CELUCT was founded in the 1990s by community members as an answer to environmental degradation in the area, especially drying up of water sources. Landscape management has therefore been the backbone of our organization for many years and the positive changes around Chikukwa are evidence of the success of this engagement. CELUCT commits to community-led project execution not as an innovation but as a success factor. As environmental factors can easily trigger conflict among people CELUCT aims to capacity build our decentralized local community structures, like the Ward Peace Teams on environmental peacebuilding in order to execute the project so that it promotes social justice as well. CELUCT has so far rarely recorded comparable activities in a professional manner. Our sustainable agriculture program officer Mr. Zeddy M. Chikukwa is a trained photo and videographer. It is therefore a chance for CELUCT to create innovative public relations and documentation material as the project offers space for this. This material may also be used online through the website for the project. Chikukwa has not yet witnessed a community-led disaster risk assessment and community-led planning of respective strategies and counter measures. In the past years CELUCT has not been able to distribute awareness raising and PR materials like T-Shirts. Using these materials mean new avenues for our communication with the communities. As mentioned before, CELUCT aims to start another project that thematically overlaps with the GEF small-grants programme. This project is innovative as it aims to create inter-generational farmer to farmer knowledge sharing, targeting youth and specifically young females as beneficiaries, yet making use of thematic traditional knowledge on agro ecology as well as from legitimizing empowerment of women and youths through the elders who are well respected in the communities. This project also aims to create avenues for personal growth for young women through an income generation component in farming. Traditional Rapoko is sought to substitute for maize being the current basis for the local staple food, as Rapoko promises better nutrients as well as better yields in the face of climate change.

Especially in a traditional society like in Chikukwa it is difficult for the voices of the young generation to be heard. They therefore feel excluded and miss chances for development and growth. CELUCT over the years has established Ward Peace Teams all over Chimanimani district, in which youths play a very vital part of this type of bottom-up civil society engagement. These groups empower community members, especially women and youths by letting their voices be heard and linking them with traditional governance structures, like the chief or the village heads. These Ward Peace Teams can be used as structures to mobilize participants for project execution as well as actively taking part themselves. These groups can utilize their gained knowledge from CELUCT capacity building in the areas of Environmental Peacebuilding, Gender Equality as well as monitoring and evaluation, to become a pillar in project execution. Roles of the Youth Project planning, execution (cultivation and planting of trees, training of other community members, gulley reclamation, construction of gabions), monitoring, evaluation. Youth Constraints As the society disadvantages youths by overhearing their needs and challenges, youths then tend to be less motivated in regard to taking action in any efforts to foster the development of society. Youth are not used to participating in decision making. They feel intimidated through cultural factors that tend to make them remain quiet towards the elder. Strategies to Address youth constraints Using our success model of Ward Peace Teams and the system of youth representatives as a template, CELUCT seeks to promote youth leadership in the project planning and execution. We also seek to promote youths by letting them grow networks that can help them way beyond the scope of this project.

Men As most men in Chikukwa lands are (subsistence) farmers, it needs to be guaranteed that project activities and their engagement shall not interrupt their livelihood activities. Women Women are disadvantaged in regard to owning land. Yet they are commonly in charge of managing the land of the husband, growing crops etc. and not in a position to design the land according to their ideas. This reduces chances of more sustainable land management also in regard to more climate change related mitigation and adaption efforts. Making women a vital pillar of this project gives them space to be an active part in fostering community-led activities in sustainable landscape management and working towards climate change resilience. Women are structurally discriminated as described above. It is therefore vital to invest in recruitment and mobilization efforts to specifically tackle women to become volunteers in this project. CELUCT aims at having an equal ratio of women and men in the project. This counts for participation in workshops and trainings, cultivation of trees in nurseries and afforestation and landscape rehabilitation activities. As mentioned above CELUCT understands Gender Equality as a cross-cutting theme, which should be paid attention to in all projects that are implemented. In order to spread messages of gender equality and women empowerment during the project execution, CELUCT has appointed one staff, namely Cathreen Chikanya, Child Protection Program Officer, to act as gender focal person and give inputs on this topic during activities. CELUCT understands that in regard to women empowerment it is not only them to be targeted, but men alike have to be addressed in sensitization efforts. Men: Project planning, execution (gulley reclamation, construction of gabions, cultivation and planting of trees, training of other community members), monitoring, evaluation Women: Project planning, execution (cultivation and planting of trees, training of other community members, gulley reclamation, construction of gabions), monitoring, evaluation Addressing Constraints Men: As the vast majority of Chikukwa citizens rely on farming activities, for men and women alike their availability during planting and harvest times have to be taken into consideration. Women Women are generally given more tasks and responsibilities than men in regard to work, household and childcare and thus have considerably less free time to engage in other activities, like volunteering in this project, as can be seen in SGP Country Programme Strategy for Operational Phase 7, figure 3, p.16. It is also seen as an impediment that in the name of culture and tradition women tend to be excluded from decision making processes. Men: Time of planting and harvesting seasons will be taken into account in order to guarantee availability of men who are mostly farmers. Women: As women are less available than men there is need for intensified mobilization efforts in regard to women. Promoting women?s voices in decision-making Targeting women as specific beneficiaries by increasing awareness of the roles of women in sustainable management and use of natural resources. Enhancing capacities of women through trainings, workshops, peer to peer learning covering all multifaceted aspects of the project along the lines of agro ecology practices, conflict mediation and peace building and gender equality. Men Capacity building in civil society engagement Capacity building in sustainable land management and agro Ecology practices like landscape design and rehabilitation; gulley reclamation, control of veld fires and tree planting and forest management; as well as environmental peacebuilding, gender equality and inclusion All beneficiaries of this project benefit in various ways and on various levels. The knowledge gained and applied during project implementation as described in the central column will let men benefit beyond the time of the project. CELUCT seeks to work towards changes in men?s attitudes on women and youth and other minority groups. As the centerpiece of this project is to reverse land degradation through landscape management and in doing so to foster resilience towards climate change dynamics as well as natural disasters, all men of the Chikukwa community will benefit from the projects impact. Women Capacity building in civil society engagement Capacity building in sustainable land management and agro Ecology practices like landscape design and rehabilitation; gulley reclamation, control of veld fires and tree planting and forest management; as well as environmental peacebuilding, inclusion Gender equality is forged here through putting it into practice The knowledge gained and applied during project implementation as described in the central column will let women benefit beyond the time of the project. Compared to men, women shall benefit from having made the experience of being part and parcel of a community-led socio-environmental development project despite the structural discriminations that culture imposes on them. This shall boost their confidence and allow them to drive for individual change as well as on societal level. As the centerpiece of this project is to reverse land degradation through landscape management and in doing so to foster resilience towards climate change dynamics as well as natural disasters, all women of the Chikukwa community will benefit from the projects impact.

N/A

The project objective (ii) aims ?to create livelihood opportunities for 100 beneficiaries through dissemination of market oriented Agro Ecology practices and providing income opportunities for the selected community nurseries; as well as employing 5 attachés for project execution.? Specifically, the 60 men and 40 women that are targeted to be volunteering in the nurseries as well as project implementation, especially in regard to the afforestation and landscape rehabilitation days, will be capacity build in the areas of tree and plant propagation, sustainable agro ecology practices, value addition in agriculture and access to markets. The volunteers will therefore benefit beyond the scope of the project as they will be able to venture into their own farming activities through the knowledge and skills they have gained. In order to create livelihood opportunities for the community, the cultivated trees shall be bought from the two nurseries at a symbolic amount of one dollar per tree. The project committee shall decide how to use the income generated through these project activities in order to interconnect the project?s sustainability beyond the scope of 2 years and livelihood opportunities for the beneficiaries. The five attaches will be given a symbolic income of 50$ per month. We see this as an effort to promote youth, as this income opportunity will improve their livelihoods. If ? e.g. due to delays in the project nurseries ? some of the 25,000 trees that are needed have to be purchased from other local farmers, this will improve their livelihoods as it creates income among the socio-economically marginalized people in Chikukwa. As highlighted above, CELUCT seeks to mainstream certain areas like women empowerment and inclusion and thus make them part of every intervention. Awareness raising among all community members and empowerment workshops with minority groups aim to create empowerment beyond the scope of the project through capacity building in the above mentioned areas. Outcomes of increases confidence and participation in civil society and commercial activities may arise and transform local society as a long term impact.

the local communities for urgent need to engage in efforts to foster climate change- and disaster risk resilience. In order to discuss the arising needs in regard to the concurrent dynamics a meeting with community representatives was held. The representatives responded in unison there is need for landscape rehabilitation and reversal of degraded sites, especially through afforestation and landscape management. The insights generated through the discussions and the questionnaires were used in designing the project idea in order to guarantee for community ownership as well as finding the right responses to people?s needs. The main activities of the project deal with activities of landscape rehabilitation and redesign. All these activities will be carried out by volunteers from the 2 villages of Rujeko and Kubatana. The CELUCT Sustainable Agriculture department will train and guide them during implementation. As the pre-implementation community consultation process has also brought to light a clear wish to include women, youths and PWD in the project, CELUCT will assure their further consultation and active involvement in the project, not limited to the above mentioned main activities, but also in radio appearances and photo- and video graphic documentation, in order for their voices to be heard and taken into account. They will also participate in disaster risk mitigation planning meetings. Trainings of Environmental Peacebuilding will also apply Do-No-Harm and Leave-No-One-Behind approaches to mitigate risks around socio-environmental challenges that are relevant in the project execution.