Add us as your preferred source on Google to see more of our content in Search.
Add to Preferred SourcesThe Embassy of Sweden and UNDP signed USD 8 million grant today giving a boost to the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) and marking Sweden’s increasing development cooperation in resilience building and climate action in support of the people of Zimbabwe.
“Since the launch of the ZRBF in May 2016, some 407,000 labour endowed vulnerable people in nine rural districts benefited from 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 benefitting from the Fund are: Binga, Umzingwane, Kariba, Mwenezi, Mbire, Umguza, Bubi, Nkayi and Chiredzi,” Mr. Bishow Parajuli, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative.
The ZRBF is a five-year multi-donor fund 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), prioritizes 21 vulnerable districts targeting 800,000 people with a total budget of USD 70 million over the life of the programme.
Noting ZRBF’s innovative, forward-thinking approach, which builds on intensive knowledge and evidence to make a real impact in terms of resilience-building in the country. Resilience lies at the heart of Sweden’s new five-year strategic commitment to Zimbabwe in fighting poverty, environmental degradation and in ensuring absorptive and transformative capacities in the face of climate change.
“Sweden will strive to ensure that gender equality is adequately integrated into the work carried out by the Zimbabwe Resilience Building 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,” Swedish Ambassador to Zimbabwe, H.E Sofia Calltorp.
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 well-being 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 grant signed between UNDP and the Embassy of Sweden today is a renewed commitment of the Embassy of Sweden under its new five-year (2017-2021) development cooperation to contribute to sustainable use of natural resources, strengthen value chains and increase access to renewable energy in its efforts to promote sustainable and resilient economic growth in Zimbabwe.
Source: reliefweb. Read full article here.
31 May, 2017