1.1 Project Summary
The project intervention proposed seeks to reverse land degradation in wards 9, 10, 11 and 14 of Zhombe through building the capacities of the community in Zhombe district to holistically manage their land, livestock and homestead. A variety of capacity building strategies, tools and approaches that promote community participation, gender equity and sustainable livelihoods towards reversal of land degradation. This project is premised on the fact that drought is an overriding factor in degradation of cultivated lands and rangelands in many parts of the country, as seen in communities such as Zhombe, impacting on plant cover, livestock numbers, as well as on personal wealth of rural people. Drought increases soil degradation which magnifies the effects of the disaster.

In Zhombe droughts have aggravated environmental degradation through ecosystem and climatic effects, including phenomena such as: deforestation; livestock overgrazing; soil erosion; wild fires; biodiversity loss; and water pollution. The social effects include reduced potable water supplies with negative health and sanitation consequences, especially for the vulnerable groups, and increased drudgery by women in collecting water for household consumption. These impacts have caught communities unaware and have resulted in crop damage, water shortage, and decreased soil fertility in some instances. These impacts of climate change have reduced the agricultural production levels of SHDF members, particularly in Zhombe, a known drought prone area which lies in Region III. Generally, drought-caused disasters are inform of reduced agricultural production emanating from crop failures and decline in livestock production, resulting in weakened food security conditions for millions. SHDF members in Zhombe depend on agriculture as a source of livelihood, they rely on rainfall for their agriculture and food production therefore the impacts of climate change are felt more severely.These communities are highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change because they have low adaptive capacity to cope with these impacts, hence the proposed intervention strategies.

The community in Zhombe draws its livelihoods from various agro-based initiatives e.g. farming, arts and crafts; and as such their economic base is hinged on the availability and quality of natural resources. In Zhombe East, ward 9, there is massive illegal gold panning taking place for the past 10 years. Land degradation continues to take its toll as the youth continue to pan for gold shunning farming due to erratic rainfall patterns. Gold panning has since attracted many youths from within and outside Zhombe, with a heavy devastating effect on the land hence the call for sanity by the affected communities. Request from the SHDF members in Zhombe recently has been for a holistic environment program that will see an improvement in the management of their natural resources especially land, the effective utilization of household assets such as livestock, the integration of household livelihoods and management issues. To this end, SHDF is proposing the following intervention that will equip community members in Zhombe with holistic land, livestock and homestead management skills. In addition the women will holdHomestead competitions to promote this enhanced environmental program. Leaders and innovators in the community will be identified, trained, exposed to other viable environmental projects and equipped to continuously champion holistic environmental management. To boost the sustainability of livelihoods a business development component that provides training in technical skills, business management and linking with formal high value markets will be incorporated. Participatory training, monitoring and evaluation methodologies will be adopted to increase project ownership by the community. Existing SHDF structures in the district will be used as entry points for project. It is envisaged that the project will cover4 wards in Zhombe with at least 600 people participating in the project.

Table 1: Participating villages

Name of ward Name of village Total membership Total women Total men Total youth
14 Senkwasi 100 50 30 20
10 Gwenzi 250 100 50 50
9 Zhombe East 140 50 20 70
11 Ntabeni/Ngigeni 160 100 30 30
GRAND TOTAL 650 300 130 170



1.2 Organizational Background and Capacity to implement the project
SHDF is an organization which works in the area of sustainable community development particularly in rural areas with a direct focus on building women?s capacities to become economically self-reliant. The organization was established in 1963 and has gone through continued re-focusing to remain relevant to its members and the operating environment. 80% of our members are in the rural areas, with 20% in the urban areas. Of the 20 000 club members, 97% are female. SHDF is operating in 20 districts nationally.

The core activities of SHDF include providing group development support to communities, promoting formation of community groups, training the leaders through mentoring, coaching, grooming. Other activities include promoting sustainable development through various capacity building initiatives such as business development services that include training in business management, technical skills and marketing. Promotion of organized farming activities, training of farmers on Faming as a Business, with emphasis on components like, Environment and Gender has helped to stimulate entrepreneurship development, environmental management, which reduce unemployment rate at the same time assisting women to earn income and engage in sustainable agricultural activities to sustain their families, increase food security thereby reducing poverty.

SHDF staff has received intensive training in Holistic Land and Livestock management by the Africa Centre for Holistic Management in Hwange district. This training equipped the staff members with knowledge and skills in ecological literacy, livestock management practices that promote reversal of land degradation, and use of ground cover to improve retention of rain water and eventual rehabilitation of water sources.

Social entrepreneurship by SHDF for rural communities is where through promotion of renewable energies ? i.e. selling of solar gadgets by rural women at a profit; promotion of fuel efficient stoves ? selling of these stoves by rural women at a profit.

The organization has a staff complement of 12 and is led by an Executive Director who reports to the Board. The project will be led by a team of 3 namely Project Manager ? responsible for oversight, contracting and reporting, quality control and monitoring and evaluation; Project Officer ? responsible for implementation of activities, community mobilization, leadership development, conducting of training, market linkages and the Finance and Administration Officer ? responsible for payments, accounting and financial reporting. A Field officer will assist on a part time basis.

SHDF has previously run a successful Environment Program supported by Konrad Adenauer Foundation that sought to equip women in rural districts how to utilize the natural resources found within their localities. This project resulted in the emergence of food processing businesses, sustainable arts and crafts, among others. SHDF has the requisite membership in communities, skilled and experienced staff, infrastructural resources such as vehicles and furnished offices and strong networks that affirm its capacity to support the proposed project.

However, SHDF has successfully invested in women in Zhombe district through training, imparting skills and information, also responding to the natural resource management needs of grassroots women; the significant technological changes in the management of the environment. It is expected that women trained by SHDF can use skills and knowledge learnt over the years in contributing meaningfully to environmental restoration.

The intended target groupsconsist of club members organized and registered in ward based clubs. They have distinct club names that are well structured, led by elected committees, whose operations are guided by binding constitutions. Each member pays annual subscriptions as a sign of commitment and allegiance to the group. The members have been trained in income generation. Attached is a copy of the membership details of a sample of the clubs in the 4 wards.

The projects the groups are currently implementing diversified activities like pen fattening, internal savings and lending, gardening, Homestead hygienic competitions(these have run for the past 20 years and other members from other provinces have since replicated it after undertaking some exchange visits), baking, gardening and craft work to mention a few. These groups have committees that coordinate Ward shows where they display or exhibit their products and winners proceed to District level shows. Because of this club management experience the members have capacity to implement proposed environmental resuscitation programs for they are intrinsically motivated to redress land degradation impacts. In 2010 Gwenzi clubs had planned to construct a crafts centre and meeting hall but due to land degradation. The women could not mould bricks since there soil required for this has been depleted by illegal brick moulders. Thatching grass was also a scarce natural resource yearly and thus the project failed. Grass and ilala required for craft work was also hard to come by and that lack alone motivates members to commit themselves to work towards restoration of the environment. Deforestation has impacted heavily on communities as they have to buy firewood from those who can go far in land to look for firewood making life very difficult. Therefore the inclusion of afforestation activities was thus proposed by the youth and women who are burdened by the responsibility of providing basic necessities at home, like firewood and water.

?PROBLEM STATEMENT OR CHALLENGE THE PROJECT INTENDS TO ADDRESS
Zhombe is a district in the Midlands province, approximately 70km from Kwekwe town and is prone to droughts more so given the prevalence of erratic rainfall. The area is in natural region III where rainfall is moderate. The main farming activities are maize and other cereal crops. The environment is now degraded and this has led to massive land degradation. A lot of Accacia (Thorny) trees are found in the area a sign of the environmental degradation prevailing in the district. This has a compound effect in that livestock do not have fodder; communities do not have access to firewood, indigenous fruits; soil condition is degrading continuously; water sources are drying up; all this has led to reduction in the quality of life of the community since their livelihoods have been heavily reliant on the natural resources around them. The absence of alternative energy sources, the income generating projects and savings clubs promoted by SHDF have not stopped this decay. There is therefore need to halt this rot before the livelihoods of the people of Zhombe are eroded completely. This proposal seeks to harness natural resources and maximizing their use for the benefit of the grassroots communities.

?RATIONALE/JUSTIFICATION OF THE PROJECT
The project is hinged on the ongoing SHDF programs in Zhombe to strengthen the capacity of households in Zhombe to holistically manage their natural resources in a manner that will improve their livelihoods and that allows for wider participation of the community (popular participation) in the process. The level of degradation of the environment in Zhombe is a great cause for concern since the agro-based livelihoods of the community are primarily based on it. In addition, SHDF members in Zhombe have started working on promoting good waste management practices through homestead development initiatives such as competitions. The project will help to strengthen and broaden the initiative to include more households and to incorporate other environmental practices at the household. The district action plan for Zhombe has a particular focus on environmental management to the extent that councilors must authorize potentially harmful operations such as sand excavation for building purposes and the like. To this end, the project seeks to complement these efforts by promoting restoration of natural resources through a holistic approach. SHDF staff has undergone training in holistic land and livestock management by Africa Centre for Holistic Management and therefore, the primary knowledge and skills are already available within the organization.


? OVERALL PROJECT GOAL/PRIMARY OBJECTIVE
1. To promote holistic land, livestock and homestead management for communities in Zhombe
2. To reverse land degradation through holistic land, livestock and homestead management for communities in Zhombe district

? SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
i.To build capacities of women in Zhombe to utilize renewable energies, recycle and reuse household waste
ii.To reduce environmental degradation in Zhombe through sustainable holistic management land and livestock management practices

OBJECTIVE 1:To build capacities of women in Zhombe to utilize renewable energies, recycle and reuse waste.
OBJECTIVE 2:To reduce environmental degradation through sustainable holistic land and livestock management practices.
Activities relating to objective 1
1.1 Training sessions in recycling and reuse of household waste which includes, from the field, kitchen, livestock droppings, etc.
1.2 Demonstrations in renewable energy alternatives
1.3Promotion of improved fuel efficient stoves
1.4 Conducting of competitions in management of household waste, environmental household practices such as establishment of orchards, water harvesting and re-use, homestead design to allow minimal land degradation, etc.

Activities relating to objective 2
2.1 Conducting ecological literacy sessions among households in Zhombe
2.2 Establishment of mobile kraals to reverse land degradation in crop fields at village level
2.3 Establishment of bee hives in villages as a source of livelihood and environmental restoration
2.4 Afforestation of communities through woodlots and community orchards
2.5 Promotion of conservation agriculture at village level
2.6 Mobilizing community innovators and leaders as promoters of holistic land, livestock and homestead management principles
2.7 Support stakeholders like Agritex officers to backstop the adoption of environmental restoration practices

Outputs (0-6months of completed activity)
1.1 Improved waste management practices at household level
Indicator: 50 households in each ward of households recycling and reusing waste
1.2 Adoption of solar ? powered gadgets, e.g. lights, radios
Indicator: 20 households in each ward using renewable energy
1.3Increased uptake of fuel efficient stoves
Indicator: 50 fuel efficient stoves fuel efficient stoves to be constructed.
1.4 Increased participation of community in environment restoration activities in homestead management practices
Indicator: 100 households reuse and recycle waste
2.1 Increased ecological literacy
Indicator: 30 households per each ward ecologically literate
2.2 Increased uptake of mobile kraals practice by the community
Indicator: 1 mobile kraal established in total
2.3 Increased uptake of bee keeping by the community
Indicator:1 bee hive establishment in total
2.4 enhanced afforestation activities in the community
Indicator: 1 community woodlot and orchards established
2.5 Enhanced conservation farming practices by the community
Indicator: 4 hectares of land to be restored
2.6 Improved uptake of holistic land and livestock practices in the community
Indicator: 12 promoters mobilized and trained
2.7 Enhanced sustainability of environmental restoration practices
Indicator: 4 extension officers equipped to backstop community in project activities

OUTCOMES
-Enhanced utilization of renewable energies and recycling and reusing of waste by women in Zhombe at household level
-Enhanced environmental management in Zhombe through adoption by the wider community and its leaders of sustainable holistic land, livestock and homestead management practices