By Tendai Chisiri
Southern Africa region has been generally not frequented by disaster until the past 10 years where droughts, floods and cyclones are becoming a great concern.
Droughts, floods,epidemic, pandemics,cyclones and road traffic accidents are some of the common hazards in Zimbabwe.The three main interlocking shocks driving humanitarian needs in Zimbabwe are climatic shocks,economic challenges and the Covid-19 pandemic with its containment measure
.
In Zimbabwe, the economy has been underperforming for a while thereby increasing urban poverty.
Action Aid Zimbabwe (AAZ) launched its Strategic Partnership Agreement SPA2 in the capital Thursday last week . The inception workshop follows SPA1 which started in 2018 and ended in 2021.
AAZ country director Joy Mabenge, at the launch said under the first Strategic Partnership Agreement in partnership with NAYO,ZIMCODD, Citizens Manifesto and WLSA funded by Danida, they had been implementing a four – year Youth Organizing in Leadership (YoL) project.
They were focusing on strengthening youth participation in civil, democratic and governance processes for improved state accountability redistribution of resources and improved youth responsive public services.
“To achieve this, the project’s theory of change was anchored on the belief that, when youth are capacitated, they are able to form a critical mass of coordinated youth activists to collectively engage with duty bearers, claim their rights to be included in decision making, demand for youth responsive public services and to influence local and national government policy and practices to address their needs”, he said.
Under SPA1, AAZ reached 61 465 90 youths through mainstream media and online. A total of 450 585 was reached through various face to face engagements. SPA2 project scheduled to run from 2022 to 2024 follows the main principles of the first generation of the Strategic Partnerships, under SPA1.
The new SPA2 frame work has been adopted to be inline with lessons learned from the previous partnerships and new strategic development priorities, with a focus on democratic values and human rights, to support and strengthen democracy, human rights, independent civil societies and labour market frame work conditions among other prioritises”, said Mabenge.
The project mainly focuses on young people especially women and marginalised people to enjoy fundamental right, enjoy improved sustainable livelihoods
and are resilient to shocks and enjoy their right to protection in fragile situations, disasters and protracted.
AAZ has various projects running in different districts, Binga, Chimanimani, Chipinge and Mutare and in particular Binga and Mbire, under the ZRBF project and Local Rights Programmes, to promoting resilient livelihoods, agroecology and climate smart agriculture practises as part of their work towards achieving resilient communities able to withstand shocks resulting from climate change.
Isaac Mumpande presented the position of the Humanitarian Crisis in Zimbabwe .” The research reveals that disasters have been killing more women than man , expose women and girls more to socio- economic and psychological suffering. In most disasters, more than 75% of the people affected and in need of humanitarian assistance are women and children”, he said.
The challenges faced by women and girls during disasters include sexual and gender- based violence psychosocial trauma, deterioration in sexual and reproductive health, early and forced marriages, trafficking, forced migration, insecure employment, increased poverty among other effects of disasters on women.
Rumbidzai Makoni elaborated on the issue titled Towards Systems Change for Economic and Climate Justice.
“Overall objectives is by 2025 young people know their role and are taking steps to influence an enabling environment for implementation tactics of feminist and green economic alternatives that will improve their livelihoods and resilience to climatic change induced shocks and stressed online with Sustainable Development Goals 2, 5, 8 and 13”, said Makoni.
News Sport Online 