changed over time. As at the festival Inmates could mingle with the public. Even language associated with prisoners was gradually changing. Inmates are not suppose to be called “bandits,” but were prisoners who are kept by prison officers. In fact there must be a notable turn around towards attaining minimum standard rules of treating prisoners which should become part of the cornerstones for liberal penal reforms in the country. . Secretariat strategic planning and performance evaluation At the end of the three days the participants had an opportunity to reflect on the program and gave the following feedback: • The workshop was an eye opener and it enabled the secretariat to appreciate my role within the organization • The workshop revealed that there are many critical areas such as policies which the organization needs to put in place as a matter of urgency • I have benefited from the workshop deliberations and it has enabled me to get in-depth insight of the programs run by ZACRO The workshop was long overdue and it will go a long way towards improving ZACRO’s image as an organization and also Conclusion. to improve on its corporate culture. The workshop enabled secretariat to conduct • The workshop environment was thorough self introspection, identify gaps and conducive for the improve organizational performance. “This is Exercise and the administrator was commended for the the beginning of a process. ZACRO will build upon this process and continue to improve choice of venue. In fact the workshop achieved its from where the organization is,” summarized desired objectives. The responsibility was Mr Chiota now with staff members to implement what had been recommended. The participants also appreciated the development worker for having designed and facilitated the workshop for ZACRO secretariat Capacity Assessment and Staff Development The secretariat strategic planning held at Pandari Lodge in Harare in June assured critical assessment of the capacity of ZACRO secretariat in terms of programming needs and implementation. The staffers conducted self assessment and assessed the extent to which they were suitable for their posts and what they needed to do to enhance their capacity to improve on their job performance. The result by end the programming year remarkable change was noted in this regard. However a lot of needed to be looked into in terms of staff development and remuneration. Another major concern was on organizational policies which not in place. This came after secretariat noted that ZACRO did not have policies governing some of the key issues. There was need to develop a Human resources policy which outlined clearly issues such as: study leave, annual Leave days, remuneration and pay slips. Also there was need to draft a policy on human resources which would set up parameters to guide the organization and give the secretariat the mandate to undertake staff development programs. Other policies that were urgently needed included the: workplace , human Resources, finance, motor vehicle, members or volunteers, buying and purchasing policies as well an HIV/AIDS policy. However which were prioritized were: human resources, finance, buying and purchasing, workplace policies and these were drafted by the Development Worker and were only awaiting adoption by the Annual Meeting by end of 2008 before put into operation Other ZACRO programs needing full exploration. During the programming year ZACRO was set to carry out the following projects and activities but these could not be fully explored mainly owing to prevailing economic problems and in particular lack of resources. 46