ANNUAL REPORT
2011/12
Practical Action Southern Africa
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Zimbabwe
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W http://www.practicalaction.org
© Practical Action, 2012
No use of this publication may be made for resale or other commercial purposes without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Cover photo: Electricity from Chipendeke Micro hydro gives power for lighting and storing vaccines. Women queuing to get their children vaccinated
Photographer: Practical Action
Text and Coordination: Martha Munyoro
Editors: Killron Dembe,Thembinkosi Nyathi,Henry Muchedzi,Hopewell Zheke,Wilson Mutsekwa, Kudzai Marovanidze, Joyline Tawha, Grace Musarurwa.
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ABOUT US
Practical Action was established in 1969 by E.F. Schumacher, the radical development economist and author of Small is Beautiful. We currently work in 11 countries with offices in Kenya, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Peru, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Our Head Office is located near Rugby, Warwickshire, in United Kingdom. Practical Action Southern Africa is based in Harare, currently covers Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Since its establishment in 1989 in Zimbabwe, the organisation has built a reputation in long term development and has demonstrated convincingly how technology can assist in alleviating poverty. The organisation also has a range of implementing and strategic partners in each of our countries and major donors including the European Union, the Department for International Development (DFID), multi- and bi- lateral agencies, trusts and supporters.
Practical Action believes that technology and innovation are a vital contributor to people’s livelihoods. The capabilities of poor people to access, use and adapt appropriate technologies, knowledge and skills underpins their ability to escape poverty. To this end our work is founded on working alongside communities using approaches that support collaboration and shared learning, and using these experiences as the basis for wider knowledge services to development actors through our Practical Answers, Publishing and Consulting arms, and as the foundation of our efforts to influence the policies and practices of others.
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VISION
Practical Action`s vision is a sustainable world free of poverty and injustice in which technology is used for the benefit of all.
MISSION
To use technology to challenge poverty by:
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Building the capabilities of poor people•
Improving their access to technical options and knowledge, and•
Working with them to influence social, economic and institutional systems for innovation and use of technology.VALUES
Justice, Democracy, Empowerment, Diversity, Sustainability
THE WAY WE WORK
Practical Action Southern Africa currently operates in four countries; Zimbabwe (where our head office is based) Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi. Our work is split between four Aims:
Core Programmes
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Reducing Vulnerability•
Making Markets work for the poor•
Access to infrastructure services•
Responding to new technologiesWe also provide development consultancy services through Practical Action Consultancy (PAC). Support services
The work of the core programmes is supported
by:-•
Directorate•
Human Capital•
Finance•
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MESSAGE FROM THE REGIONAL DIRECTOR
We warmly welcome you to our 2011 – 12 Annual Report.
We have just come to the end of our 5 year strategy (2007 – 2012) and there is much to be celebrated, recognised and commended as we review and evaluate our operations during the past five years. The beginning of 2007 saw Practical Action developing an ambitious strategy that sought to tackle poverty and reaching out to hundreds of thousands of people in the four countries of operation within the Southern Africa region. Today we can boast that our four programme areas, namely, Reducing Vulnerability, Making Markets Work for the Poor, and Access to Infrastructure Services and Responding to New Technologies, have reached out at least 248,556 poor people through building their capabilities and improving their access to technology options and knowledge.
We have just launched our new Strategic Plan 2012 – 2017 and we look to the future with renewed enthusiasm and hope. The New Strategy provides us with new ambitions to reach impact at scale, influence national policies, practices and laws in the areas of our Strategic Choices, Access to Energy, Sustainable Agriculture and Livelihoods, and Urban Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Education (WASHE). We also have cross cutting themes which include market systems, climate change, gender and practical answers.
During the year under review, we stepped up our efforts to tackle poverty among poor and marginalised communities in the region against the background of increasing poverty levels in the region, the effects of climate change and the HIV and Aids pandemic prevalent in the region,
Notable milestones were achieved, ensuring:
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food and livelihoods security for communities in semi-arid and arid environments totaling 86,918 beneficiaries•
access to renewable energy solutions for marginalized and isolated communities for 10,238 beneficiaries•
access to safe water and hygienic practices for 97,747 beneficiaries•
improved access to markets for small-holder farmers for 11,653 beneficiariesUnder the Reducing Vulnerability Programme, the year saw us consolidating our work on strengthening the ability of poor people to use technology to cope with threats from natural disasters and environmental degradation, targeting at least 86,918 people, including those living with HIV and Aids as our work in Zambia with People Living with HIV (PLWHIV), funded by the EU, provided food security and livelihood resilience for 3,000 beneficiaries.
Through our work in the Access to Infrastructure Services programme, 10,238 people now have access to renewable energy solutions. With funding from the European Union and through the Catalysing Modern Energy Delivery Services project, 8 micro hydro schemes were constructed and rehabilitated in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. I am proud to announce that our energy work has been a major success in the region and will continue to be a priority area moving forward.
Under the same programme our work in water and sanitation continued to grow, with funding from the EU in Matabeleland South and Masvingo Provinces.
The organization continued to prioritise the sharing of knowledge, in addition to the direct delivery of projects on the ground. In 2011/12 Practical Answers, our regional knowledge sharing service, responded to nearly 650 individual enquiries about the use of technology from people working in development across the region
We supported our partners to implement projects on the ground and had some significant works on the higher side of our working model, “Achieving Impact at Scale”. Practical Action Southern Arica managed to reach 48 324 direct beneficiaries and 200 232 indirect beneficiaries I take this opportunity to thank all our generous donors, the Government Ministries in all the countries of operation, partners and everyone else for working with us to achieve our goals. We will continue to commit ourselves for excelling in our mission to bring about a positive change in peoples’ lives.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Practical Action Southern Africa work has been built around delivery of impact at scale, focusing on building partnerships for influencing and impact, achieving significant impact through influence, strengthened civil society organisations to represent and empower poor women and men access technologies, natural resources or markets, providing services, and/ or mitigating risks and facilitating poor people’s participation in decision making.
Building partnerships for influencing and impact
Under the Reducing Vulnerability programme, Practical Action helped set a partnership with AGRITEX, Hlekweni, University of Reading, Department of Livestock Production and Development (LPD) aimed at Strengthening Agricultural Extension in Zimbabwe loosely termed the Agricultural Extension partnership. The purpose of the partnership was to strengthen agricultural extension in Zimbabwe through the promotion of participatory extension approaches and mainstreaming climate change adaptation in agricultural extension.
In Zambia, Practical Action set up a partnership comprising of DAPP, HODI, Zambia National Aids Council, Ministry of Health (MoH), 3 District Authorities called the HIV/AIDs Partnership in Zambia. The purpose of the partnership was influencing the improvement of HIV/AIDS Service Delivery in Zambia. The organisation further set up a partnership comprising of DAPP, HODI, Zambia National Aids Council, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MACO) on Innovative approaches to food security in Zambia.
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Achieving significant impact through influence
Our Reducing Vulnerability Programme successfully influenced the mainstreaming participatory agricultural extension approaches in the national extension system (funded by Practical Action - Building Track Record Fund), mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation in Zimbabwe’s national Agricultural Extension System (funded by the Nuffield Foundation) and enhancing food and livelihoods security of smallholder rural farming households in drought-prone areas of Zimbabwe (PRP II – funded by DFID through GRM).
Through participatory market mapping processes, Practical Action were able to facilitate dialogue and engagement among key market actors in Zimbabwe resulting in business partnerships being formed between agro dealers and seed houses, for example, two agro dealers signed contracts with SEED CO as stockists for their seed product. Practical Action thus has helped to influence good practice through reviving the local input supply chain thereby helping famers to access improved seed varieties from their local agro-dealers and at the same time local agro-dealers will be able to stock seed from large seed houses and be able to improve their businesses. Market mapping with livestock market actors also helped in mapping out blockages within the market system preventing participation by small scale farmers. Practical Action facilitated dialogues and engagement
between farmers, traders and buyers. These dialogue platforms helped farmers access market information as well as extension information from the buyers in terms of how to produce high quality livestock and when to market. It is anticipated that these dialogue platforms will lead to the revival of the goat forum which will be able to take up policy advocacy and awareness work.
Through the Access to Energy programme, the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) of Zimbabwe has signed an MoU with Practical Action that will see the two parties working together in decentralised energy access in rural communities and also the mainstreaming of the Community Based Approaches in the work of Rural Electrification Agency.
Energia International through the ETC Foundation of Netherlands has signed an extended contract of three years entitled “Capacitating the energy sector in gender mainstreaming in Mozambique. This partnership is helping the expansion of work in Mozambique especially under the new strategy.
GENEZ and Practical Action have partnered to provide expertise to the Ministry of Energy and Power Development in the formulation of the National Energy Strategy in Under Infrastructure Services, Practical Action influenced
the formation of partnerships with other energy agencies for the purpose of improving energy access for the poor e.g. Mulanje Mountain Renewable Energy Agency (MuREA) in Malawi and Gender and Energy Network of Zimbabwe (GENEZ). Practical Action partnered with International NGOs such as Energia for the work in Mozambique to mainstream gender in the energy sector and OXFAM GB in establishing decentralised energy systems like solar energy and Micro Hydro Schemes in Zimbabwe.
Partnerships were formed under the Promoting Examples of Participatory Local Empowerment in Urban Planning (PEOPLE UP) in Mutare and Epworth with the Local Authorities and local partners Mutare District Union of Housing Cooperatives (MDU) and Civic Forum on Housing to promote inclusive urban planning and development. The programme has formed loose partnerships with Oxfam, Ministry of SMEs, Micro-King, Environment Africa, Mary Mount Teachers College, and Roots for Africa to promote Private-Public Partnerships in Urban planning and development.
Through the “Enhancing Community Participation in Governance of Water and Sanitation Service Delivery in Rural Gwanda District”, Practical Action has built a WASH coalition with organisations and sector ministries to debate and deliberate on best practices in the Water sector for the district.
Through, Practical Answers, partnerships were formed with FACT Mutare and Gwanda Rural District Council to manage and house a knowledge nodes or knowledge centres for knowledge briefs both in digital formats and in print and audio visual formats for access and use by communities and development agents. Content development partnerships were created with AGRITEX, Health, Environment Management Agency (EMA) and Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA). The organisation is in the process of reaching a content development and review partnerships with Lupane State University, National University of Science and Technology, and Matobo Research Institute
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Zimbabwe. Practical Action is influencing increased energy access for the poor (changes in practice) through the Regional Hydro power Conference in Africa. Practical Action is now on the Energy Conference Advisory Board and the Energy Conference Paper Reviewing Committee. Through the Climate Change Working Group (CCWG), Practical Action managed to influence the formulation of
the National Climate Change Strategy. The process is in the hands of the Office of the President and Cabinet. Practical Action is among the group working with the consultant engaged by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources to come up with a National Climate Change Strategy in Zimbabwe.
Strengthening Organisations of the poor
Under the Reducing Vulnerability Programme, Practical Action managed to build the capacity of partners and stakeholders in participatory extension services by developing the Participatory Extension Approaches (PEAs) booklet and printed and distributed 250 copies that had been signed by the Minister of Agriculture and is now used by extension workers as a manual. Through a project funded by the EU titled, “Strengthening the Inclusion and Influencing Capacity of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working with People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) in the Central Province of Zambia”, Practical Action were able to build the capacity of NGOs through training in lobbying and advocacy for 65 partner people from both partner and stakeholder organisations and strengthening network linkages between National Aids Council (NAC) and CSOs. Through a project funded by the EU titled, “Mainstreaming Community-Based Approaches to Food & Livelihood Security”, Practical Action carried out a number of capacity building activities to strengthen the partners (DAPP & MACO) by training in Participatory Extension Approaches (PEA) and training in crop diversification and improved agronomic practices for a total of 1,472 people.
The PEOPLE UP project in Mutare and Epworth, has been strengthening the representational capacities of partners, Mutare District Union of Housing Cooperatives (MDU) and Civic Forum on Housing using Community Based Approaches (CBAs) who are working with some brick
moulding and waste management groups to develop their business management skills.
The Energy Programme has been able to build capacity within the local organisations Southern Centre for Energy and Environment (SCEE), Environment and Energy Concerns of Zambia (ECZ), Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust (MMCT) and Kwayedza Simukai Manica (KSM) in Mozambique who are the local implementing partners in Malawi and Mozambique. In Zimbabwe, Practical Action has been strengthening the capacity of Oxfam and REA who have actually seconded their staff to the organisation. Practical Action capacitated GIZ AMES Mozambique on the application of prepaid metres in rural micro hydro power schemes with the intention to introduce the same in Manica Province, Mozambique. This partnership has been going on as part of the MoU which was signed between Practical Action and GIZ in 2009.
Practical Action managed to strengthen the capacity of the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) national working group in Zimbabwe, on the processes, technology and models for sustainable implementation of WASH projects. The Water Governance project in Gwanda has WASH organisations and sector ministries have been brought together to debate and deliberate on best practices in the sector for the district. Practical Action is empowering the stakeholders through explaining the various statutory instruments that govern the water sector such as the ZINWA Act and the Water Act.
Facilitating Poor People’s Participation in Decision Making
Through Community Based Approaches, Practical Action has strengthened the inclusion and influencing capacity of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working with People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) in the Central Province of Zambia (NSA project), strengthened the Innovative Food Security Approaches (IFSA) for People Living with
HIV (PLHIV) in Zambia and the enhancing food and livelihoods security of smallholder rural farming households in drought-prone areas of Zimbabwe (PRP 11). The purpose was to ensure that priorities of PLWHIV and resource poor farmers were included in all levels of the planning stages and addressed by service providers.
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Through Participatory Markets System Development (PMSD), Practical Action managed to link farmers with input and output markets, improve access to appropriate agricultural extension support through digital (pre-recorded pod casts) and farmer to farmer extension (field days, exchange visits and competitions). The project also facilitated asset rebuilding of 1,000 smallholder farmers through promotion of small livestock and community
managed pass on the gift scheme.
Communities were also involved extensively in the design and implementation of the micro hydro projects where they were asked to prioritise their areas of expertise during the Community Based Planning, Operation and Maintenance and Business Trainings among others in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique.
Our Learning
The model of community participation used by Practical Action has helped leverage additional skills and capacity from the communities. This has helped in achieving ownership and in-building technical, financial and business skills which would lead to sustainability of the technical interventions that Practical Action has implemented over the years. Participatory methods do not only ensure sustainability but also promote sense of ownership among communities which is one of the fundamental issues towards achieving sustainability.
We have also noted areas where we can do better, especially in the design of projects, identification and tracking of beneficiaries and in policy and influence. Generally we have designed our projects with Practical Action at the centre of implementation although in some cases, local and International NGOs (Development AID People to People, Oxfam, Save the Children etc) have been engaged as project or implementing partners.
Where Partners have been engaged as implementing agents, a number of issues have emerged regarding the
selection criteria, especially the strategic partners as opposed to project partners. We have not built enough resources for partner capacity building and for post – project follow up hence we have not been able to measure impact and influence, months or years after the end of project and there is need to resource this important process.
We have not made a conscious and concerted effort at influencing policies and practises at National and Global levels. In our new strategy, we will develop indicators on national and global influences. We will need to set annual programme targets for beneficiaries for tracking purposes as opposed to programme targets that are mainly defined in the project proposals.
We would also need to do some post-project assessment in order to measure and evaluate the level of impact our work is doing in the communities we work in. This can be commissioned a year or two after the project ended.
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PROGRAMME ACHIEVEMENTS
Aim1: Reducing vulnerability
Objective
157 000 people living in fragile, drought-prone, environmentally degraded and HIV and AIDS affected areas of Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe have improved crop, livestock and Natural Resource (NR) production systems to sustain their nutrition, food and livelihood needs.
During 2011-2012, the Reducing Vulnerability Programme was implementing three major projects seeking to tackle the food and livelihood security of the poor communities in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
a. Strengthening the Scaling Up and Impact of Innovative Food Security Approaches for PLHIV in Zambia whose objective was to improve the food security and livelihoods resilience of People Living with HIV (PLWHIV) and their families in Serenje and Mkushi Districts in the Central Province of Zambia.
b. Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation in Zimbabwe’s national Agricultural Extension System whose objective was to integrate PEAs into national extension strategy of Agritex to enhance farmer innovation in agricultural practices
c. Enhancing food and livelihoods security of smallholder rural farming households in drought-prone areas of Zimbabwe whose objective was to enhance the food & nutrition security of chronic poor, labour endowed households in Matabeleland South through improved crop & livestock production and marketing systems.
Strengthening the Scaling Up and Impact of Innovative Food Security
Approaches for PLHIV in Zambia
For many people living with HIV (PLHIV), the virus causes or worsens malnutrition by a combination of reduced food intake, nutrient mal-absorption, and increased energy needs. Malnutrition in turn can worsen the disease and its impacts by impairing immune function, increasing vulnerability to infections, and in some cases reducing the effectiveness of treatment.
Incoherent responses by Government departments and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), to the needs of the PLWHIV have come in the form of food handouts and monocrop-types of agricultural input packages that fall short of the food and nutrition requirements of HIV and AIDS infected individuals.
Project achievements
Practical Action in partnership with Development Aid from People to People (DAPP) Zambia introduced a unique way in assisting PLWHA through an EU funded project entitled
Strengthening the Scaling Up and Impact of Innovative Food Security Approaches for PLHIV in Zambia. The two year project which began in February 2011 seeks to improve food security and livelihood resilience of 3,000 beneficiaries who are organized in 150 support groups for PLWHIV in Serenje and Mkushi Districts in the Central Province of Zambia by increasing their access to nutritious foods and essential services.
Community Based Approaches (CBAs) such as Training for Transformation (TfT), Participatory Extension Approaches (PEA), Community Based Planning (CBP) and Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) were conducted to 176 participants with the objective of transforming the way development practitioners including community leaders relate among themselves and with communities they provide HIV and AIDS services to.
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Procured and distributed seed and fertilizer packages
The Action directly supported 1,422 PLHIV (47.4% of total target beneficiaries) with inputs such as fertilizer, Open Pollinated Variety (OPV) maize seed, beans, soya beans and groundnuts. Selection of the inputs was guided by the outcomes from the baseline survey in which respondents
had indicated their preferred local seed varieties to be procured by the project while identification of the beneficiaries was conducted in a participatory manner involving local government extension staff, traditional leaders and respective support group members.
A total of 156 beneficiaries were trained on fish farming best practices. This resulted in the construction of 69 fish ponds ranging from 6x6m² to 35x25m² which are now stocked with fish.
A restocking exercise was also carried out in Serenje in collaboration with the Fisheries Department for the following areas; Teta, Mulilima, Kafina and Milenje areas. A total of 17 ponds were supplied with 9,965 fingerlings at a market value of ZMK49, 825,000 (USD9, 581) if managed properly. The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives have appreciated these efforts and committed themselves to collaborate with the project.
At least 127 and 75 beneficiaries in Mkushi and Serenje districts respectively were selected from various support groups as lead farmers to undergo 3 days training in seed multiplication. The trainings were aimed at restoring food security among PLHIV through the promotion of community based seed multiplication of Open Pollinated Varieties. Topics covered included; field selection, management and conditions for seed storage for the following crops; maize, beans soya beans and groundnuts. It is envisioned that those trained will lead the process of establishing seed banks at group level which will be used as sources of seed in the second year of the project.
With the facilitation of Forestry Department and Peace Corps Volunteers, 279 PLHIV underwent training in agro forestry. The purpose of these trainings was to expose support group members to the benefits of agro forestry, a component of sustainable agriculture where trees are grown with crops in a way which benefits the land. At least 300 households each received at least 50 seedlings to be planted on a Lima (2500m²) of agriculture land while an additional 300 households benefited with four fruit trees which were planted at their respective households.
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Mainstreaming Climate Change Adaptation in Zimbabwe’s
Agricultural Extension System
The Mainstreaming Climatic Change Adaptation in Zimbabwe’s Agricultural Extension System project recognizes the need for qualified professionals to develop their own economies and delivery of services. Skills and knowledge are essential to identify solutions to own problems in areas such as food security. The development and implementation of good policies for service delivery is based on evidence of what works and what does not work. The intention is to make the most out of natural resources and utilise technology to accelerate economic growth.
The twelve month project aims to integrate climate change adaptation in the Department of Agricultural, Technical and Extension Services (AGRITEX) who are mandated to deliver agricultural extension in Zimbabwe. Practical Action and University of Reading (UoR) with funding from Nuffield Foundation is working with AGRITEX to directly train 60 of their national and provincial level subject matter specialists (SMSs) as trainers of 170 other district level professionals in the Matabeleland South, Midlands and Masvingo provinces through the existing Training Branch in-service programme.
Herb and crop production
A total of 126 focal farmers in both Mkushi (Munsakamba, Chalata, Fiwila, Chikupili and Masansa) and Serenje (Teta, Mulilima, Chililabombwe, Chibale, Nchimishi, Muchinka and Chitambo) districts underwent three days of training in herb and crop production. The topics covered included among others, how to establish the crop, sowing the seeds, pest & disease control, gardening as an income and market challenges. The trainings were conducted in order to enhance production and productivity in existing and new gardens. Herbs such as Pennywort, lemon grass, Artemisia Afra (African worm wood) and peppermint which are all strong anti-inflammatory agents were also part of the topics covered.
Lessons learnt
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PLHIV are vulnerable largely because of the weak governance structures at both community and district levels, fragile livelihoods in terms of few resources, lack of savings including their low social status in society due to stigma & discrimination which is especially demonstrated when it comes to access to social services such as extension, inputs and loans. The project has been able to show that PLHIV can still play an active/productive role in their livelihoods when they are able to fully participate in development activities. We have also been able to learn that often at times; development practitioners work in isolation and do not share their lessons witheither the community which they service or other stakeholders. However, when effectively coordinated through the stakeholders forums spearheaded by HODI and the Non-State Actors project, the links between various stakeholders are established and strengthened bringing about efficient delivery of services.
Weak governance structures/systems contribute to people’s vulnerability. However, when an enabling environment is created, people are able to participate effectively in planning, implementation, coordination and monitoring of project interventions.
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Impacts/Achievement
To date, the project has trained sixty (60) officers drawn from Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU), Mlezu Agriculture College, the Departments of Research and Specialist Services (DR&SS), Livestock Production and Development (LPD), AGRITEX, Department of Meteorological Services (DMS) and Department of Irrigation (DOI). The first of a series of training sessions has been successfully completed and it dealt with understanding the basics of climate
change and variability and the implications on agriculture. Influencing efforts started through training a wide section of stakeholders who have a stake in agriculture. This was followed by feedback meetings by the trained officers to district, provincial and department heads. The training also cleared some of the misconceptions on climate change thereby improving the confidence of officers to discuss the subject at departmental meetings and other various forums. This training will enable the provincial and district SMSs
and Extension Officers to effectively train and support all the 1,560 Agricultural Extension Workers within the 3 targeted provinces who are the community-based frontline cadres working with farmers on a daily basis. Trained extension professionals will, in turn, be able to improve the capabilities of smallholder farmers to respond to climate change. The project responds to massive brain drain of experienced agricultural extension professionals in
the past decade as a result of socio-economic and political challenges experienced in the country. Practical Action and UoR applied their global experiences in Climate Change Adaptation, research in agriculture and meteorological services in developing countries. The action plans developed will be incorporated into the AGRITEX annual training plans in order for the training to continue into the future.
Project Objectives
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To build the technical capacities of the national agricultural extension system through three specific objectives:•
To update knowledge and awareness among extension staff on climate change and variability and its impact on agriculture;•
To improve skills among extension personnel in promoting climate change adaptation strategies in agriculture;•
To promote wider uptake & application of the CCA training programme through backstopping & support in training frontline staff10
Enhancing food and livelihoods security of smallholder rural
farming households in drought-prone areas of Zimbabwe
The objective of the project is to improve the crop, livestock and market systems of small holder farmers for food security. One of the major constraints for smallholder farmers to achieving food security has been the limited understanding of technical know-how, technologies and insufficient support for local seed multiplication. The
situation has been worsened by recurrent droughts which have resulted in the disappearance of local seed reserves thereby reducing seed diversity and limiting farmers to use hybrid seed varieties which are usually available at seed houses located far away from them at the time of planting. The project also created a platform for active and
effective engagement between DMS and AGRITEX, two key departments critical for the delivery of climate smart interventions. Through lobby meetings between Practical Action, University of Reading (UoR) and DMS which culminated in further meetings between the two departments, DMS is now making available upon request, climate data to AGRITEX free of charge. This is important if relevant information is to be timeously available to extension staff and farmers, both of who lack capacity to pay for this data. The meeting between DMS and Agritex directorate has also resulted in DMS committing to train key AGRITEX staff on analysis of meteorological data. It is important for AGRITEX to understand this analysis to be able to request relevant and properly packaged information for use during extension. The two departments are also in the process of developing a joint funding proposal which seeks resources to train officers on climate change through e-learning.
Trained officers in Matabeleland South Province have proceeded to form a provincial climate change (CC) training team and to-date has held some sensitization meetings to
various government departments. Some members of the team have been engaged to facilitate a climate change workshop for the Zimbabwe Women’s Bureau (ZWB) in Gwanda.
The Department of AGRITEX now has the confidence to provide informed contributions during the on-going National Climate Change Strategy formulation process. The climate change strategy formulation will review national climate initiative`s and the legal/ legislative framework governing climate change in Zimbabwe. They will also be able to contribute to the AGRITEX National Agricultural Extension Strategy which is currently being developed. Following a positive feedback on the relevance of the training, Agritex has requested funding for backstopping activities during roll outs to district officers; develop capacity of a core team to analyse historical climate data to develop probabilities and risks for key rainfall characteristics. A concept note was developed and submitted for possible funding. This is part of influencing agenda for other NGOs to adopt climate smart extension approaches which are being promoted by the project.
Lessons Learnt
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There is need for meteorological data to be easily accessible to extension staff so that they are better able to provide tailor made extension packages to farmers in different situations. Currently there is no policy on CC and therefore DMS and Agritex should step up their participation in the current efforts to develop a national strategy on climate change and ensure it is community-based.•
The importance of analysing climate data in order for extension staff to give appropriate extension services to farmers clearly emerged during course I and a working relationship has been built between Agritex and DMS. The two departments will work on analysing historical climate datawith the objective of coming up with appropriate technologies for farmers to cope with climate variability. Historical information will improve the accuracy of
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current forecasts and advice to enable research, extension and farmers to make informed decision in the identification, development and adaptation of agricultural technologies and practices.•
Increasing rainfall variability negatively impacts on the livelihoods of rural households that depend on agriculture. More coordinated efforts by local service providers will enhance the capacities of communities to become resilient. Local service providers need to respond to farmer priorities.11
For these hazards, the technologies and approaches identified were:
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Drought-dead level contours, pot-holing, early planting incorporating indigenous knowledge systems, conservation farming, drought tolerant crops.•
Stock thefts-community generated innovative measures and spreading of the innovations in local voices and languages through the use of podcasts and stakeholder workshops.•
Livestock diseases-community based trained livestock health workers (Paravets) with back-up from the Department of Veterinary Services (DVS). Any disease outbreak is reported immediately to the local paravet and hence controlled in time.•
Poor and inadequate livestock feeds-storage of cattle feed on improved stove racks and controlled grazing through relocation of animals during the dry season July to November.Communities in Gwanda, Mangwe and Bulilima Districts have adapted to droughts and livestock diseases, the main hazards affecting their livelihoods such that they are no longer negatively affecting them. This has been done through adoption of improved and adapted technologies and approaches that have increased their resilience. The farmers have adopted conservation farming (CF) technologies in the face of prolonged dry spells, paravets
for livestock diseases management and seed multiplication to avail themselves with adequate and adaptive seed resources. This has through involving communities and local organizations in identifying, analyzing and evaluating their own disaster risks and in developing and managing their own plans for reducing vulnerability. Communities no longer wait for government or NGOs to deal with their challenges; they have local development institutions driving development initiatives on production and marketing of their produce. The local development institutions have very strong links with government extension staff at both ward and district levels.
To address this problem, the Enhancing food and livelihoods security of smallholder rural farming households in drought-prone areas of Zimbabwe project implemented under the second phase of the Protracted Relief Programme (PRP II), has linked farmers in Matabeleland South Province with Matopo Research Centre in a bid to promote Participatory
Technology Development (PTD) in the area of seed multiplication. This was done to ensure that there is seed sufficiency at village and ward level as well as enabling farmers to have control over the cropping season in terms of ability to plant at the onset of the rainy season and growing crops which are suitable to their region.
Training workshops and exposure
Visits
The project, through stakeholders facilitated community trainings, exposure visits, field days and farmer to farmer training. This enabled communities to access affordable, easy to understand, pro-poor but effective developmental technologies and approaches which have successfully been used to increase communities’ resilience to drought, livestock diseases, poor and inadequate pastures, and illegal migration which has been a major contributor to the increase in HIV/AIDs in Mangwe, Bulilima and Gwanda Districts.
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Increased sharing of local knowledge and technologies
Staff members from Bulilima and Mangwe AGRITEX departments and GRDC have been trained in recording of digital extension messages. Access to extension services is crucial to increasing agricultural productivity. All extension messages recording are now being driven locally. Digital extension messages as an extension approach are now being driven by AGRITEX training department in Mangwe and Bulilima and Gwanda Rural District Council.
The project promoted conservation farming (CF), which is a concept for resource-saving agricultural crop production that strives to achieve acceptable profits together with high and sustained production levels while concurrently conserving the environment The technology was highly The project made a strong case for the mind-set shift on the
part of both smallholder farmers and buyers in Matabeleland South Province to consider goat production as a business. This was done through strengthening the goat value chain which resulted in the re-creation of a stakeholder forum for goat producers made up of farmers, development partners such as ICRISAT, Practical Action, Hlekweni, Care International, Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), SNV Netherlands, and buyers such as Bulawayo Abattoirs and Delicate, government departments such as Veterinary Services (DVS) and Livestock Production and Development (LPD) and Gwanda Rural District Council (GRDC).
The forum managed to link 14 buyers of livestock
(Bulawayo Abattoirs, Mvutshwa Abattoirs, Montana Meats, Sundowns, Cold Storage Commission (CSC), Belmont Leather, National Foods, Agri-Seeds, Spar Bellevue, Ok Mart and TM Supermarkets, and Bulawayo show grounds where main cattle auctions take place). Fourteen (14) small livestock market committees from Gwanda (6), Mangwe (4) and Bulilima (4) have been established. GRDC collects levies for all livestock sale transactions done in the district, while development agencies such as Practical Action, SNV, ICRISAT, Care International and Kula Sizwe Trust (KST) are responsible for building the marketing skills and knowledge of small livestock producers. All these actors are necessary for a successful goat value chain.
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appreciated by farmers in the face of climate change and variability being experienced in semi-arid region of Matabeleland South but there is need to validate its
effectiveness with tangible data or records. There is need to consider using community based extension workers to record this data.
Other achievements
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The community now has seed available locally which enables farmers to benefit fully from the cropping season through early planting. Seed will also be available at a cheaper price since transport cost will not be charged.•
Creation of a new income stream which will increase revenue for farmers involved in seed multiplication.•
Positive Behaviour Change-A positive shift from dependency towards seed sufficiency and self-reliance increased.•
Empowerment of Women in Development-The seed multipliers, the majority of them being women helps build confidence of other local women to learn from this success.Lessons learnt
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Given the short-term nature of available funding, there is need for alternative budgets to measure the level of influence post project implementation and also to assess the sustainability of the same projects. Future work may innovatively build this through baseline or impact studies.•
There is need to validate the technologies and practices which projects are promoting. This should be incorporated right at design stage; working with research-based institutions (Local and international universities and research stations).•
There is need to build strategic partnerships for development of long term work, learning and influencing.•
More effort should explore longer-term funding opportunities to allow coherent and continuous application of participatory processes which take longer to realise the desired benefits.•
There is need for networking and synchronising approaches among institutions. Learning and sharing platforms should be encouraged or emphasised at district and provincial level. This includes influencing the local authorities to coordinate development interventions•
The current delivery structure design of projects with partners poses some challenges as allocation of staff costs is more skewed towards Practical Action. For long term projects allocation of resources can be gradually reduced to reflect the impact of capacity building over the years and also as an exit strategy. The process of partner selection also needs to be more comprehensive and partners should be developed right from the project design stage.•
There is need to continue exploring labour-saving technologies and practices in Conservation Agriculture.•
CBAs uptake can be enhanced by engagement at provincial and national levels.•
Strategic integration of roles and responsibilities at community level enhances buy-in and sustainability.14
Case Study
The beauty of conservation farming
Bekezela Dube, a widowed 46 year old farmer could as well have won a national prize for her vibrant crops of maize and pearl millet. For everyone who attended the field day held at her field, the small plot had all it takes to demonstrate the success of conservation farming as water harvesting and moisture conservation technology. Dube has been described as a work horse by the people in her community. She got an appreciation of conservation agriculture during the European Commission project which was implemented by Hlekweni and Practical Action between 2006 and 2010 emphasizing on the use of dead level contours to harvest rain water and build soil moisture reserves. After adopting the use of dead level contours way back then she had not yet started seeing the benefit of conservation farming until now. “It is this potholing which came with the magic when it was introduced this year. I can’t remember the last time we anticipated harvests such as these curtsey of “Gatshopo” (potholing)” said Bekezela jovially.
“After our training in conservation farming we organized ourselves into groups and my group had five members. We then started preparing our basins 15cm by 15cm and added a cup of well decomposed manure. Preparation of potholes started around September before the rains. We
later learnt that we should have started around June and July so as to harvest every drop of rainfall including the winter rains if any happen to fall. For my plot I decided to prepare two plots of 50m by 50m for pear millet and another one same size for maize. For the two crops one plot is under CF while the other is under convectional ploughing for comparisons purposes. However, looking at the crop even before harvesting like we can all see, I can already tell that CF is the way to go and next season I will definitely have to increase my hectrage under CF.” added Bekezela.
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Aim2: Making Markets Work for the Poor
Objective: Poor producers living in marginal rural areas increase their income by accessing technology, skills and knowledge to participate in and transform market systems
Mashonaland Livelihoods Restoration Project (MLRP)
The objective of this was to increase income and employment through increasing agricultural production of 5,500 rural smallholder farmer households (33,000 beneficiaries) in Bindura and Guruve districts by June 2011 The livelihoods restoration project while limited to a small geographical area and targeting a rather small group of smallholder farmers was an ingenious mix of short term and long term recovery strategies all achieved in a short period of time (18 months). The project demonstrated that indeed it is feasible to achieve restoration of livelihoods within a relatively limited time frame by simply stimulating a communities own sense of self preservation
The 18-month project directly focused on increasing income and employment generation by the agricultural sector. This being achieved through
•
Increased agricultural production focusing on farm inputs, crop and livestock extension systems,•
Increased incomes and employment creation through agro processing and market linkages and;•
Increased access to fiancé through own saving schemes and linkages to microfinance institutions.Also, the project contributed indirectly through promoting asset rebuilding focusing on small livestock pass on the gift scheme. Ultimately, these interventions contributed towards the restoration of livelihoods and provided a strong base for long term recovery.
Private companies such as National Tested Seeds (NTS), Seed Co and Pannar are now providing agricultural extension services to Government Extension Workers (3 – 4 per ward) on how to grow crops they supply. Agritex and VET Extension Workers relay the day to day extension services to 23 306 smallholder farmers in targeted wards of Guruve District through use of Community Based Extension Workers and digital extension methods such as pod casts. Though pod casts is not interactive, it has allowed farmers access to extension information where there are no extension personnel especially in very remote areas. The information loaded on to the pod casts is managed at the local knowledge nodes and is in local languages.
Market Access for Locally produced
Agricultural Products
At least 23,306 smallholder farmers are now selling their agricultural commodities (mainly Maize and Soya Beans) to several buyers which include Produtrade, Agri-foods, and Grain Marketing Board (GMB).The project has also managed to link 2,032 sunflower producers to five local oil processing enterprises established at local business centers in Guruve district. During the period under review, a total of 120 metric tonnes of sunflower were processed into cooking oil for local sale and household consumption.
Access for Agricultural Inputs
Market linkages for inputs were created between commercial seed suppliers, wholesalers, local agro-dealers and the farmers using the agro dealership vouchers. Commercial seed suppliers such as Pannar and Seed Co are directly subcontracting wholesalers (Farm and City, Feya Feya) and local agro-dealers to continue supply inputs to smallholder farmers in Guruve District even beyond the project cycle. Through the project, 2 032 smallholder farmers benefitted directly whilst 23 306 smallholder farmers benefitted indirectly through access to a wide range of locally available agricultural inputs such as seed, fertilizers, and agro-chemicals.
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Building partnerships
On building effective partnerships, the MLRP has partnered directly with specific private sector companies and government in the provision of capacity building trainings to extension agents such as AGRITEX and Veterinary Services
who will in turn train other smallholder farmers. Use of the agro-dealership voucher scheme has also managed to create partnerships between the smallholder farmers, agro-dealers and commercial input suppliers. Market linkages for
Agro-Processing
The project supported local farmers and increased incomes of at least 300 rural households through expansion of agro-processing initiatives. Farmers were assisted with inputs such as sunflower, seed, ground nuts seeds, basal fertilizers and expertise on how to commercially produce the crops so as to ensure continued supply. Farmers are now able to process sunflower seeds into cooking oil, groundnut seeds into peanut butter and fresh vegetables into dried vegetables that could be stored and used throughout the year. These
final products are used for own consumption and improve on nutrition or sold for cash. Communities also formed some agro-processing micro–enterprises for processing sunflower into oil and groundnuts into peanut butter.. To ensure the sustainability and viability of these enterprises the project also embarked on building the capacity of the groups with training in business management, marketing, group management and operations and maintenance of machines.
Access to Finance
Communities are now able to save money and lend one another through voluntary savings and lending schemes that were established by the project. To present established
groups have served a total of US$30,000.00 where members can borrow from at an agreed interest rate and these groups are now self-managing.
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Success Stories One
Gaven Chapasuka, one of the beneficiaries and chairperson of an oil processing enterprise commented on the impact created by the project in his life, “The project has helped me to take sunflower seriously and improved my skills on producing and processing the crop. I am now able to pay school fees for my children. My family used to buy six litres of cooking oil per month but now we are able to process our own cooking oil”. From the proceeds of current oil processing machine Gaven hopes to be able to purchase another machine. He feels that oil processing is already stimulating commercialization of indigenous poultry and piggery production because they use sunflower cake which is high in nutrients for feeding animals
Two
Isaih Makoshore aged 40 is one of the lead farmers who has benefited from the indigenous poultry project. He has a model fowl run for other farmers to copy from and also transfer information on veterinary diseases and the use of poultry droppings to feed cattle. Expressing his appreciation for the newly acquired knowledge for poultry production and the pass on scheme, Isaih acknowledge benefits from the inter dependencies of the various projects where for instance waste from oil processing is used to feed poultry and in turn poultry droppings are used in feed mixtures for cattle and goats.
Three
Feriyadi Ngoroma, the Agritex Extension Officer for village 1 confirmed, “The farmers have been able to successfully diversify and plant other crops and vegetables which they have traditionally never grown. In the garden, the norm was tomatoes and rape, but now farmers are growing vegetables like beetroot, carrots, onions and cabbages for sale. Each farmer earns around $40.00 a month from sales of garden produce and this enables them to pay school fees, buy food and other consumables. Improved knowledge on vegetable drying was also imparted to the groups. Local supermarkets are now buying dried vegetables (mufushwa) particularly if it is processed and dried hygienically and well packaged.
outputs have also created better relationships between the smallholder farmers and buyers for their produce. The project is also collaborating with local NGOs (e.g. LGDA, FACHIG and SAT) and government departments (e.g.
Ministry of Youth, Empowerment and Indigenization) in the provision of conservation farming practices and gender/ Aids mainstreaming activities.
Key emerging lessons
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The duration of the project was short and it had multiple interventions that had to be completed within 18 months and as such the project didn’t have meaningful impact.•
The process of developing a market system that works for smallholder farmers takes time. The smallholder farmers need to be established first so that they can have the ability to bulk on their own and have a collective voice. This is a process on its own which requires time investment of not less than a month.•
Getting a commercial private sector players interested in dealing with smallholder farmers distant from the major market (Harare for instance) was a challenge. These commercial players were mainly interested in moving volumes for example 30tonnes. Other options such as decentralised buying points were pursued and agreed with one of the companies-Produtrade.18
Aim3: Access to Infrastructure Services
Objectives:
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Poor people in isolated rural communities have greater social and economic opportunities as a result of improved infrastructure services.•
Poor women, children and men in slums or peri-urban settlements have a better living environment leading to a secure tenure, increased assets and incomes•
Poor women, children and men are less at risk of diseases and disasters, as a result of improved housing and servicesDuring 2011-2012, the following projects addressed the Access to Infrastructure Services objective: a. Promoting Examples of Participatory Local Empowerment in Urban Planning (PEOPLE UP)
b. Catalysing Modern Energy Service Delivery to marginal Communities in Southern Africa with the objective of improving access to modern energy services and increase uptake of renewable energy technologies in poor rural areas of Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe
c. Rural Sustainable Energy Development (OXFAM) with an objective of increasing access to modern, affordable and sustainable renewable energy services for the rural population in Zimbabwe
Catalysing Modern Energy Service Delivery to marginal
Communities in Southern Africa (Regional Hydro)
Practical Action is implementing the Catalysing Modern Energy Service Delivery to Marginal Communities in Southern Africa (Regional Hydro) project. The project seeks to improve energy access through community
managed decentralized micro hydro systems focused on poor marginalized rural communities. The project is being implemented in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
New Micro Hydro Schemes and Rehabilitation of Existing Schemes
To accommodate realities on the ground the physical number of the schemes was reduced to 11. The cumulative total number of the schemes to date that have been completed is xx against a total of 11 which represents a
total percentage of xx%. The name of schemes, activity description and expected date of completion are given in table below.
Progress on schemes in Zimbabwe
Name (Capacity) Location Ownership Model Beneficiaries
Nyafaru (20 kW) Nyanga, District Community: School
Development Association 6000
Dazi (20kW) Nyanga District Community 1000
Nyamwanga (30kW) Mutasa District Towe Community Cooperative 3 800
Ngarura (20 kW) Mutasa, Zimbabwe Community 5500
Hlabiso (30 kW) Chimanimani, Zimbabwe Community 3800
Chipendeke (25kW) Mutare, Zimbabwe Community 4000
The total number of schemes that were completed in Zimbabwe is 3 and the remaining 3 will be completed during year five. Community ownership model is common in Zimbabwe has been witnessed in 5 of the six schemes
with only one scheme opting for a cooperative model. To date the completed schemes have been managed and operated by the communities without notable challenges.
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Name (Name) Location Ownership Target Beneficiaries
Bondo (88 kW) Mulanje Community 15,000
In Mozambique, unlike in the other countries, had several schemes operated and managed by the communities in the district of Manica before the project implementation. Therefore it was quite easy to identify schemes for rehabilitation. Three of the four schemes in Mozambique are rehabilitation schemes. All the schemes unlike in Zimbabwe and Malawi are individually owned by a community member.
After Bondo, the only scheme in Malawi, is at its testing stage and is expected to reach out to more beneficiaries than any other scheme in the project. Unlike in other project areas, the linear settlement pattern makes the scheme reach more direct beneficiaries through household connections.
Communities and stakeholders mobilization
Mobilisation of communities and relevant stakeholders has been achieved through providing necessary training of communities such as Training for Transformation and Leadership. Other stakeholders have been mobilised through exhibitions at Trade Fairs and Agricultural shows where the project has been participating consistently over the project period. Various stakeholders have managed to follow up on the micro hydro project work after the fairs. In Mozambique the project engaged Rural Electrification Agency (FUNAE) with a view to contributing towards their rural electrification plans. The partnership is strategic as it tries to unlock additional resources for the upscaling of the project. The project has also collaborated with GIZ Ames and Kwayedza Simukai Manica in identifying the three new sites. At Chitunga in Mozambique, the Department of Energy has requested Practical Action to try out a Community Energy Centre concept which they have seen working in places like Kenya. The concept is interesting and helps Practical Action schemes achieve break-even point quicker and also assists in reaching more communities. New partnerships with DFID and the POWERFUL Group have been formed with the aim of developing a long term business strategy for the deployment of renewable energy in the Mulanje region. The development is underway and fundraising is being carried out for the development of new sites. The strategy will lead to the formation of a community owned entity called Mulanje Energy Generation Agency (MEGA) as the proposed board to oversee the business and financial issues of power generation around the mountain. Private companies have also been involved through, the local tea growers, Lunjeri Estates and Eastern Produce. The two estates have provided support through transport assistance, construction of the powerhouse as well as technical support for setting up electro-mechanical equipment for the powerhouse.
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Strengthening of Existing Community Institutions
Community exchange visitsCommunities from Nyamwanga were taken to Chipendeke to learn about the project. This acted as motive to help speed implementation work on their project. Technical staff from FUNAE visited Manica in Mozambique and met
with the communities at Chitunga and Ndiriri were they exchanged experiences in the design, construction and provision of energy services to households.
Participatory Action Planning
At partner level the project held action planning and review meetings on a monthly basis. In addition monitoring visits were made to assess progress. At community level, planning meetings for feasibility studies were carried out in partnership with the communities, Practical Action
(Zimbabwe), MMCT (Malawi), KSM (Mozambique) and project stakeholders that included energy ministries, water departments and local authorities. Using participatory approaches with the communities, technical layout and design of schemes were carried out.
Country National Databases of Micro hydro Potential
One database for Chimanimani district was completed with the assistance of the Ministry of Energy and Power Development and the National Water Authority in Zimbabwe and negotiations are in progress for the other three districts. The project is engaging Rural Electrification Agency as well as Universities that include Midlands State
University, National University of Science and Technology, Chinhoyi University of technology and the University of Zimbabwe and relevant government departments in doing feasibility studies for the remaining three districts as a way of capacitating them. This will be concluded in 2012.
Stakeholders Investing in Micro Hydro Power Systems
Practical Action has managed to attract interest from various stakeholders in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The Rural Electrification Agency of Zimbabwe (REA) in its five year strategic plan for 2011 - 2015 has budgeted for the development of small hydro schemes in rural areas of Zimbabwe. Conlog, a South African company which manufactures prepaid meters will install prepaid meters for Bondo MHS as well as at least one MHS in Mozambique. The rural electrification agency in Mozambique, FUNAE, has shown particular interest in working with Practical Action in expanding work for decentralised energy systems
like micro hydro in Mozambique. A lot of deliberations are in progress to partner FUNAE to expand their mandate from grid electricity extension to decentralised energy systems like micro and mini hydro systems.
Practical Action Southern Africa also capacitated GIZ AMES Mozambique during an exchange visit in March to learn how the prepaid system is applied in rural micro hydro power schemes with the intention to introduce the same in Manica Province, Mozambique. This partnership has been going on as part of the MoU which was signed between Practical Action and GIZ in 2009.
Policy Dissemination Workshop
Two policy dissemination workshops were attended in Brussels and Lilongwe Malawi. Practical Action participated in the workshop by EU entitled International Cooperation Projects in Support to Research and Innovation Policies and Competence Building: Good practices, lessons learned and synergies with other programmes, Brussels, 16-17
June 2011. The other workshop was on Advancing mutual understanding of renewable and solar energy research and their supporting policy frameworks in Europe and the Southern Africa Development Community held in Lilongwe from 20th to 22nd September 2011.
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Lessons Learnt
The emerging lessons from the project have provided critical questions in how delivery of energy access for the poor could potentially be achieved. The project has developed tools for the economic appraisal of the project and also for the technical design of the microhydro projects. In this section we highlight some of the key questions and some of the answers to them.
1. Does having productive end uses for energy help to make energy services more financially sustainable? There is evidence among the poor communities (micro hydro project areas) that providing energy without productive end use of the service compromises the system financial viability. The opposite might not necessarily be true. Naturally there are operation and maintenance costs and often in the absence of payment for those services the system will naturally die. Also providing services for meeting basic requirements need a backup of ability to pay and often in rural communities’ livelihoods options is not diverse making it difficult to get extra income to pay for energy services. Other factors are needed that include the ability and willingness to pay. 2. Are subsidies what is needed to reach the poorest energy users, in micro hydro projects?
What are needed are targeted subsidies for the poor that do not distort market systems. All rural electrification projects in the sub Saharan Africa are based on some form of subsidy, thus there is a recognition that basic infrastructure has to be in place before economic growth is fully realized. Although subsidies tend to encourage dependency syndrome among the communities and limit their financial management and fundraising capacity, it has been demonstrated that provision of energy to rural communities or the poor urban is not economically viable due to among other factors geographic spread, low incomes etc. Subsidies will be required to stimulate the market in some instances (e.g. capital subsidies of small hydro power through grants). To reach the poor capital subsidies are easily extended to the poor through the provision of services to schools, clinics and business centres, or irrigation facilities. At Chipendeke micro-hydro scheme, the local clinic having been a beneficiary of a grant facility, has now been able to extend its reach to the population beyond its former boundaries and vaccines are now readily available as people no longer have to travel long distances to towns 100km away in search of treatment. In Zimbabwe Practical Action and the Rural Energy Agency have formed a partnership to work together to develop appropriate technology options for reaching out the poor. Prepayment facility as enabled communities to pay for the amount of electricity they can afford at a time.
3. Does a uniform financing model for communally managed micro hydro work across the board?
Different models have been realised in the regional micro schemes in which each scheme showcases different ownership models. For example, in Mozambique an individual ownership model is more viable because the communities believe communally owned development projects do not ensure sustainability. In Zimbabwe, there are different cases that the project has proved; the shareholder model in Chipendeke, where contributors of labour automatically become owners through a shareholder structure, and the institutionally managed systems in Nyafaru Micro Hydro Scheme and Dazi micro-hydro schemes. Pre-paid system versus the fixed rate, in which pre-paid system proves more viable and more sustainable where a consumer pays for what they use rather than a flat fee which may not reflect the actual number of units used. Therefore pre-paid tariff systems may be used across the board because of their sustainability but other models can be different depending on culture and tradition as evidenced in the project.
