Enhancing community resilience through sustainable development practices; A case study of USAID funded Amalima Loko project in Zimbabwe
Abstract
This thesis examines the possibilities of increasing community resilience through sustainable development practices by the USAID-supported Amalima Loko Project in Zimbabwe. This paper starts with a theoretical overview of how community resilience is defined, its importance in dealing with the multiple intertwined social, economic, ecological and political issues affecting vulnerable communities. The Thesis lays down the urgent requirement for an integrated response, especially in Zimbabwe, as frequent droughts and economic fluctuations have considerably weakened the resilience of communities. In analysing the impact of sustainable development practices for enhancing resilience, the research evaluates the Amalima Loko Project that offers integrated Food security to Food Insecure communities. The study adopts a qualitative research approach that features a synthesis of the traditional literature and theoretical and empirical research tools such as interviews and community testimony to evaluate the outcome of the project. The empirical findings suggested that the project has had positive impact in terms of economic vulnerability reduction through the promotion and diversification of farming practices, increased production of crops and the promotion of disaster risk management from a community perspective. Similarly, the project has involved people in the community and has paid importance to the part that women play in strengthening resilience among the society. Cultural identity and environmental responsibility appeared as key factors; the conflict themes were solved by using local knowledge. The study emphasizes on the need to overcome shocks, and the findings show that the diverse economy and well-connected social networks, ensure that the regions are more ready to cope with any shocks. At the end , the research argues that the consideration of sustainable development measures is a critical component in enhancing community resilience in Zimbabwe and provides directions to policy makers and practitioners. In this way, the Amalima Loko Project showed the possibility of the improvement of general resilience in similar conditions through the local ownership of interventions and the linkages of any such actions to socio-cultural and economic contexts. This study therefore finds its place in the emerging literature on community resilience and sustainable development to offer a conceptual map for future studies planning to enhance community resiliency to achieve sustainable development.