Peasant Financial Inclusion for Inclusive Development in Zimbabwe

The existing conceptualisation of financial inclusion has basic analytical challenges which do not allow for the framing of a mature scholarly debate on poverty alleviation and the attainment of inclusive development, especially for the peasantry. Using the Zimbabwe case study and drawing on secondary literature sources accessed in academic and grey literature databases using financial inclusion, farmer support, and credit and loan access as keywords, this chapter takes issue with the conventional conceptualisation of financial inclusion as delivery of financial services to the poor at an affordable cost. It posits that finance itself and not simply financial services should be the basis of financial inclusion for inclusive development. The chapter analyses various epochs within the country’s history to demonstrate what financial inclusion should constitute. It concludes that it is only when the concept is reconceptualised to relate to the context of circumstances and needs of people that it will be able to allow for a deeper understanding of how inclusive and sustainable development does not leave the peasantry outside the tide of development can be realised.