The Zimbabwe Economics Society (ZES) was founded by economists in the 1960s as the Rhodesian Economics
Society (RES).

It was transformed into the Zimbabwe Economics Society at the country’s Independence in 1980.

It was mainly based at the University of Zimbabwe being the single university in the country at that point.

The Society had vibrancy during the early years of independence through to the late 1990s as the economy went through various
transformative episodes with membership drawn mainly from intellectual economists.

The Society’s membership however was and still is open to other professionals that are interested in the economic discourse of the country.

In the early 2000s Zimbabwe went through an economic downturn and many of the active members migrated into the diaspora which resulted in the Society becoming dormant for a prolonged period stretching to 2019 when members began work on reviving it.

The first Annual General Meeting was held in 2019 after the last one held in 2001.

A council was elected into office to resuscitate the activities of the organization. In 2020, visible work began to attract
members, both old and new to the organization.

A 5 year (2021-25) strategic plan has now been put in place which will see the Society re engage with all stakeholders and proactively spearhead debate and discussions among all various interested groups from individuals including students, professionals, institutions, and Government departments.

The Society is actively promoting membership by spreading growth through all the various universities that have now been established in the country in order to contribute to the study of economics in a relevant manner as well as provide mentorship opportunities for budding economists. Recently, the Society established a ZES diaspora chapter that enables it to draw from the experiences and inputs of members that are now spread around the world.

Locally, the Society is keen to grow individual professional members and partnerships with local institutions and government departments in order to proactively engage in economic debate and generate solution recommendations to policymakers.

The Society has revived the ZES Economic Journal that publishes well-researched position papers on matters of interest to the country.

The Society is also drawing from experiences of sister Economics Societies from around the world in general and from the Southern African region in particular.