In a significant strengthened partnership, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the French Embassy in Zimbabwe have joined efforts with the Government in launching the “Nourish and Thrive” project. This project addresses critical nutrition and food security needs in drought-affected areas, supporting rural households impacted by the El Niño-induced drought during the 2023/24 agricultural season. Funded with EUR 1 million by the French Government’s Food Assistance Programme, “Nourish and Thrive” will benefit vulnerable communities in the Mwenezi and Masvingo districts.

Bringing together experts and stakeholders from the food security, nutrition, and social protection sectors, the project’s launch and inception meeting focused on establishing unified objectives, governance, and collaborative strategies to ensure success.

“The Government of Zimbabwe has a constitutional responsibility to ensure that every citizen of the country has access to enough safe and nutritious food. I am well informed that the Nourish and Thrive project is aimed at improving child nutrition status as well as promote household nutrition, food security and resilience. This is in line with National Blueprint, the National Development Strategy 1 of leaving no behind, as well as the recently launched Zimbabwe’s Multisectoral Food and Nutrition Strategy 2023-2025,” said Joseph Tirirvavi, Deputy Director Family and Social Protection & Commissioner for Refugees in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare.

The Nourish and Strive project’s core focus is on achieving three transformative outcomes: 1) improved nutrition status of children, women and households; 2) strengthened household and community resilience through diversified, nutrition-sensitive and sustainable food production and livelihood strategies and 3) enhanced capacities of community health workers/Extension workers as food system actors to deliver nutrition-related interventions.

“The Nourish and Thrive project represents a beacon of hope. This initiative is designed to provide nutrition-sensitive social protection to those most affected by the drought. Together, we will establish a common understanding of the project’s objectives, clarify roles and responsibilities, and foster collaboration across all levels of implementation,” said Patrice Talla, FAO Subregional Coordinator for Southern Africa and Representative to Zimbabwe during the project launch.

Aligned with national frameworks like the Nutrition Emergency Response Plan and the El Niño Drought Flash Appeal Strategy, this initiative is a critical part of Zimbabwe’s resilience against climate-induced food insecurity. “France is continuing its efforts, through its international strategy for food security, nutrition and sustainable agriculture (2019 – 2024) and through concrete actions to improve nutrition of vulnerable households. We would like to acknowledge and commend the Government of Zimbabwe for its fight against malnutrition in all its forms and to reassert France’s commitment at its side,” said Benjamin Durrenberger, Deputy Head of Mission on behalf of Paul-Bertrand Barets, the France Ambassador to Zimbabwe.

The “Nourish and Thrive” project tackles both the immediate and root causes of child malnutrition, women’s health, and household vulnerability by delivering a robust set of interventions: community-based infant and young child feeding programs, nutrition education, social protection, agricultural support, and capacity-building for local health and food systems actors. During the launch, participants engaged in (3) group discussions, on key thematic areas: (i) Monitoring, accountability and reporting (ii) Roles and responsibilities (iii) Sustainability.

These discussions resulted in clear, actionable strategies for implementation, underscoring the importance of multi-sectoral collaboration for the project’s long-term success. To reinforce this, delegates pledged to identify focal persons across national and subnational levels and to work closely with FAO to expedite project actions, especially in selecting and registering beneficiaries in prioritized wards. FAO will work with government in prioritization of targeted wards as well as identification, selection and registration of intended beneficiaries.

The meeting concluded with a collective commitment to ensure the Nourish and Thrive project delivers lasting improvements in food and nutrition security for Zimbabwe’s most vulnerable communities in Masvingo and Mwenezi.