABCD to take root and to address a challenge that often besets CBOs, which Sinclair (2016, p. 25) identifies as “…direct client and community work without the underpinning approaches of empowerment, participation and inclusion…”. In the qualitative study, key informants KI-1 and KI-2 concurred that they were experiencing this challenge.

Key informant KI-2 argued that some of their service users were now content with hand-outs and resisted the idea of being empowered through income-generating activities. Similar findings were noted by Sibanda and Ngwabi (2025). Lack of empowerment makes it difficult for people to exercise control over their wider environment in pursuit of personal and common goals (Cox and Pawar 2013), such as child protection. In addition, key informant KI-1 admitted that they had not actively promoted the participation of the service users in their programming and mainly gave them unsustainable hand-outs. These findings validate Kretzmann and McKnight’s (1993) assertion that genuine ABCD requires leveraging resources only after mapping, connecting, and mobilising the available and hidden local assets that are being or can be utilised for child protection within a shared community development vision and plan. Such an approach, as Kretzmann and McKnight (1993, p. 376) state, is in line with the ABCD principle of “…working from the inside out”, which counteracts the influence of imposed interventions that are usually connected with outside resources.

In the qualitative study, the researchers noted that the organisations working in the community had managed to create linkages with government ministries and other external stakeholders in the three thematic areas, namely, health care, legal aid and food security. This finding resonates with UNICEF’s (2019) view that to address problems such as child protection violations, there is a need to pool resources from diverse stakeholders. The finding also confirms Kretzmann and McKnight’s (1993) idea that under ABCD, attracting external resources is an important step for poor communities. To reduce child protection violations among the extremely poor urban households in Bindura district, there is a need to mobilise additional resources.

3.7. Limitations of the Indigenous Social Protection Practices to Protect Children

In the qualitative study, participants highlighted a plethora of challenges they were experiencing in the indigenous social protection practices, which limited their efficacy in protecting children. These include poverty, lack of support, the illegal nature of some of the practices, dishonesty, and poor coordination.

The narration of one participant [HH-5], who was once a member of an ASCrA, illustrates some of these pertinent challenges:

[Yaah] I was once active in an Internal Savings and Lending scheme (another name for ASCrAs) [but] it was a nightmare as it ended with exchanges of harsh words. Some members were not honest and defaulted on repaying the loans, giving flimsy excuses. In another instance, one member had to take care of her ill husband, and because of the circumstances, she failed to repay the money she had borrowed. She felt that the group was insensitive to her plight after some members confiscated some of her household property to recover the loan, as we had agreed in our constitution. After this incident, the Internal Savings and Lending scheme then collapsed, and since then, I decided not to participate in such schemes. The challenges aside, the idea of Internal Savings and Lending schemes is noble because it promotes hard work for one to be able to pay the subscriptions and a culture of saving money.

[HH-5].

The intertwined challenges of poverty and lack of support were being experienced by participants using the extended family system. Participant HH-7, who was taking care of her three grandchildren, revealed that because of poverty, two of her grandchildren could not proceed to secondary education, while participants HH-4, 5 and 6 indicated that they were struggling to meet the needs of their grandchildren because of a lack of support from the other extended family members and the government, which compromised the quality of care they provided to their grandchildren. In addition, some participants [HH-3, 4, 5 and 7] engaged in urban farming revealed that they lacked support in terms of inputs such as fertilisers for them to realise better harvests, which was also worsened by the lack of security of tenure on the land they are farming.

The illegal nature of some indigenous social protection practices has presented challenges to some of the extremely poor households. One such practice is informal trading, and in this context, participant [HH-1] said the following:

The local authority should desist from harassing and arresting people who have resorted to informal trading at undesignated places, especially in town, because there is no formal employment.

[HH-1]

Thus, the extremely poor households engaged in illegal informal trading had a high risk of being harassed and arrested by law enforcement agents. This was also confirmed by participants HH-4 and HH-5, who were engaged in informal trading in the central business centre and selling firewood, who indicated that they had since stopped these practices because of being frequently harassed, arrested and paying fines. In addition, participant HH-5 reported that she was also involved in smuggling food items (dried sardines) from Mozambique for resale, which is a criminal practice.

4. Discussion

The study aimed to explore how ABCD can be used as a strategy to integrate the indigenous and formal social protection systems for sustainable child protection among the extremely poor households in Bindura town, Zimbabwe. The results indicate that to protect children, the extremely poor households have devised various indigenous social protection practices. These practices include making use of the extended family, savings and credit clubs, informal trading, urban farming, and religious groups. The findings echo Mushunje and Kaseke’s (2018) observation that the absence of a reliable and meaningful formal social protection system has led many extremely poor households in Zimbabwe to depend on the indigenous social protection system. Most of the indigenous social protection practices, namely the extended family, savings and credit clubs, and religious groups, are rooted in the strong indigenous customs of local organising and community planning which from an ABCD perspective is critical as they affirm the remarkable work already going on in the community (Kretzmann and McKnight 1993) which is a precondition for community-led, integrated, transformed and sustainable social protection and child protection systems. As Warria and Chikadzi (2021) point out, putting the indigenous social protection initiatives at the centre of social protection is foundational towards a comprehensive, inclusive, and responsive social protection system, which is better positioned to cushion children from abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence.

The indigenous social protection practices rely on a unique combination of multidimensional human, social, physical, financial, and natural assets embedded in individuals, households, local associations and institutions upon which, from an ABCD viewpoint, the future of the community can be built (Kretzmann and McKnight 1993). This emerged after an asset mapping exercise, which under ABCD is regarded as a vital step for poor communities to address their challenges, as it answers the critical question of what resources the households and community have (Kretzmann and McKnight 1993), which in this study was to protect children.

An important finding in this study was the very low usage of most of the assets in the indigenous social protection practices. Besides land, labour and rentals, which emerged as frequently used assets, most of the assets were used sometimes or never. Labour, usually unskilled, is one of the main assets accessible to the urban poor (UNICEF 2012). The limited use of different assets limits the efficacy of the indigenous social protection practices to sustainably reduce child protection violations. Scholars such as Noyoo (2021), Mupedziswa and Mushunje (2021), Mpedi (2018), Mushunje and Kaseke (2018), Cox and Pawar (2013), and Devereux and Getu (2013) have noted that, based on their nature and the context of widespread poverty, without external support to expand and strengthen the asset base, the indigenous social protection practices cannot address all the social protection problems in Southern African countries like Zimbabwe. To this end, the ABCD step of leveraging outside resources to support locally driven development (Kretzmann and McKnight 1993) becomes relevant and guides how the external resources can be mobilised to sustainably expand and strengthen the asset base of the indigenous social protection practices to better protect children. Kretzmann and McKnight (1993) assert that external resources must be mobilised after the local resources have been fully mapped and mobilised. In this context, community development practitioners play the broker role (Weyers 2020) by linking external resources with local assets embedded in the indigenous social protection practices.

The participants also highlighted the diverse challenges that limit the efficacy of the indigenous social protection practices, some of which can be addressed through training, subsidies and technical assistance, which are external resources embedded in formal systems and can be mobilised through establishing linkages with the formal systems (Nhapi 2022; Patel et al. 2012). The challenges of dishonesty, defaulters and poor coordination mentioned by one participant in an Internal Savings and Lending scheme can be addressed through linking with microfinance institutions, which can provide technical support and training in basic administration, financial management and investment (Mushunje and Kaseke 2018; Nhapi 2022). Poverty and lack of support undermining the extended family system can be addressed through stronger linkages for capacity building between the formal child protection system and the extended family system. Although the indigenous social protection system is overlooked in the national social protection framework, the government in the national child protection policy recognises the extended family as an important safety net for vulnerable children (Ministry of Labour and Social Services 2011; Sibanda and Berejena Mhongera 2025). Subsidies in the form of state and donor funding (Nhapi 2022) can enhance urban farming, which was identified as a vital social protection practice in this research study. These linkages are pathways towards developing responsive, integrated, transformed, and comprehensive systems that guarantee the elusive basic universal social protection and sustainable child protection (Olivier et al. 2008; Sibanda and Ngwabi 2025). A community-led and integrated social protection system counteracts the inherent limitations in both the indigenous and formal social protection systems and promotes child protection. It also enhances cooperation between social development practitioners and local people, which promotes the mobilisation and utilisation of a wider network of community and external resources (Butterfield et al. 2017), which translates into sustainable child protection.

5. Conclusions

Social protection in Zimbabwe is disjointed and biased towards the ineffective formal system, which has heightened the vulnerability of many poor children to abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence. Despite these limitations, for their basic protection, most of the children living in extreme poverty depend on the indigenous social protection practices. In post-colonial countries such as Zimbabwe, community-led and integrated social protection systems, which position the indigenous practices at the core, are viable approaches to sustainable child protection. Strategies such as ABCD, which recognise and embrace the diverse indigenous social protection practices devised by extremely poor households, which must be complemented by additional resources from the outside, place the indigenous social protection system at the centre of the social protection framework, and are foundational for redesigned and integrated social protection systems that can sustainably reduce child protection violations. Furthermore, ABCD, by conceptualising the two steps of asset mapping and leveraging outside resources to support locally driven development applied in this study, provides a blueprint for an integrated social protection system and sustainable child protection. The asset mapping exercise identified the multidimensional community assets underpinning the indigenous social protection practices and the challenges undermining the efficacy of the indigenous social protection system. To address the challenges and foster a community-led and integrated social protection system, there is a need to mobilise additional external resources through forging linkages between the formal and indigenous social protection systems in the form of training, capacity building and subsidies. Community-led and integrated social protection systems supported by a wider network of community and external resources are better positioned to ensure sustainable child protection in poor urban communities in Zimbabwe, which can also be replicated in similar settings across the developing world.

Recommendations

Since indigenous social protection practices are an important component of the current responses to child protection, the Department of Social Development should lead the process towards an integrated National Social Protection Framework that embraces both formal and indigenous social protection systems by embedding aspects of asset-based approaches, such as ABCD, into the framework. This can contribute towards sustainable child protection, since at the policy level, the Department of Social Development adopted a developmental social welfare approach, which is yet to be realised in practice.

The Council of Social Workers and the National Association of Social Workers in Zimbabwe should encourage social workers to focus on how integrated social protection and sustainable child protection can be promoted in the country in line with the 17 SDGs (UNICEF 2019), which Zimbabwe acceded to as part of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Academic institutions involved in the training of social workers in Zimbabwe and similar settings in the Global South should incorporate developmental social work strategies such as ABCD into their curriculum and research and integrate them into the theory of fields of practice, such as child protection. This approach will enable social workers to generate the relevant knowledge and develop innovative approaches, models and skills to promote sustainable child protection.

Alongside semi-structured interviews, future research should make use of other methods such as the circle-of-enquiry approach to community discourse; principles of community-based participatory research; and the method of “intergroup dialogue”. These methods would add the concept of democratisation to the research account, especially as it has an underpinning concern about diminished valuing of indigenous voices and assets.