Multiple Vulnerabilities Locking Rural Communities in the South Eastern Low-Veld of Zimbabwe

The study analyses the multiple vulnerabilities of the rural communities. This is an exploratory qualitative case study. One hundred households from ward 20 and 22 participated in this study through questionnaires, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and semi-structured interviews. The average household size was 8 with 30% of the households having a member who was chronically ill while orphans were reported to be present in 54% of the households. The livelihood base was largely agriculturally based where over 53% of them lacked the lacked requisite productive assets for communal faming.   Ninety nine percent had experienced crop failures in the 3 years preceding the study, attributed mainly to insufficient rainfall. Production levels for both field crops and gardening activities were exceptionally low and the markets were poor. The boreholes for the majority of the households and the two irrigations schemes in the two wards were under breakdown. The communities were vulnerable to more frequent floods, droughts, dangerous wild animal and diseases. The  value  of  the  research  is  that  no  known  study  has invoked a holistic approach to study multiple vulnerabilities in rural areas of Zimbabwe. This exploratory study attempt to unravel some of the subtle complexities underlying the vulnerabilities of rural communities in Zimbabwe in a view to recommend empirically based solutions to unlock their potential. Keywords: Vulnerability, livelihoods, sustainabl

The Dynamics in stakeholder involvement in irrigation agriculture in Zimbabwe

Irrigated agriculture is the most viable means of reducing crop failure, hunger, and malnutrition in Africa, and an effective means for improving the competitiveness of smallholder farming in most parts of Africa. Unfortunately, smallholder community irrigation schemes have proved to be unsustainable beyond external support despite the potential benefits of this technology. This appears to be exacerbated by the involvement of multiple stakeholders in the establishment, management and rehabilitation of the smallholder irrigation schemes. The objective of this article is investigating the changes in the involvement of multiple stakeholders in the schemes with the aim of establishing the effects of multiple stakeholder engagement in the sustainability of community irrigation schemes in Zimbabwe. The study confirms that a myriad of players are involved in different aspects of community irrigation schemes. The roles of these players have been very fluid in the period stretching from 1912 to the present moment. The irrigation schemes have been victims of unfortunate historical in both the socio-economic and political fronts that compromised the commitment, capacities and resources of the relevant stakeholders. These changes did not give farmers the opportunity to be self-sustaining in the operation and maintenance of the  irrigation schemes. Key words: sustainability, smallholder irrigation schemes, stakeholder, Involvement

Multiple vulnerabilities locking rural communities in the South Eastern low-veld of Zimbabwe

The study analyses the multiple vulnerabilities of the rural communities. This is an exploratory qualitative case study. One hundred households from ward 20 and 22 participated in this study through questionnaires, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and semi-structured interviews. The average household size was 8 with 30% of the households having a member who was chronically ill while orphans were reported to be present in 54% of the households. The livelihood base was largely agriculturally based where over 53% of them lacked the lacked requisite productive assets for communal faming. Ninety nine percent had experienced crop failures in the 3 years preceding the study, attributed mainly to insufficient rainfall. Production levels for both field crops and gardening activities were exceptionally low and the markets were poor. The boreholes for the majority of the households and the two irrigations schemes in the two wards were under breakdown. The communities were vulnerable to more frequent floods, droughts, dangerous wild animal and diseases. The value of the research is that no known study has invoked a holistic approach to study multiple vulnerabilities in rural areas of Zimbabwe. This exploratory study attempt to unravel some of the subtle complexities underlying the vulnerabilities of rural communities in Zimbabwe in a view to recommend empirically based solutions to unlock their potential

Collaborative management in resilience building projects: Case of Chiredzi and Mwenezi District of Zimbabwe

The aim of this article is to show how collaborative management is important and how it has been embraced in the implementation of resilience building interventions in rural communities. It seeks to unravel the empirical implications of collaborative management and how it has been used in a resilience building project (Enhancing Community Resilience and Sustainability (ECRAS). The recent increased interest amongst development agencies in working with the private sector, and the general increase in the number of multi-stakeholder partnerships is a response to dissatisfaction with the scale, scope and speed of poverty reduction efforts. The complexity and multi-dimensionality of rural poverty calls for an integrated, holistic, sustainable multi-sectorial and collaborative development approach in resilience building. Experiences from the ECRAS project show that effective collaboration across multiple actors should be cascaded to those responsible for actual field implementation. Collaborative management saw the project promoting functional networks among diverse stakeholders through innovation platform, community dialogues, WhatsApp platforms, gender dialogues, participatory scenario planning, community score card, meetings at different levels and all cluster meetings. The process required the project management team to exude adaptive management strategies facilitating decentralised management responsibilities and making extensive use of localized control loops. It also involved smart pooling together of multiple stakeholders from different sectors - with different expertise, skills, resources, powers and interest. Development community-based plans (at ward and village level) were networked and synchronized to tie all partners into the system of planning and control that promoted a common understanding of community needs and collective responsibility. The project championed a high level of transparency and a shared awareness of quality and responsibility among team members. The process was facilitated by a central database that made current and consistent planning data available to all project participants and stakeholders. Basic features for collaborative management in a resilience building project were highlighted. Keywords: Resilience, Collaboration, Sustainability, Market linkage, Multi-sectorial, Multi stakeholder