In August 2004, IDE received a grant from the Department for International Development (DFID) to implement a micro-irrigation project under the DFID’s Protracted Relief Programme (PRP). Under this project IDE has convened a competence-based partnership of 5 organizations to enhance food security, improve nutrition and enhance livelihoods for up to 12,000 beneficiaries over a 2 year period by supporting gardening and small scale farming, particularly using low-cost micro-irrigation systems. This project is based on enhancing food security and reducing vulnerability by introducing micro-irrigation as a genuine and viable choice for vulnerable rural households. IDE's Zimbabwe program is one of the nine contract managers of the PRP (including CARE International, OXFAM, Catholic Assistance for Oversees Development (CAFOD), and Catholic Relief Services (CRS)).  The PRP will initially run for two years, to be followed by an evaluation which will determine possibilities to extend the program for an additional three (3) years.

IDE also secured another grant from DFID worth £220,000 to implement a Sweet Potato Project (SPP) in December 2002. This project is part of the overall DFID-sponsored Protracted Relief Programme with two core components:

• The establishment of sustainable nurseries that will produce the best quality sweet potato planting materials.
• The distribution of planting materials from each nursery to vulnerable households.

It is a partnership between IDE, the managing agent, Agro-Biotech, Such Trust Africare and ADRA, the latter two being partners in the broader Micro-Irrigation Partnership for Vulnerable Households (MIPVH) project. The project will be executed in two phases with a broad objective to increase household and intra-household livelihood security of 6,000 vulnerable and food-insecure households in high-density communities of Harare, in order to combat the negative impacts of the declining economy and HIV/AIDS. 

The project experts expect to get first impact results of these two projects by August 2005. The program’s expectations in the MIPVH are to meet food security and nutrition needs while increasing average net incomes to $850 on 200sqm gardens growing a wide range of crops such as tomato, onions, green mealies, etc. We are also projecting improved food security and nutrition with increased average net incomes to $100 on a 50sqm plot growing sweet potatoes in the SPP. The program has also strengthened its capacity to monitor, evaluate and document outcomes and impacts which will be disseminated to stakeholders.
 
PRISM Pilot Project Implementation
 
As with all IDE programs across the globe, Zimbabwe is also applying the Poverty Reduction through Irrigation and Smallholder Markets (PRISM) framework. The program has developed strong skills in partnership scoping, targeting of the most vulnerable (smallholder farmers) Water control (through drip irrigation technology) as well as project documentation. Available resources have not permitted the program to pursue market linkages as this is viewed as development given that the funds are humanitarian focused.

Given that, Zimbabwe is currently experiencing its worst socio-economic crisis in many years. Largely influenced by recurrent droughts, the program is looking for alternative sources to promote market linkages. The funds will be used to undertake two major sub-sector studies of the vegetable and sweet potato value chains as a strategy to effectively contribute in mitigating the negative impact of the economy, drought, and other concerns such as HIV/AIDS which have also significantly affected the livelihoods of the poor. The outcomes of the sub-sector studies will be implicitly mainstreamed in the implementation of the MIPVH and SPP projects. Capacity building of program staff to undertake sub-sector studies was undertaken in 2004.

CONTACT

IDE Zimbabwe
Stour Road #4, Vainona, Borrowdale
Harare, Zimbabwe