Zimpapers Logo

Rumbidzayi Zinyuke
Senior Health Reporter

The Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee (ZimLAC) will this week begin the 2024 Urban Livelihoods Assessment which seeks to assess the challenges being faced by the urban population to influence the formulation of policies as well as interventions that can address these.

The assessment, which is coordinated by the Food and Nutrition Council (FNC), is key in coming up with estimates of the urban population that is likely to be food insecure in 2024, their geographic distribution and the severity of their food insecurity.

This is part of the Government’s effort to reduce food and nutrition insecurity, and poverty and improve livelihoods amongst the vulnerable populations in line with the National Development Strategy 1.

FNC director general Dr George Kembo said this year’s assessment would run from today until February 28 with the purpose of collecting data from 15 000 households from the country’s 10 provinces.

“When we undertake the urban livelihood assessment, we want to appreciate the challenges they face but also with the desire to take advantage of the opportunities that exist and feed into policy formulation for the betterment of the people of Zimbabwe.

He said the Urban Livelihoods Assessments done in the past had been instrumental in the shaping of some key interventions to challenges faced by the nation.

These include the establishment of borehole and irrigation strategies and the setting up of water response committees to address water shortages in communities.

“These urban assessments have been influential in guiding Government as it plans strategies that are aimed to improve people’s lives and more importantly, as it also looks at options and strategies to create employment opportunities, be it direct or informal, for people to earn a living and improve their access to food,” said Dr Kembo.

This year’s assessment has a bias towards a nutrition-based indicator, which reflects how the population’s access to a nutritious diet contributes to their improved livelihood.

It will also look to appreciate the existence of burdens such as non-communicable diseases, and disabilities among other challenges that the households face.

“We also have a desire to understand the expenditure patterns that the households are implementing and what could be the limitations or challenges within their expenditure lifestyle. We will also have an interest to understand the incomes that the households have at their disposal and appreciate whether these are direct income or income as a result of borrowing,” added Dr Kembo.

He said the Assessment would also focus on youth development as well as general development priorities.

“Youth are central to the Government’s desire to address urban livelihood so collecting data and synthesising their development priorities will also help to inform decision-makers on what programme and projects to prioritise,” he said.