Chronicle Editor
Nqobile Tshili, [email protected]
THE Zimbabwe Livelihood Assessment Committee (ZimLAC) has started conducting the rural livelihood assessment exercise which will help determine humanitarian and developmental needs for the communities.
Formerly named the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (Zimvac), ZimLAC started the assessment exercise on Saturday, May 4, and will conclude the programme on May 18.
ZimLAC is a consortium of Government, UN agencies, NGOs and other International Organisations led and regulated by the Government and falls under the Food and Nutrition Council (FNC), a department in the Office of the President and Cabinet.
In a statement, Food and Nutrition Council Deputy Director Mr Innocent Mangwiro said the ongoing programme is critical in shaping the country’s policy formulation.
“ZimLAC has the mandate to generate information on livelihoods and other related socio-economic factors. The information is used for policy formulation and programming by the Government and its development partners,” he said.
“Since its inception in 2001, ZimLAC has conducted 11 urban and 23 rural livelihoods assessments, and this being the 24th.”
“The overall purpose of the assessment is to provide an annual update on livelihoods in Zimbabwe’s rural areas, to inform policy formulation and programming appropriate interventions.”
Mr Mangwiro said part of the objectives of the assessment include estimating the rural population that is likely to be food insecure in the 2024/2025 consumption year, their geographic distribution, and the severity of their food insecurity.
He said they will also be assessing the nutritional status of children of 6 – 59 months and 5 to 19 years and adults of all age groups.
Mr Mangwiro said the exercise would describe the socio-economic profiles of rural households in terms of their demographics, access to basic services (education, health services and water, sanitation and hygiene services), assets, income sources, urban agriculture, incomes and expenditure patterns, food consumption patterns and consumption coping strategies.
He said the assessment exercise will also determine the coverage of humanitarian and developmental interventions.
“Profile rural livelihoods, measure resilience and identify constraints faced by households to improve their resilience, determine the effects of shocks experienced by communities on food and nutrition security and identify development priorities for communities,” said Mr Mangwiro.
He said the exercise will be grassroots based and chiefs will constitute part of the key respondents.
In February, ZimLAC conducted an urban livelihood assessment exercise whose results are yet to be released.
-@nqotshili
Online Reporter