Media
USAID Awards CNFA Five-Year Food for Peace Project in Zimbabwe
The program will work with more than 66,000 households and plans to cut food insecurity rates in half in targeted districts.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of Food for Peace has awarded CNFA a cooperative agreement, valued at $43 million, to implement the Amalima program over the course of five years in Zimbabwe. The project draws its name from the Ndebele word for the social contract by which families come together to help each other engage in productive activities such as land cultivation, livestock tending and their own development initiatives. The Amalima program will employ a community-led approach to sustainably improve household nutrition and food security through increased resilience and growth for more than 66,000 households in the targeted districts of Tsholotsho, Bulilima, Mangwe, and Gwanda. Amalima started program implementation on June 14, 2013.
The Amalima program will increase and diversify the incomes of vulnerable households by improving agricultural productivity, strengthening disaster risk reduction systems, and improving linkages to markets and financial services. It will also improve feeding and care practices for over 37,400 new mothers and children under the age of two, improve the dietary diversity and quality of foods consumed by the entire household, and support the integration of nutrition into health care service delivery.
“Through a combination of community-led and market-led approaches, the Amalima program aims to bring about equitable and sustainable change for communities,” said CNFA President and CEO John H. Costello. “CNFA is looking forward to building on our past programming in Zimbabwe and to implementing our first USAID Food for Peace program.”
CNFA will lead a skilled consortium of local and international partners, including Africare, IMC, The Manoff Group, ORAP, Dabane Trust, and AGMARK-Zimbabwe. Amalima will build upon CNFA’s experience working with agrodealers to build sustainable input supply systems, improving crop productivity and enhancing the resilience of livestock producers in arid and semi-arid environments.
###
About CNFA: CNFA, based in Washington, D.C., stimulates economic growth and improves rural livelihoods by empowering the private sector. CNFA’s unique approach is founded on six core capacities: 1) commercial input supply and farm services; 2) economic resilience and rapid recovery; 3) agricultural productivity, food security and nutrition; 4) value chain development; 5) volunteer technical assistance and 6) access to finance. CNFA has worked in over 38 countries worldwide and impacted the lives of more than 70 million people. For more information, visit cnfa.org.