| Overview : Project Title: Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) Project Description: The project rationale / background and the objectives of the project As a key partner in the Resilience debate in Zimbabwe, UNDP has in partnership with a number of donors and Government of Zimbabwe developed the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF). ZRBF strives to ensure that at risk, households, communities and systems anticipate, cushion, adapt, bounce back better and move on from the effects of shocks and hazards in a manner that protects livelihoods and recovery gains and supports sustainable transformation. The overall objective of the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund is to contribute to increased capacities of communities to protect development gains and achieve improved well-being outcomes in the face of shocks and stresses. This will be achieved through three interlinked components: a) Creating a body of evidence and building capacity for increased application of evidence-based policy making; b) Improving the absorptive, adaptive and transformative capacities of at-risk communities; and c) Setting up a crisis modifier mechanism which will provide appropriate, predictable, coordinated and timely response to risk and shocks from a resilience perspective. The problems Zimbabwe is facing in the agricultural sector largely stem from climate change. Climatologically, the country has an extremely variable rainfall distribution, which has been exacerbated by climate change. The frequency and length of dry spells during the rainy season have increased in recent years—the consequences of which include increased heat and water stress on natural ecosystems, agricultural crops and livestock, which result in low agricultural output and productivity, and food and nutrition insecurity . This poses a threat to agriculture, economic growth and development as the climate continues to change. Seventy percent of Zimbabweans reside in rural areas where they rely on rain-fed agriculture for their food and livelihoods , with only about 200,000 hectares of crop production under irrigation against a potential of five million hectares , posing a serious threat to food and livestock production. It has been predicted that climate change and variability will accelerate food insecurity, which is gaining traction insidiously in Zimbabwe. Increasing temperatures will result in more frequent occurrences of heat stress and increased infestations of pests and outbreaks of diseases, thus eroding the productivity of crops and livestock, as well as increasing expenditure on pesticides, herbicides and veterinary drugs. In addition, there are likely to be shifts of the onset and cessation of the rainy season (Mugabe, 2013, Lesolle, 2012). This implies shifts in planting and harvesting dates, as well as changes to the length of the growing season and to the types of crops and livestock that are suitable to these changes. Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) was defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as agriculture that i) sustainably increases productivity and incomes, ii) enhances adaptation and resilience to climate change of livelihoods and ecosystems, iii) reduces and/or removes greenhouse gases (GHGs) and iv) enhances the achievement of national food security and development goals . The CSA concept reflects the ambition of further integrating agricultural development and climate responsiveness. The concept is aimed at achieving food security and broader development goals in circumstances of a changing climate and increasing food demand. CSA strategies include, but are not limited to mulching, intercropping, conservation agriculture, production of high yielding short season drought tolerant varieties, crop rotation, integrated crop-livestock management, agroforestry, improved grazing and improved water management. CSA should not be seen as a set of practices but should be approached more systemically – agroecology, ecosystem and landscape approaches and integrated food-energy systems are useful tools. It also involves the introduction of innovative practices such as more dependable weather forecasting, early-warning systems, climate risk finance and many agricultural practices currently used by farmers in different parts of the country to cope with various production risks. Agroecology in particular is a very relevant approach to smallholder farming and food systems in the current Zimbabwean context, in which farmers may find appropriate agrichemicals and hybrid seeds hard to obtain and have to deal with pests, weeds and challenging weather conditions with locally available resources. Part of CSA which is currently critical for Zimbabwe’s rural farmers is Water-Smart Agriculture (WaSA). WaSA focusses on those innovations that specifically address water related aspects of climate smart agriculture, resilience building, and poor access to water (through lack of infrastructure and physical scarcity of water). It is an approach to efficiently harvest, store, access and utilize water throughout the year . These approaches cover water management for agriculture in a broad sense, integrating soil and water conservation, conservation agriculture practices, rainwater harvesting, groundwater abstraction, and irrigation water to increase agricultural productivity . WaSA brings agriculture and water sectors together to manage water for agriculture sustainably and more productively to enhance food security, countering the effects of dry spells, water scarcity, poor access to water for food production, and land degradation. It helps farmers optimize balance of rain-fed agriculture, irrigation, and soil moisture preservation via conservation agriculture for sustainably increased food production . Another part of CSA is ‘energy-smart food’. This concept was developed by FAO and revolves around three objectives of improved energy access, energy efficiency and production and use of renewable energy in agri-food systems. It is also important to consider water and energy in an integrated fashion with agriculture/land use/food systems in the context of climate change: this notion is encapsulated in the food-energy-water, climate-land-energy-water and other ‘nexus’ approaches. Climate change means that future weather/climate patterns and events will be increasingly volatile and extreme, with an increased risk of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts (IPCC AR5, 2014). Since impacts of climate change are complex and far-reaching, especially for the agriculture sector, it can be extremely difficult to foresee exactly what the consequences will be, and how they will affect different contexts, regions and sectors (CCAFS). Hence the need to undertake regular assessments of agricultural, water management and energy practices. In addition to climate risks, Zimbabwean farmers face a wide array of other risks, principally pests and diseases and market/economic shocks and stresses. Agriculture, water and energy practices must also be resilient to these risks, which are interlinked with climate risk. The ZRBF consortia have been implementing different agricultural and water management practices, some of which are identified as CSA practices, across the 18 targeted districts with different levels of success since the last quarter of 2016. Since successful adaptation requires a continuous process of review, anticipation of uncertainty of the future climate, and flexibility to respond to changes as they occur, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), under the ZRBF would like to contract a service provider (e.g. team of consultants, research institute, NGO or consortium) to carry out an assessment of agricultural, water management and energy practices promoted across the 18 ZRBF targeted districts. For full details, refer to attached Terms of Reference Application Proceedure through link https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=84562 Applicants are requested to upload copies of: - Latest CV highlighting the relevant experience;
- Updated P11 Form template of which can be downloaded from this website - http://www.sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc.
- A detailed technical proposal on undertaking the tasks and evidence of previous work;
- Letter Indicating the role applied for;
Please group all your documents (CV, P11, Technical Proposal and certificates) into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document. Incomplete applications will not be given consideration. Applicants must reply to the mandatory questions asked by the system when submitting the application. Please note that only applicants |
