General

To prevent child malnutrition in Kalomba health zone, DRC, Kasaï Central, during 2017-2020, through water and sanitation, nutrition and support to livelihoods, and by mainstreaming gender and environment. Linked to a previous humanitarian support in 2014-2017.

Objectives

For more than 20 years, the security situation in the DRC has led to a multitude of successive new crises, the severity and scope of which have increased over time. This ongoing crisis has caused immeasurable human and material damage, plunging a large part of the population into a situation of extreme vulnerability. In this context, the Kalomba health zone, in Kasai Central province, experienced a massive population displacement, a significant number of protection incidents, and the destruction of socio-economic infrastructure and livelihoods. The factors aggravating the impact of food and nutrition insecurity in Kazumba Territory include: socio-economic vulnerability, new armed conflicts between armed groups and the absence of a cessation of hostilities agreement, the limited capacity of state security services to provide protection to the population, impunity and the weakness of the legal system, inter-community, customary and identity-based tensions, and land conflicts. The causes of vulnerability to food insecurity and malnutrition are complex and multidimensional. They are linked to a set of intertwined factors, such as poverty, health, hygiene, access to basic social services, eating habits, socio-cultural norms, the level of knowledge of improved agricultural techniques, the weakness of production, access to markets, as well as climatic hazards and other recurrent shocks, which result in a large number of people being in a state of quasi-permanent fragility. ACF's project objective is to sustainably strengthen nutrition security and resilience to malnutrition in communities and health system in Kalomba Health Zone in Kasaï Central province in DRC, from April 2017 to December 2020, through a gender-sensitive, community-based approach. The project is articulated along two axis: the health system and the community. It includes three result areas: (1) Structural strengthening of the integrated health system for sustainable service delivery; (2) Strengthened capacity of health personnel for outreach and sensitization through a gender-sensitive approach to nutrition security; and (3) Improved household nutritional security through gender-sensitive behavior change, access to safe water and livelihood support Given that malnutrition and WASH often correlate, the project includes substantial WASH related activities both in communities (according to the so-called "community-led total sanitation" approach) and in health facilities.

General

The Swedish Embassy issued a call for proposals on Sustainable Use of Natural Resources with focus on the Agricultural sector. The call was issued in recognition of the fact that agriculture is one of the most important sectors in the economy of Zambia and apart from contributing to, is also highly affected by environmental degradation. SNV submitted a proposal to implement a project called "Sustainable Integrated Land Management Solutions (SILMS)" at a cost of 39 508 017 SEK in Lundazi and Katete districts of the Eastern Province of Zambia for the period 2015 to 2018. The Project proposes a market based approach. SNV views the proposed market approach, and rightly so, as key to the success and sustainability of the project which aims to incentivise smallholders to adopt sustainable production practices through increased income generation. At the same time the approach enables small holders to increase their production in a sustainable manner through increased access to modern farm inputs; extension services; finance and markets. The increased income will incentivise small holder farmers to adopt integrated soil fertility management, agro forestry and deforestation-free production. The increased availability of market-based services enables them to continue to use these sustainable land management practices even after the end of the Project. An overview of results expected from this intervention include: 1. 15,000 Small holder farmers improve productivity using ISFM and Agro forestry practices through increased access to inputs and extension services 2. 20,000 Small holders have increased access to markets and finance to support and sustain their adoption of ISFM and Agro forestry practices 3. Deforestation and damage to land from uncontrolled agricultural expansion in Lundazi and Katete Districts is reduced by 15% 4. The development of nationwide frameworks of practice that will enable wide spread adoption of ISFM and agro forestry practices and replication of the deforestation free supply chain model to other commodities is supported SNV will be the implementer of the project and will manage the grant and oversee the project’s implementation. The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) will be sub-contracted to provide technical expertise to the project. The total budget for technical assistance that will be subcontracted to SEI over the three year period is 304,428 Euro. The budget for ICRAF for technical assistance is 146,130 Euro.

General

This contribution consisted of hiring specialized expertise to carry out the final evaluation of the Land Administration programme GESTERRA implemented by DINAT (the 'Direcção Nacional de Terras), the National Land Registry in Mozambique.