Zimbabwe
Amalima
Overview:
Amalima, a seven-year USAID Development Food Aid Program (DFAP) (2013-2020), worked with over 118,00 vulnerable households to sustainably improve household food security and nutrition in Zimbabwe’s districts of Bulilima, Gwanda, Mangwe (Matabeleland South), and Tsholotsho (Matabeleland North).
Amalima draws its name from the Ndebele word for the social contract by which families come together to help each other engage in productive activities such as land cultivation, livestock tending, and asset building.
Program Approach:
- Improve Sustainable Access to and Availability of Food: Promote climate and conservation-sensitive agriculture practices and encourages the adoption of improved agriculture and livestock production practices;
- Strengthen Community Resilience to Shocks: Partner with communities to improve livelihoods and build resilience by creating and strengthening disaster risk reduction (DRR) committees through cash for asset activities, household asset vouchers, and village savings and lending (VS&L) groups that promote income generating activities and savings to build household resiliency;
- Improve Nutrition and Health: Improve the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) practices, dietary diversity, and micro-nutrient intake of pregnant and lactating women and children under two by distributing supplementary feeding rations and enhancing nutrition care practices with a combination of capacity building, mentoring, and community-based messaging delivered through care groups and community health clubs;
- Promote Gender Equality: Empower women to play a key role in food security and resiliency at the household and community levels through increased access to and control over incomes, while promoting men and women to take increasingly equal responsibilities for both productive and reproductive activities.
Partners:
- Organization of Rural Associations for Progress
- Dabane
- International Medical Corps
- Africare
- Manoff Group