Introduction
Sustainable development is “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Empowerment of women
From the Empowerment of Rural Women Course organized by WELI in collaboration with
JICA, I learnt valuable lessons on Kaizen and the Life Improvement Approach. Useful parallels can be drawn form the experience of Japan in that the Life Improvement Approach was introduced in Japan against a backdrop of severe economic challenges and hardships.
The people of Japan took an active and conscious decision to face their problems, devise solutions for them and implement them so as to bring about a Change for the better (kaizen) in their day to day lives a process of Plan, Do, See. Lessons and Best Practices from isolated areas added up into giant steps of progress and development, especially in rural areas thus leading to the revitalization of the Japanese rural economy and ultimately the nation as a whole. The key to these development successes was premised on several factors which included the utilization of existing resources, the mobilization of rural women into organized groups, the provision of guidance and advice by extension workers, and the effective tapping of synergies and energies of rural women and channeling them into change through ripple effect or replication.
The Life Improvement Approach as expounded above yields valuable lesson for Zimbabwe, especially in the lives of rural women. Zimbabwe, like Japan, has just emerged from a decade if not more of economic hardships and stagnation. The Poverty Assessment Study Survey of 2006 revealed that poverty among female headed households is escalating. The economic downturn has been characterized by hyper inflation, shortages of basic commodities and exorbitant prices, a collapse of the health delivery system and generally all other services
(transport, energy, education, social services). The HIV prevalence is one of the highest in Southern Africa and globally and currently stands at 15.6%. For Mutasa District, the
HIV prevalence rate stands at 19.3%. To compound matters even further, Zimbabwe was gripped by a cholera epidemic, resulting from inadequate food consumption by the populace, appalling sanitation and a near collapse of the health delivery system. More than 4, 000 people died of cholera and more than 90, 000 have been infected with most deaths occurring in the rural areas. Food security in Zimbabwe has also been eroded resulting in 60% of the population in dire need of food aid. It is against this backdrop that ZWAAPV, the organization from which the author works, decided to introduce the Life Improvement Approach in
Mutasa District where the NGO operates. The initiative has been well received by the community in Mutasa District and it has also yielded many lessons and best practices and even brought a real change for the better to the Core Group of 20 rural women who are in the pilot project that has been spearheaded by ZWAAPV in fulfillment of the Life Improvement
Action Plan (LIAP) of the author (JICA ex-participant). Emerging Issues
● There is greater vulnerability in Female Headed Households and limited income earning options.
● Because of multiple gender roles, it is difficult for rural women to venture into alternative income generating activities outside the home.
● Mutasa District is a rich agricultural area which has beautiful scenic sites and a rich and diverse cultural heritage.
● People in urban areas, because of the economic downturn, are facing many challenges top of which is the shortage of basic food stuffs.
● Rural women, through they produce a surplus of crops, few market options, limited means of transportation therefore they lose a lot of potential income through wastage of their produce before it is marketed.
Why Life Improvement
The Life Improvement Approach has been utilized as a development model intended to bring about the following:
● Through Green Tourism, Rural Women can transform their homes into business ventures which can generate income.
● Through Green Tourism, urban people will be able to escape from the stresses of urban life and also access foodstuffs from rural women entrepreneurs.
Objectives
The Life Improvement Action Plan had the following objectives:
1. Transform the lives of rural women using Life Improvement Approaches.
2. Bringing fulfillment to rural women by making them agents of change.
3. Scaling up the lessons learnt so as to achieve wider coverage of Life Improvement
Activities.
Target Group
The target group has the following characteristics:
● Single, widowed, divorced or separated women and wives of male migrants.
● Have dependants
● Are rural farmers
● Are members of ZWAAPV Support Groups
● Mixed group of HIV positive and non-positive women
● Include rural women outside the Life Improvement Core Group of 20
How Project Will Operate
● The project will target a Core Group of 20 rural women who are heads of households.
ZWAAPV has already mobilized rural women into Support Groups of 20 members each and one of these will be used as the Core Group for the Pilot Project. These
Support Groups will be used as Life Improvement Practice Groups.
● The only extension workers working in rural Zimbabwe are Agricultural Extension
Workers and Community Development Coordinators from the Ministry of Women
Affairs, Gender and Community Development. It is not feasible to get new cadres who will be designated Life Improvement Extension Workers. However, ZWAAPV already has a pool of volunteer community-based Home Based Caregivers who give home based care services to its beneficiaries. These could be utilized to provide the
Life Improvement Extension Services. Japan also utilizes Assistant Extension
Workers from the community to augment the Life Improvement Extension Workers who are in short supply.
● ZWAAPV will be the secretariat of the Mutasa District Green-Tourism Committee.
ZWAAPV will create market linkages to tourists, coordinate the training workshops of the LIPGM, fundraise for the project among other secretariat services.
● The Green-Tourism committee will be made up of business units based on the area of specialty namely Cultural Heritage Section, Local Brands Section, Home Stay
Section, Traditional Foodstuffs and Herbal Remedies Section. Each Business Unit will be run by 5 members (LIPGM). The Mutasa Green Tourism Committee will hold periodic meetings with ZWAAPV providing secretariat services. At these meetings they will organize their affairs, monitor and evaluate progress, and hold elections for new office bearers since leadership will be rotated among the LIPGM.
● Management of business units: The members of the business units will be trained on how to run their businesses by organizations with expertise on women entrepreneurship.
These organizations will be contracted by ZWAAPV since it does not have these skills. Training will focus on topical issues like Regulations of the Home Stay;
How to serve customers; Health, sanitation and safety standards.