Strong partnerships for a resilient Zimbabwe

Sofia Calltorp and Bishow Parajuli

In this journey, the Embassy of Sweden remains a strong partner to Zimbabwe’s development efforts with an annual contribution of US$27 million.

RESILIENCE building by addressing underlying disaster risk factors through disaster risk-informed public and private investments, and development assistance is more cost-effective than primary reliance on post-disaster response and recovery, and contributes to sustainable development.

In line with the above concept, the Embassy of Sweden and UNDP recently signed US$8 million grant, which is a major boost to the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) and marks Sweden’s continued commitment to development cooperation in resilience building and climate action in support of the people of Zimbabwe.

The Embassy of Sweden believes that resilience-building is essential in Zimbabwe following socio-economic hardship and increased occurrence of extreme climatic events — such as protracted drought, flooding and rising mean temperatures — that serve to exacerbate pre-existing vulnerabilities and hamper development gains.

The ZRBF is managed by UNDP in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as other national players such as Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate, Ministry of Public Services, Labour and Social Welfare; Department of Civil Protection; and Food and Nutrition Council.

The ZRBF, officially launched in May 2016 with generous financial and technical support from European Union (EU), and UK Department of International Development (DFID), prioritises 21 vulnerable districts targeting 800 000 people with a total commitment of over US$70 million, including the latest commitment by Sweden over the life of the programme.

Currently, since May 2016, 407 000 labour endowed vulnerable people in nine rural districts benefited from three projects that have been launched offering support in the areas of climate-smart agriculture; nutrition and livelihoods; productive asset creation; access to finance and value chain development; and community-based natural resources management.

The nine districts that are currently benefiting from the Fund are; Binga, Umzingwane, Kariba, Mwenezi, Mbire, Umguza, Bubi, Nkayi and Chiredzi.

ZRBF, a unique approach that applies innovative, forward-thinking approach builds on intensive knowledge and evidence to make a real impact on resilience-building in Zimbabwe.

The fund supports the capacity development efforts of the Government of Zimbabwe towards the generation and utilisation of evidence for policy making and programming to make an indelible dent on poverty, environmental protection and in ensuring absorptive, adaptive and transformative capacities in the face of climate change. The Fund particularly recognises women’s transformative role in social and economic processes.

As such, the Fund strives to ensure that gender equality is adequately integrated into the work carried out through the Fund, including its implementing partners and consortia to ensure that Zimbabwean women equally benefit from this support as they often carry the brunt of shocks, stresses and disaster when it occurs.

The overall objective of the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund is to contribute to increased capacities of at risk communities to protect development gains and achieve improved wellbeing outcomes in the face of shocks and stresses. This will be achieved through three interlinked components:

◆ Creating a body of evidence and building capacity for increased application of evidence-based policy making,

◆ Improving the absorptive, adaptive and transformative capacities of at-risk communities,

◆ Setting up a crisis modifier mechanism which will provide appropriate, predictable, coordinated and timely response to risk and shocks from a resilience perspective. The strong partnership and generous financial and technical commitment by EU, DFID and Sweden on establishing a robust fund for resilience building paves the way for an increased focus and investment towards building strong national resilience that ensures the integration of development and humanitarian nexus.

Given the new normal of recurrent natural disasters caused by the effects of climate change, the investment will cushion our investment and progress towards Sustainable Development Goals. Under the 2016-2020 Zimbabwe United Nations Development Assistance Framework, the UN in Zimbabwe is supporting efforts to improve disaster risk reduction in all its dimensions of exposure, vulnerability; strengthening of disaster risk governance; preparedness to “Build Back Better”; and strengthening of partnerships.

This initiative is in line with the outcome document of the Third UN Disaster Risk Reduction Summit held in Sendai, Japan in 2015.

◆ Sofia Calltorp is the Ambassador of Sweden to Zimbabwe and Bishow Parajuli is the UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Zimbabwe.

◆ Read the full article on www. herald.co.zw