Harare, Zimbabwe (October 21, 2020) – USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance announced a $55 million program with the global poverty-fighting organization, CARE, to increase on-farm and off-farm incomes, improve nutrition, and work with women, men, girls and boys to build resilience to shocks and stressors. The program, called Takunda, which means “we have overcome” in Shona, will reach out to more than 300,000 participants with training and support for sustainable, equitable, nutritious and resilient food and income security in the Masvingo and Manicaland Provinces. The program builds on decades of work between USAID and CARE across many countries to save lives, promote food and nutrition security, empower women, and improve gender equity.
CARE will work to address gender inequality with tailored interventions to address specific barriers and constraints experienced differently by women, girls, men, and boys of various ages, life stages, and socioeconomic status. CARE will apply its Gender Equality and Women’s Voice Framework to implement interventions that engage both men and women to empower women and adolescent girls by: increasing their autonomy; improving structures that influence gender power dynamics; equalizing relationships historically reinforced by long-standing social norms and beliefs. This will take place in Zimbabwe using community visioning approaches that put community aspirations, needs, and voice at the center of all of Takunda’s objectives and interventions. The program will work closely with local authorities and the government of Zimbabwe to improve maternal and child health, nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene, climate change adaptation, and gender equality.
Takunda will also focus on improving incomes from on-farm and off-farm activities through integrated pathways, including: enrollment in CARE’s Village Savings and Loan Associations; increased adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices; improved technical and vocational skills through Technical and Vocational Education and Training. Takunda will also train farmers in Farmer Field and Business Schools on topics, such as climate-smart and nutrition-sensitive agriculture, and work with agro-dealers and farmers to ensure the availability and use of essential agricultural inputs. To build long-term program sustainability, the program will enhance the capacities of key actors to strengthen the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of agricultural extension services.
“As an organization committed to ending poverty and empowering women, CARE recognizes the power of everyday people to determine their own futures. With support from the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance, women can transform communities to secure their livelihoods, prevent hunger and malnutrition, and develop resilience to shocks,” said Jan Schollaert, CARE Zimbabwe’s Country Director. Takunda is a consortium led by CARE in partnership with International Youth Foundation, FHI 360, and three Zimbabwean NGO partners: Bulawayo Projects Centre, Nutrition Action Zimbabwe, and Environment Africa.
About CARE
Founded in 1945 through the creation of the CARE Package®, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE places special focus on working alongside women and girls because, equipped with the proper resources, they have the power to lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty. That is why women and girls are at the heart of CARE’s community-based efforts to confront hunger, ensure nutrition and food security for all, improve education and health, create economic opportunities and respond to emergencies. In 2019, CARE worked in 100 countries and reached 70 million people around the world through 1,000 programs.