Against the Odds: A History of Zimbabwe Project

26. Surviving the Present, Looking to the Future

— 367 — The Strategic Plan By the end of 2007, the strategic plan devised in 2004 had run its course. It had been necessary to make many alterations in order to meet the ongoing emergencies, and a new plan would have to take account of the need to allow for greater flexibility. Zimbabwe’s crisis was far from over, and NGOs like ZimPro would still have a major role to play in meeting humanitarian emergencies as well as smoothing the road to the future for thousands of Zimbabweans. Towards the end of 2007, board members joined senior management and programme staff to devise a new strategic plan for 2008–2011. No one could foresee the dreadful conflicts that would play themselves out through these years, but it was clear that many desperate communities would require considerable assistance for some time to come. Thus, identifying a meaningful direction was far from difficult. The revised vision and mission statements of the new plan revealed a trimmed-down, more focused approach: the vision was (and remains) simply ‘a just and poverty-free society’, while the mission was stated thus: We are a Zimbabwean NGO that focuses on mobilization of resources, aimed at empowering the poor, disadvantaged and marginalized communities to achieve sustainable development. There was still the same emphasis on the marginalised, and empowerment and sustainable development, but more succinctly expressed than before. The dual-programming approach which ostensibly separated emergency responses from longterm development programmes was abandoned in favour of a 26 Surviving the Present, Looking to the Future — 368 — Against the Odds: a history of Zimbabwe Project thematic framework. Three focus areas were identified: household food security, HIV/AIDS and public health and hygiene. Both emergency and long-term responses could be included within each of the thematic areas. For all three areas the plan envisaged service delivery accompanied by awareness and skills training. However, equally critical in promoting community empowerment which could last beyond emergency situations was the strengthening of communities’ capacity to lobby for more effective policies from government, at local level in particular. In the logical framework that was developed, one of the anticipated results was the emergence of a model for developing resettled rural communities based on the experiences of what was or was not working, particularly in the area of household food security. Two additional strategic objectives related to continuously developing capacities and good governance within ZimPro itself and ensuring financial stability through generation of funds, both internally and externally. Thus equipped with clear guidelines for the coming years and programming objectives that had the flexibility to combine developmental work with humanitarian support, ZimPro prepared to move on to 2008 – what would become one of the most terrible years ever experienced in this decade of disasters. Programmes Programmes in the area of food security included both shortand long-term plans. Short-term security focused mainly on supplementary feeding for schoolchildren in Insiza and Makoni; it was also extended to the districts of Mzingwane and Gwanda in Matabeleland South. In Mbare the distribution of food vouchers to vulnerable families continued. By 2009, 2,200 families were being assisted in this way, while nearly 42,000 schoolchildren were being fed in rural Matabeleland. Longer-term approaches to food security were implemented simultaneously through the instruction in conservation farming in Insiza and Bulawayo peri-urban areas. Training included record-keeping, recording of rainfall and the means of assessing or predicting crop yields. In 2009, 4,310 farmers benefited from this, and by using the — 369 — Surviving the Present, Looking to the Future ‘contact farmer’ approach, the impact was extended when other community members emulated their neighbours. This same year saw the reintroduction of training in the construction of appropriate granaries in order to enable more efficient storage of grains and so reduce the current levels of post-harvest loss. Small livestock, mainly goats, were distributed to the most vulnerable families, with the commitment that the first female offspring would be passed on to another family. In urban Mbare, long-term food security was encouraged by continued work on low-input gardens, which if correctly practised could provide all the vegetable needs for a family in the small space provided behind the houses in most high-density areas. In all of these programmes there was mainstreaming of knowledge of HIV/ AIDS and child protection. Public health and hygiene programmes were also implemented in rural...