Zimbabwe

Africa has witnessed various initiatives, programs, projects and investments aiming at poverty alleviation, agricultural sector strengthening, and rural income generation. Interventions such as agricultural training and technology adoption have shown promising results, boosting productivity and incomes among smallholder farmers. In Zimbabwe, the Ukama Ustawi (UU) initiative has spearheaded efforts to engage youth in agribusiness, fostering food security and social inclusion. This CGIAR Initiative on Diversification in East and Southern Africa aims to empower millions of vulnerable smallholder farmers to transition from maize-mixed systems to sustainably intensified, diversified, and de-risked agri-food systems. One of the research activities under this initiative is Work Package 5 (WP5): Empower and Engage Women and Youth in Agribusiness Ecosystems. Following landscaping study and dialogue in Zimbabwe and Malawi, UU plans to implement brief, impactful interventions intended to pilot or amplify existing youth agripreneurship interventions in both countries. The intervention will be implemented over a period of six months in Zimbabwe, and it will align with WP5.

Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of droughts in semi-arid regions. Small-scale water storage can help build drought resilience, particularly in rural areas with no access to formal water infrastructure. Sand dams, which store water by capturing water in sand-filled ephemeral rivers during the wet season, are one promising storage option. While emerging studies indicate tentative evidence of their benefits, the focus on resilience is under-addressed. This study evaluates the impact of sand dams on resilience to climate variability and changes through a participatory case study approach in the Shashe catchment, a semi-arid catchment shared by Botswana and Zimbabwe. Participatory research was conducted via site inspections, focus group discussions, and interviews at 20 sand dams utilized by 19 villages across the Zimbabwean portion of the Shashe catchment. The results show that sand dams significantly improved local water availability, most notably with a significant increase in the number of months per year that water could be collected from the dam site (mean = 6.5 months before, to mean = 10.9 months after construction, p lt; 0.05). This increase is also reflected in drought years (mean = 5.8 months before, to mean = 9.6 months after construction, p lt; 0.05). Sand dams also contribute to the adaptive capacity of communities via key benefits such as diversification of livelihood activities, improved health and hygiene, and reduced erosion in the surrounding area due to increased vegetation. In sum, the study demonstrates clear benefits to communities facing drought, supporting calls to elevate sand dams on the development agenda.

A NEXUS Gains transboundary river basin brief shares examples of the Initiative’s work across five work packages in the Incomati Basin and Limpopo Basin – specifically the Shashe sub-basin – covering Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

This policy brief was developed by the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System for Eastern and Southern Africa (ReSAKSS-ESA), which is facilitated by AKADEMIYA2063 and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), and Zimbabwe’s Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water, Climate, and Rural Development.