The influence of livelihood projects on food security resilience levels in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Since 1948, the international fraternity and national governments have demonstrated their commitment to food and nutrition security through pledges and policies. Some of these pledges and policies bear reference to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, the Maputo Declaration of 2003, the Malabo Declaration 2013, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Food Security Strategy of 2014 and Zimbabwe’s Food Security and Nutrition Policy of 2013. Stakeholders have designed and executed various sustainable livelihood initiatives to prevent, mitigate, and manage the effect of anthropogenic hazards on community livelihoods. Despite concerted efforts and dedication, food insecurity continues to increase in Zimbabwe. This signals a gloomy future, calling for innovativeness, the commitment of all stakeholders, and strategic sustainable planning. The heightened recurrence of, and exposure to similar phenomena despite wide support from government and various agencies indicates deficiencies and gaps that need to be addressed to achieve resilience to food insecurity. Hence, the need for an all-stakeholder approach in committing to pooling of resources. This thesis aims to develop a multi-sphere assessment framework for evaluating food security related sustainable livelihood initiatives. The framework will be used to assess the relevance, applicability, evaluability, and impact of programs. The research explored and examined the theoretical constructs of sustainable livelihoods, food security, resilience, assessment, and their components vis-à-vis disaster risk reduction. The study further traces Zimbabwe’s food security initiatives and challenges, as well as the three international assessment frameworks. These assessment frameworks were analytically compared, interrogating their significant characteristics, structure, and application. Focus group discussions, observations, and questionnaire were used for data collection, to gain insights into sustainable livelihood assessment practices and measures used in Bulilima, Gwanda, Mangwe, Umzingwane districts of Zimbabwe. The adoption of various data collection methods served as a form of triangulation between prescribed processes and realities in the districts of Zimbabwe. A total of 85 participants participated in the study. Through data coding, classification, and an interpretive process, constructive and correlated research findings emerged, guiding the final development of the integrated sustainable livelihood assessment model for Zimbabwe. Empirical and comparative results on the three international assessment models for food security-related initiatives provided the necessary insight for the development of the multi-sphere assessment model. The emerging issues from the research were that: the contribution of implemented projects towards resilience building are evident at household level but not at macro level; inconsistency in the general understanding of key terms and processes exists among stakeholders; documentation of

implemented projects is weak and done in a haphazard manner, individually and selectively ; a multi-stakeholder approach can provide answers towards building resilience to food insecurity, and the need for an assessment framework modelled three components (approach, guiding principles, and indicators). This thesis provides an all-inclusive sustainable livelihood assessment framework for application in Zimbabwe, flexible enough to be adapted for tactical and operational implementation across disciplines.