15. Peace, Security and Sustainable Development Goals in Zimbabwe

Peace and security issues are at the core of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that the world seeks to achieve by the year 2030. Broadly conceived, SDGs also known as Global Goals are a global roadmap to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. While there is considerable peace in Zimbabwe, the trajectory of human security in the country leaves a lot to be desired. With recurring violent protests, political violence, inter-party and intra-party latent conflicts, human rights abuses and most of all the military rule that emerged with the military ouster of then-President Robert Mugabe, sustaining peace, which is panacea to the achievement of SDGs in Zimbabwe, hangs in the balance and could remain a phantom on the horizons if ‘guns are not silenced’ and human security is not prioritised. Against this background, the objective of this chapter is to examine the options available in the pursuit of sustainable peace and human security for the attainment of SDGs in Zimbabwe. The conclusion drawn from this chapter is that both sustainable peace and the security are critical for the attainment of Global Goals in Zimbabwe. Hence, democratisation, reconciliation, transitional justice, the eradication of poverty, protection of the planetary biosphere upon which human survival depends on and sustaining peace are sine qua non to the attainment of SDGs in Zimbabwe. Data for this paper were obtained from secondary data sources including books, newspapers, journal articles and published and unpublished dissertations and theses. Secondary data was then categorised into themes and concepts from which inferences transformed into arguments advanced into this chapter were drawn.