adminThupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has introduced community stabilisation intervention programmes in Beitbridge District, an official has said. IOM chief of Mission to Zimbabwe Martin Ocaga said yesterday the programme had been necessitated by an increase in cases of irregular migration within the district.
He said the project would be supported with block grants to improve community livelihood sources, education, health and development.
“The Beitbridge Community Based Planning programme will be piloted in Ward 2 (Dite) and in this regard, everyone in the ward will participate in the process of developing a ward level development plan which outlines the community’s development priorities, implementation strategies, review and monitoring mechanisms,” he said.
Ocaga said the organisation had in the past collaborated with the local government ministry at central, provincial and district levels to roll out CBP in 42 wards across 17 districts countrywide.
“This (CBP) programme will have a positive overall impact in Beitbridge. The main objective is to complement community identified development initiatives which strengthen their livelihoods and promote local development thereby reducing the push factors for irregular migration.
“The initiative will mobilise locally available resources and also seek to tap into diaspora remittances towards investment in local development. The district will also benefit from capacity building of district officials, ensuring that they have capacity to roll out CBP to other wards, “ said Ocaga.
He said in other communities where IOM has collaborated with local authorities in rolling out CBP processes, communities had built clinics, primary and secondary schools, improved water and health sanitation (WASH) infrastructure, dip tanks and vocational training centres among others.
“The net effect in those communities has been improved access to health and WASH, education, household nutrition and incomes,” he said.
Online Reporter