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MID-TERM EVALUATION (MTE) REPORT
for
Mercy Corps Zimbabwe
The Joint Initiative (JI) for Urban Zimbabwe
Inviolata Vhevha (ivhevha@yahoo.co.uk) August 2014
“The report has been financed by OFDA-Mercy Corps; the comments contained herein reflect the opinions 
of the Evaluator only”
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Acknowledgement 
The consultant would like to express sincere gratitude to Mercy Corps in particular to the Joint Initiative (JI) 
manager Mr Solomon Mutambara for his assistance during the field work for the Mid Term Review. Appreciation 
is also extended to the implementing partners’ project coordinators and teams for making the field work possible. 
The communities in the five towns of Harare, Chitungwiza, Masvingo, Bulawayo and Mutare including the 
relevant government departments, health promoters and the members of the various project initiatives are being 
thanked for willingly providing information which has made compilation of this report possible. 
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Executive Summary 
Introduction 
A Mid Term Evaluation of the fifth phase of the OFDA funded Joint Initiative (JI) program was carried out by 
Inviolata Vhevha between June and July 2014. The program is being implemented through a consortium 
managed by Mercy Corps consisting of four other international NGOs. The partners in the consortium are Oxfam, 
Africare, Care, CRS and Mercy Corps, implementing the program in Harare, Chitungwiza, Masvingo, Bulawayo 
and Mutare respectively. The program has the objectives of increasing community resiliency to WASH related 
shocks and improving urban populations’ reliable access to nutrition food through improved incomes and 
production. The objective of the midterm was to determine progress made since the program began in 
September 2013 and to give recommendations which can improve achievement of the objectives in the 
remaining project period. The evaluation criteria were relevance/appropriateness, efficiency including 
connectedness with partners and government departments, effectiveness, and impact as was guided by the 
TORs. The consultant also added sustainability to the criteria. 
Methodology 
The MTE was carried out through a review of project documents such as the project proposal, willingness to pay 
report, progress reports, baseline report, and monitoring trackers supplied by the implementing partners. All five 
towns were visited and data collection was done across the variety of stakeholders consisting of implementing 
partners, local authorities, farmers, health club members, solid waste recycling groups and youth clubs using 
either key informant interviews or focus group discussions. 
Results and Discussion 
Relevance – The JI program was relevant to the needs of both stakeholders and implementing partners. The 
five towns had poor service delivery characterised by solid waste dumps, frequent sewer pipe bursts and poor 
water quality and thus needed a program targeting these areas. The poor WASH services created fear of 
disease outbreaks among the vulnerable communities and the JI program gave them an opportunity towards 
reduction of the causative factors. The income generating projects addressed the need of people who live in 
urban areas where unemployment is close to 85%. The design of the program was appropriate to the target 
community in that vulnerable communities were largely responsible for providing labour whilst the program 
provided the needed capital. 
Efficiency – The highest progress was for the Hygiene Promotion aspects whilst the sanitation component had 
the least progress. The high success rate in hygiene promotion was probably because the intervention had been 
in operation since 2008 and some partners only resuscitated what they or their predecessors had already began. 
Sanitation had the least progress mainly because the anticipated youth participation in de-clogging was still 
being negotiated in all towns expect in Chitungwiza. An average of 39% of the budget has been spent with more 
than 50% of the project time gone. The under expenditure is reflective of delayed implementation of capital 
intensive projects in waste recycling and declogging. The high efficiency was achieved due to stakeholder 
involvement at no time costs to the project, capacitation of stakeholders before involvement and monitoring of 
project activities from the managing agency and the implementing partners. 
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Effectiveness – The program is on course towards achieving its first objective of improving community resilience 
towards WASH related shocks with 133% of the target already achieved with about 6 months to go. However the 
food self sufficiency indicator which measures the second objective of access to nutrition could not be calculated 
since farmers were still harvesting their crops. The program outputs are making significant contributions towards 
achievement of the program objectives. The clubs formed in both communities and schools are acting as 
conduits for information flow which is required to react towards diseases outbreaks as well improve farming 
practises. 
Impact – The key positive impacts for the program were social networking which allowed community members 
and school children to share ideas on the platforms created by the project. Dialogue between residents and 
council was improved making the council officials more responsive to the plight of the residents. The income 
generating initiatives empowered its members specially the women who made the majority of the members. The 
Participatory Health and Hygiene Education (PHHE) knowledge gained was translated to improvement of both 
hygiene and health within the homes and in the public open spaces. One negative impact was development of 
dongas in areas where sack potato farmers where not backfilling pits from which they obtained their soil. 
Sustainability –The program is promoting sustainability through entrenching ownership of program components 
in all local authorities and the benefiting communities. To ensure that the target community would continue with 
program activities all key stakeholders were capacitated with the relevant skills and linked with government 
departments and the private sector where they can obtain assistance if needed. The program built in income 
generating activities into clubs for the communities so that members could get economic value from their 
participation. The recognition and enforcement of volunteer decisions by councils were also instrumental in 
motivating volunteers to continue with their work. However, the continued beneficiary call on donors to provide 
financial inputs for small projects were indicative of weaknesses in sustaining programs requiring financial inputs. 
Best Practices
The program implementation by partners in the five towns has provided Best Practises with the key ones being: 
 Reclamation of previous dumping area into productive areas since those deriving benefit will become a 
policing force of the area 
 Supporting programs already identified as priority areas by the local authority in the area of operation 
 Raising of gully traps to prevent sand entering into the sewage reticulation system 
 Multi stakeholder engagement officiated through Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) 
 Synchronisation, collaborating and complimenting with existing similar programs in target areas to 
reduce costs 
 Getting buy ins from school heads before implementation of school health clubs 
Lessons Learned 
The program has provided the following lessons to the programming: 
 Seasonality should be considered in implementing agricultural initiatives in order to align seasons to 
appropriate crops and activities. 
 It is difficult for community members to be given space by local authorities to do income generating 
activities which touch core duties of local authorities. 
 All contributory factors to an observed deterioration of poor WASH service delivery need simultaneous 
addressing otherwise the weakest link within the system will make the system ineffective. In this 
program, council supplementary services make or break community participation in solid waste 
management. 
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 Discussions on land leases need to start early on in the program as council processes are bureaucratic 
and can take for ever resulting in programs ending before some land dependent projects begin. 
 Lives of people in urban areas are driven by money issues so projects implemented in these set ups 
should have inbuilt economic returns to the participants. 
Conclusions and Recommendations 
The key conclusions and corresponding recommendations for improved program implementation are shown in 
the table below:
Conclusions Recommendations
Partners have strength and best practises which 
can benefit their counterparts in different 
locations
-Each partner should make detailed case studies of their 
success stories for sharing and learning of fellow partners
Community hygienic efforts are not consistently 
being complimented by the city fathers. Some 
non complimentarity are due in part to non 
participating of some key stakeholders in the
project stakeholder meetings
-Invitations to the meetings and follows up to be made 
through the DA who has the mandate to command all civil 
servants in the district
Initiatives which depend on either council 
leasing land and/or touch deep into the core of 
council departments activities are progressing 
the least
-Hold frequent all stakeholder meetings which puts 
pressure on councils to make decisions
-Diversify to other complimentary non-core council 
business activities such as the gully trap raising being done 
in Bulawayo
Waste recycling projects are unlikely to go 
through the whole project cycle before the end 
of the program in Dec 2014
-Allow for a no cost extension to allow projects to go 
through at least one cycle
-Link projects to a volunteer mentoring company also 
involved in solid waste recycling
There is a high expectant for program renewal 
among beneficiaries
-Remind all the stakeholders of the exit date 
-Gradual withdrawal of soap incentive for communities and 
gauge reaction
-Exchange programs for schools and clubs 
PHHE knowledge is content rarely being tested -Encourage Health Masters to give written work to pupils 
write some tests and records be kept at the schools to 
complement the register
-Organise competition for schools and communities
Clubs require some place to give reports to and 
identification
-Link the clubs to council offices and do gradual withdrawal 
-Encourage councils to start clubs in areas not covered by 
program as their own program
- District school inspectors to be also trained so that they 
monitor the clubs during their visits to the schools
- Ensure that relevant council employees are given the 
same knowledge as the communities they interact with 
otherwise the community may lose confidence in them if 
they appear less learned
The means of verification for the various 
program components are not always easy to 
locate within the files 
Partners filing system for registers (of beneficiaries 
including registers from hygiene promoters and lead 
farmers) which are the means of verification for work done 
should be improved so that the figures in the tracker match 
with registers
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Table of Contents 
Acknowledgement .................................................................................................................................. 2
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................. 3
1.0 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 9
1.1 Context and Background ............................................................................................................... 9
2.0 Methodology For the MID TERM Evaluation ..................................................................................11
2.1 Methodology of Data Collection ................................................................................................. 11
2.2 Data Analysis ...............................................................................................................................12
2.3 Limitations of the Study ..............................................................................................................12
3.0 Results and Discussions ..................................................................................................................12
3.1 Relevance and Appropriateness of the Design ...........................................................................12
3.1.1 Poor Service Delivery ...........................................................................................................12
3.1.2 Fear of Diseases ...................................................................................................................13
3.1.3 Continuation with Program ................................................................................................. 13
3.1.4 Means of Survival .................................................................................................................13
3.1.5 Appropriateness of Design ...................................................................................................13
3.2 Efficiency .........................................................................................................................................15
3.2.1 Achievement of Outputs versus Target ...............................................................................15
3.2.2 Budgetary Efficiency ............................................................................................................18
3.2.3 Factors Affecting Efficiency ..................................................................................................18
3.3 Effectiveness ...............................................................................................................................20
3.3.1 Effectiveness as Measured by Project Indicators ................................................................20
3.2.1 Information Flow ..................................................................................................................21
3.2.2 Income Flow .........................................................................................................................23
3.4 Impact of the Program ................................................................................................................23
3.4.1 Positive Impacts ...................................................................................................................23
3.4.2 Negative Impacts .................................................................................................................25
3.5 Sustainability ...............................................................................................................................26
3.5.1 Ownership ............................................................................................................................26
3.5.2 Capacity Building and Resources .........................................................................................27
3.5.3 Diversification or Value of participation ..............................................................................28
4.0 Best Practises and Lesson Learned ................................................................................................. 29
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4.1 Best Practises ..............................................................................................................................29
4.2 Lessons Learned ..........................................................................................................................30
5.0 Conclusions and Recommendations ...............................................................................................31
Annex 1: Key Informants.......................................................................................................................33
Annex 2: Terms of Reference ................................................................................................................35
Harare, Zimbabwe ..................................................................................................................................39
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ACRONYMS 
ACC - Area Coordination Committee 
BSWIP - Bulawayo Solid Waste Improvement Plan 
BYO - Bulawayo 
CHCs - Community Health Clubs 
DA - District Administrator 
DRR - Disaster Risk Reduction 
EMA - Environmental Management Agency 
FGD - Focus Group Discussions 
HBC - Home Based Care 
HH - Households 
IGAs - Income Generating Activities 
JI - Joint Initiative 
KII - Key Informant Interviews 
MC - Mercy Corps 
M & E - Monitoring and Evaluation 
MOUs - Memoranda of Understanding 
MTE - Mid Term Evaluation 
NGOs - Non Governmental Organisations 
PHHE - Participatory Health and Hygiene Education 
SHCs - School Health Clubs 
TORs - Terms of References 
WASH - Water Sanitation and Hygiene 
ZIMTA - Zimbabwe Teachers Association 
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1.0 Introduction 
1.1 Context and Background 
Zimbabwe has experienced economic down turns since 2000 and the trend continued with a climax in 2008 
where the rate of inflation reached 231 million%. One of the accompanying signs of the decline was the closure 
of companies and industries and the loss of jobs for urban dwellers. The loss of jobs was among other things 
driven by souring political relations between Zimbabwe and host countries for the private companies which were 
operating in the country. In the year 2005 an operation known as Murambatsvina made life even worse for the 
urban population when council unsanctioned structures which were used for dwellings were destroyed through 
the country displacing more than 700,000 people. The displaced people became vulnerable and prompted a 
response from development partners under the auspices of what is traditional known as the Joint Initiative or JI. 
This program began in 2006 in response to needs of the displaced vulnerable urban population. Over the years 
the program has been transforming its objectives to align with the needs of the urban communities in its target 
areas. In 2013 funding was obtained from OFDA for the fifth phase of the program whose goal is to promote, 
improve and protect sustainable livelihoods for urban and peri-urban communities in Zimbabwe through effective 
response and information coordination of urban actors through two specific objectives. 
Specific Objectives of the JI program 
The program which began in July 2013 is being implemented in the five towns of Harare, Chitungwiza, Masvingo, 
Bulawayo and Mutare (see map on next page for town location) by Oxfam, Africare, Care, CRS and Mercy Corps 
respectively where it targets the vulnerable populations living in the High density areas. As per project activities 
a Mid Term Review was required in order to determine progress towards achievement of goals and to make 
recommendations for the achievement of the objectives in the remaining period. The terms of reference for the 
assignment are attached as Annex 2 to this report. The parameters of the Mid Term Review were: 
 Relevance and Appropriateness 
 Effectiveness 
 Efficiency 
 Impact 
Sustainability was also added to the parameters in order to give a holistic picture to the MTE. 
 To increase communities’ resiliency to WASH-related shocks, such as disease outbreaks.
 To improve urban populations’ reliable access to nutritious food through improved 
incomes and production
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2.0 Methodology for the MID TERM Evaluation
The Mid Term Evaluation (MTE) was led by Inviolata Vhevha being the external consultant hired by Mercy Corps. 
The review was participatory in nature and thus carried out through involvement of the JI program manager, 
implementing partners, supportive government departments, local authorities and their benefiting communities. 
2.1 Methodology of Data Collection 
Data for the MTE was collected through: 
 Desk Review - The project proposal, willingness to pay document, baseline and progress reports were 
reviewed as secondary data sources for the assignment. 
 Field Work - Field visits to all the five towns were done from the 24th of June to the 9th of July 2014. All 
five towns were visited in order to capture the context and experiences of each implementing partners. 
In each town representatives of the local authorities and government departments were met whilst all 
the program components beneficiaries were contacted. Data for the evaluation was collected through 
key informant interviews and focus group discussions using guiding questions. Information provided by 
stakeholders was complimented by observation and photography. These methods were used as they 
were considered to be relatively cheap and allowed interaction with the stakeholder groupings which 
were key in the program implementation. The table below indicates the types of stakeholders met and 
the respective numbers in each town whiles Annex 1 shows names of all Key Informants. 
Table 1: Stakeholder groups consulted during the review 
Stakeholder Group Method 
of data 
Collectio
n
Total Number of people in each group per town
Harare Chitungwiza Masvingo Bulawayo Mutare Total
Managing Partners KI 1 - - - 1
Implementing Partners KI 2 3 1 1 2 9
Farmers FGD 15 14 - 2 6 37
Community Health Club 
Members including 
facilitators
FGD 31 16 33 15 6 101
School Health Clubs FGD 61 - - 5 - 66
Health Masters KI 2 1 2 4 2 11
Health Promoters or
facilitators met alone
- - 1 - 1
Solid Waste Recycling 
Groups
FGD 41 - - 8 49
Youth Groups FGD/KI - - 16 2 18
Local Authority together 
with government 
departments
FGD 14 - - - - 14
Government departments KI 2 1 - 3 6
Local Authority KI - 5 2 5 2 12
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2.2 Data Analysis 
The qualitative data was analysed by following the following steps: 
 Listing all responses to the evaluation criteria using codes which showed origin of the response 
 Classifying the responses into categories 
 Compiling the responses for each respondent into compilation sheets
2.3 Limitations of the Study 
The study was limited by the following: 
1. Quantitative comparison with the baseline situation could not be done as the earlier study was 
questionnaire based whilst the MTE was either key informant and or FGDs. A questionnaire is therefore 
needed to inform the findings at End of Project Evaluation in order to compare between baseline and 
end of program status. 
2. The new government regulations prohibit disturbances of school children so in some schools the 
discussions were only limited to the Health Masters so the impacts on the pupils were inferred by them. 
3.0 Results and Discussions 
3.1 Relevance and Appropriateness of the Design 
The program was relevant to the stakeholders in the five towns because it addressed their five broad categories 
of need namely: 
 Poor service delivery 
 Continuation with what one started 
 Fear of diseases 
 Poverty and unemployment 
3.1.1 Poor Service Delivery 
The program was relevant to all five local authorities because the project components addressed gaps which 
were in the WASH service delivery system. Service delivery in urban areas includes collection of waste from 
communities, hygiene promotion via their environmental health departments, response to pipe bursts and 
provision of clean water. All these services were provided to unsatisfactory levels in the five towns and therefore 
the JI program which was targeting these components was relevant to the local authorities/ city fathers as they 
are commonly referred to. Furthermore some specific program components like solid waste removal had already 
been identified as action for improvements of service delivery in the towns such as Chitungwiza. Among the 
government ministries such as EMA, Agritex and Ministry of Youth the program was complimentary to their 
official duties. In addition all five towns had experienced the cholera outbreak of 2008/2009 and components 
such as the disaster preparedness were making them proactive in planning and preparing for unexpected health 
hazards. 
Residents themselves viewed the program as relevant 
because they needed cleaner surroundings and though it was 
the duty of council they had not received this service. Thus a 
program which enabled them to take part in improving their 
living conditions through participation in the program was 
more than relevant. Among the school children the program 
addressed the need “to do something about the hygiene 
around their dirty living conditions in their areas of origin” said 
one club member at Njube High School in Bulawayo. For the 
primary school authorities, the program was relevant to the 
topics taught in social studies. A resident with tools for cleaning her surroundings in 
Mbare
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In secondary schools, teachers viewed program relevance to be related to the need for transformation of hygiene 
knowledge into action and a club with members to spear head and demonstrate good hygienic behaviour was 
good. Furthermore hygienic duties were done around the school and in both primary and secondary schools. 
3.1.2 Fear of Diseases 
The lessons of the 2008/9 cholera outbreak in which 4300 people died made the program relevant to the 
residents who needed to do something to ensure that the known causes of such diseases are given the light of 
day again. ‘’Ukaita Smart Wadzinga Cholera” said one member from the Solid Waste Management Club from 
Mbare. The fear for disease outbreaks was emphasised by all key stakeholders including the community health 
clubs, school health masters, farmers and implementing partners. Water available through public distribution 
systems is deemed to be of questionable quality and communities welcomed the water guard as a means to 
defending themselves against diseases arising from consumption of water with bacteriological contamination. 
Furthermore in areas such as Chitungwiza treated water from the reticulated system is rare and people collect 
water from unsafe sources. Even in areas like Harare and Bulawayo where water is available from taps, water 
rationing is experienced and households cope by storing water in containers. In-house storage requires a high 
degree of hygienic practises to ensure that the stored water will have good quality at the time of consumption 
and or use within the home. Furthermore the DRR components enabled the residents to critically review the 
aspects which could make them prone to diseases and thus put in place plans on how to deal with them. 
3.1.3 Continuation with the Program
For all the implementing partners the program was addressing their key focus areas of helping communities to be 
better able to respond to disasters and thus it continued the activities they had been involved in for several years. 
Most club members had participated in previous programs and they needed to see what they started to 
completion. Some, for example farmers groups in Mbare, had no chance to do nutrition gardens before as they 
were moving around assisting others and saw the program as an opportunity for them to also do what they had 
taught others to do. Clubs in both communities and schools had been in previous related programs with other 
NGOs such as ZIMAHEAD in Mutare and Masvingo. For the youth in Mutare the program was continuing in the 
direction which the group had already planned. 
3.1.4 Means of Survival 
The program was implemented in the context of high poverty levels in the targeted areas and high 
unemployment in the country at large with rates estimated to be around 85%. The program therefore provided a 
means of livelihood to enable survival of the households. “Before the program began I had no means of survival 
but now my hope is in the farming activities” said one farmer in Chitungwiza. The recycling of waste, growing of 
vegetables, seed multiplication and lessons on unblocking of sewer lines were all possible sources of income 
and members viewed them as viable means of survival. To some beneficiaries who have seen progressive 
upgrading of those involved in other development programs they had faith that better survival prospects could 
come to them through the program. The diversification of the clubs to include money saving was relevant to 
addressing the need for capital funds to start capital projects which would lead to personal empowerments of 
women who had traditional relied on husbands for survival. With the economic tightening in Zimbabwe there is 
need for both spouses to provide for the family and husbands barely meet family needs let alone the wife’s 
personal requirements. In Zimbabwe, especially border towns like Bulawayo, there has been an exodus of youth 
to South Africa due to unemployment and therefore projects are giving them employment and addressing their 
needs. Besides the youth, the de-industrialisation which has been experienced in Zimbabwe and Bulawayo in 
particular has impacted the livelihood systems of those who were once employed and thus reducing the quantity 
and quality of meals. The food production component of the program was thus relevant to these communities. 
3.1.5 Appropriateness of Design 
The project was designed in such a way that communities would provide the labour for all the project whilst 
financial requirements were general covered by the program. This design was appropriate since the people are 
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vulnerable. All the supportive technical expertise was designed to come from government and local authorities’
offices. These were to be complimented by trained community members. The design was good as it captured the 
capacity of both government officers and community members. The program was also reliant on land for 
agricultural activities but the processes for land acquisition had not been clearly laid out. 
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3.2 Efficiency 
3.2.1 Achievement of Outputs versus Target 
The project targets and cumulative percentage progress for all the partners are shown in table below. Entries with blanks indicate that figures were not obtained in the trekker 
provided by the partner 
Table 2: Progress on Project Activities 
Activity CARE Oxfam Africare CRS Mercy Corps
Target % Target 
achieved
Target % Target 
achieved
Target % Target 
achieved
Target % Target 
achieved
Target % Target 
achieved
Hygiene Promotion: Number of people receiving direct hygiene promotion (excluding mass media campaigns and without double counting)
Number of community led DRR planning and training 
sessions held
10 50 1 0 6 100 4 200 4 200
Number of people participating in Community led 
DRR planning and training sessions
1500 16 - - 750 120 60 200 60 200
Number of people benefiting from Hygiene 
promotion and education through CHCs
2400 165 600 1500 - - 1200 24 12000 47
Hygiene promotion through School Health Clubs 600 42 12 100 - - 3000 101 3000 101
Number of Hygiene Promoters Trained 60 47 12 250 40 98 60 100 60 100
Number of School Health Masters Trained in PHHE 30 73 12 125 30 100 30 60 30 60
Number of CHCs supported/established 12 233 12 250 15 93 12 150 12 150
Number of people enrolled in CHCs 700 113 1500 250 750 94 2400 24 2400 24
Number of School Health Clubs 
supported/established
15 73 12 100 15 100 15 113 15 113
Number of Children enrolled in SCHs 600 100 600 100 375 138 600 101 600 101
Number reached with Point of Use Water Treatment 
(Water Guard)
2000 100 2000 100 2100 89 3000 100 300 100
Environmental Health: Number of people benefiting from solid waste management, drainage and/or vector control activities
Number of clean up/debris removal campaigns 2 2650 4 25 10 110 4 650 8 88
Number of people participating in clean up 
campaigns
3080 164 - - 750 129 200 260 200 202
Number of Solid Waste Management 
Clubs/committees trained
14 50 6 100 15 93 4 200 23 100
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Activity CARE Oxfam Africare CRS Mercy Corps
Target % Target 
achieved
Target % Target 
achieved
Target % Target 
achieved
Target % Target 
achieved
Target % Target 
achieved
Number of people trained in solid waste 
management
300 23 200 100 450 213 45 100 114 100
Number of trainings on waste separation and 
recycling
3 67 6 100 15 0 1 100 1 100
Number of people trained in waste separation and 
recycling
70 100 40 100 450 213 60 100 30 100
Sanitation Infrastructure: Number of people directly benefiting from sanitation infrastructure program
Number of DRR initiatives 14 50 1 100 1 100 1 100
Number of Youth IGAS established 7 0 1 0 3 100 3 0 4 100
Number of people participating/benefiting from 
Youth IGAS established
350 0 - 0 15 100 50 0 60 100
Number of open areas reclaimed 7 0 1 0 4 25 3 33 8 0
AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY
Improving Agricultural Production/Food Security: Projected increase in number of months of food self-sufficiency due to distributed 
Number of trainings on marketing and business skills 3 100 1 100 2 100 0 - 0 -
Number of people participating in marketing and 
business skills trainings
2 100 40 100 120 88 0 - 0 -
Number of Household Composting IGAs trainings 2 100 1 100 80 54 20 - 20 100
Number of people participating in Household 
Composting IGAs trainings
70 3500 85 100 4 - 100 100 100 100
Number of trainings on biodegradable and compost 
pits- Training of Trainers
70 97 85 100 120 100 0 100 0 -
Number of people participating in biodegradable and 
compost pits- Training of Trainers trainings
1000 100 35 100 80 101 0 - 0 -
Number of trainings on seed multiplication 3 1 2 50 4 100 4 100 4 100
Number of people participating in seed 
multiplication trainings
70 167 - 35 people 120 100 200 109 200 109
Establishment of demonstration sites for community 
seed multiplication and nutritious vegetable plots 
(fence, poles etc)
7 143 2 50 - - 0 - 0 -
Number of people benefiting from demonstration 
sites for community seed multiplication and 
nutritious vegetable plots 
790 49 100 100 120 100 0 - 0 -
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Comments on Progress 
The figures for average progress among the partners have not been computed because oversubscription in the hygiene 
promotion clouds the underachievement in all the other sections. Progress made is therefore discussed under the two 
subsectors.
WASH Activities 
All the partners have made significant progress towards their targets with percentage achievement of more than 100% for 
hygiene promotion activities. One of the reasons for the high success could be that the hygiene promotion intervention 
has been part of the JI intervention since the 2008/9 cholera response and thus what was needed for more resuscitation 
of the clubs other than introducing new concepts altogether. All partners continued with already existing clubs and the 
number of new clubs added was often not more than 50% of the total clubs in the project area. The overachievement 
could also be due to the expressed demand by the communities and project partners that had to respond by 
accommodating these. The clean up campaigns recorded are lower than those carried out by the communities as some of 
them were spontaneously done without direct participation of the partners. However in Bulawayo the regular attendance 
to community health clubs was moderate due to demands for incentives in return for participation by club members and 
one club met in Cowdry Park had not participated in any clean-up activities. In response to this, health promoters in the 
area carried out door to door visits to ensure that households still get access to PHHE information. 
The sanitation infrastructure activities had progressed the least due to the lengthy council processes required before the 
trainings on de-blocking could be done. Another reason was the slow pace at which the negotiation with buyers took place 
such that even trash cans with no real land requirement were still stored in Mbare. Only Africare in Chitungwiza managed 
to successfully establish three youth groups to carry out de-blocking activities on sewer lines. In Bulawayo, CRS diverted 
the de-blocking training to gully trap raising because the council identified the low gully traps as a major cause of sewage 
blockage. Though communities were trained in waste separation in all towns the establishment of the associated 
businesses had not occurred. In Harare and Mutare, recyclable waste is already being collected. The slow take off for 
these projects was partly because land for carrying out the business was to be obtained from council and again the 
bureaucratic processes were stifling progress. However household level businesses in waste recycling had been done in 
Harare, Masvingo and Mutare. The household businesses ranged from cobra making to making of baskets and hats from 
plastics. A unique display was that from members of Shingisanayi Health Club in Mutare where water glasses were made 
from non returnable bottles. 
Agriculture Activities 
Progress under the Agriculture subsection was high for the software/training part but the progress for the practical aspects 
was generally low and varied across the partners. The activities required land which was to be leased from councils and 
again the processes for land release have taken a long time. In Mbare, the members established a garden at a primary 
school courtesy of the relations created through previous programs and the anticipated benefit to the school due to the 
Woman displaying hats and bags made 
from plastics in Mbare
Plastics being collected in Mutare
plasrecycling
House with gully trap raised in Bulawayo
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presence of the garden in the school yard. In Chitungwiza, seed multiplication was done in surrounding open fields but the 
land had already been earmarked for stand development during the course of 2014 and future activities on the land are 
not possible. In Harare, impressive progress had been made in seedling production in trays thus reducing the space 
requirements. However in other towns of Mutare and Bulawayo farmers experienced challenges with use of trays and the 
quality of seedlings produced have been substandard. The likely cause was poor supervision and monitoring from Agritex 
officers since the farmers were applying the technology for the first time and thus needed close monitoring. This 
suggestion was confirmed in Mutare where response of Agritex officers to calls is rather low. Members who made the 
most progress are those with spaces in their backyards where they have established their own gardens across the five 
towns. However some members are tenants and landlords do not permit tenants to do gardening within the rented 
premises. The space requirements for activities such as composting are large and release smells during the 
decomposition processes have also made the uptake to be less than 50% among all the farmers groups who met. Fruit 
tree propagation in Masvingo had been initiated but further progress could not be achieved since the cold weather was 
not favourable for the budding and grafting processes. The fruit plants were being stored at a volunteer’s garage in the 
project area. 
3.2.2 Budgetary Efficiency 
The cumulative total expenditure for the program up to April 2014 is shown in the table below. 
Table 3: Cumulative Program Expenditure up to April 2014 
Category Total Budget US$ Expenses to date 
US$
% Spent
Mercy Corps General 
Equipment
4,600 2,850 62
Mercy Corps Program 
Activities
122,600 37,037 30
Consultants 13,000 2,941 23
AFRICARE 285,000 132,206 46
CARE 285,000 134,943 47
CRS 287,663 119,156 41
OXFAM 282,755 67,421 24
Average % expenditure 39%
The table above indicates that the average overall project expenditure is 39% with more than half the project period gone. 
One of the reasons for the under expenditure was that some capital intensive projects like IGAs related to solid waste 
recycling and sewer de-clogging had not yet commenced due to the councils’ bureaucratic processes explained earlier. 
3.2.3 Factors Affecting Efficiency 
The high efficiency was also affected by partner’s management, stakeholder involvement, capacity building and 
monitoring. 
Partner’s Management 
The low expenditure is also indicative of a high degree of efficiency by the staff members among the partners. Partners 
have been involved with the JI project since 2006 and hence have perfected systems to deliver outputs. No operational 
challenges were reported by both the managing and the implementing partners again due to relations which have been 
improved over time. The staff members in all the partners were well qualified and experienced with some staff members in 
CRS having been in the program since its inception. 
19
Stakeholder Involvement 
The program was heavily reliant on the local authority or government personnel whose duties they were complementing. 
Government workers from the Ministries of Youth and Development and Agritex offered their services to the program at 
no charge other than the lunch allowances. Even in difficult areas such as Mbare, the program was able to continue 
working because the DA (District Administrator) was doing all the facilitation and the program operated through what is 
called an Area Coordination Committee (ACC) which holds bi-monthly meetings with stakeholders and other partners and 
CBOs operating in Mbare. Though government workers were general available, exceptions were experienced in Harare 
where the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) was often too busy to come to the program thereby depriving the 
beneficiaries of expertise. At times government involvement resulted in delays especially in areas where government also 
wanted to incorporate other dimensions, for example the DRR workshop was delayed for Harare because the DA wanted 
the training and planning to be for the greater Harare office instead of the targeted wards. 
The local authorities in all the five towns attached its personnel from the health department to work directly with the 
program. This enabled the program to deliver what it required within normal time frames. These linked persons were key 
in facilitating the MOUs especially in Mutare where the council contact person was instrumental in identifying even 
facilitators external to the city council in an effort to improve the success of the program. An exception was the city of 
Harare where personnel from the Health & Education and Public Works/Engineering were not participating in the program. 
In such cases the aspects requiring the intervention of these departments were slow. In Harare the anticipated training on 
deblocking of sewers had not yet been concluded despite negotiations having been ongoing for more than three months. 
In towns like Masvingo and Mutare the training venues for project related courses were council halls which were accessed 
with no financial inputs. In other areas such as Masvingo government departments like EMA also contributed push carts 
to the solid waste collection program. All these initiatives reduced the direct costs to the program. Inefficiency of the city 
councils were however encountered on issues related to land and deblocking of sewers. These issues especially the one 
of land involved passing through the whole decision making chains of local government and by the time of the MTE only 
Africare in Chitungwiza had managed to do meaningful progress on the land issue. This was the reclamation of the St 
Marys Park back to a state which residents could use. In the other four towns, land acquisition for project development 
was still underway though minor developments were already happening at one of the identified sites in both Mutare and 
Bulawayo. 
Capacity Building 
The program’s high efficiency was in part due to the capacity building initiatives which were done. All of the government 
stakeholders and community members were given training before their participation in the program. Members were
trained in all elements relevant to their program areas. However business management had only been taught to selected 
members usually directly involved in income generating activities such as seed multiplication and solid waste recycling. 
The club facilitators were very efficient with their work because they had also been targets of earlier programs of either 
earlier JI phases or from complementary development partner initiatives. In Bulawayo, hygiene promoters were given 
bicycles and T-shirts whilst in all other towns residents were given tools for assisting with the clean ups. 
Monitoring 
The program was being monitored at various levels to ensure delivery of outputs. At program level, monitoring was 
through the quarterly meetings, reports and visits by the project manager to partners’ sites. Within the implementing 
partners, monitoring was done by the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) officer either on part time basis as was the case 
with four partners or on full time basis in the case of Africare. The existence of a full time M&E officer was probably 
responsible for Africare succeeding to even monitor sessions by each of the health clubs once a month. “The Africare girls 
are now part of us” remarked one club member in Chitungwiza. The project officers and coordinators for all partners were 
also full time on the ground except in MC where only the officer was on the ground and the coordinator had other duties. 
With the exception of Africare in Chitungwiza, all other clubs in the four towns reported infrequent visits by the project 
20
staff. The visits by project staff are important in ensuring that the CHC facilitators, which are basically community 
members, are able to correctly transmit the information to the members who may in turn also pass it to their children and 
the community at large. Because of the multiplier effect it is important for project officers and or council appointed 
personnel to regularly monitor club sessions in order to give corrective advice where necessary. 
The involvement of government stakeholders in monitoring was limited due to mobility challenges as the officers often 
waited for the program vehicles to transport them. In the case of farmers in Mutare and Masvingo Agritex officers were 
said to rarely visit individual plots even on request. Monitoring by Agritex officers was more frequent at demonstration 
sites usually in the company of project staff. Chitungwiza was the exceptional one where the resident Agritex officers 
considered it part of their daily duties even if it meant visiting the farmers on foot. The impacts of the infrequent monitoring 
in Mutare resulted in farmers doing the wrong things like the incident of the Budirirai farmers whose seedling grew beyond 
the normal period for sale. Members were then forced to plant the seedling themselves for they were no longer fit for sale. 
In another case in Mutare and Bulawayo seedlings in seed trays were very poor in Mutare farmers discontinued use of the 
trays. Further investigations in Mutare indicated that the pine bark used for seedling production needed more watering 
than was being provided by the farmers but this was only learnt when it was probably too late for farmers who now view 
trays as inhibitive. This works against adoption of the trays by farmers with land constraints as the device was meant for 
use even by those without land a common occurrence in urban areas especially among the poor. Exceptional and 
commendable government monitoring was in Masvingo where the district Education Inspector has been to participating 
schools twice since the beginning of the year and was even recommending inclusion of at least two teachers as health 
masters per school and replacement training should the trained teachers transfer. 
Monitoring was also done through reports from hygiene promoters and from the forms designed for schools. Though 
these reports were received on regular intervals by the project staff, physical visits are needed for complementary 
evaluation. In Mutare the city council is responsible for monitoring of the health clubs and an appointed coordinator for all 
health clubs was put in place to produce a consolidated monitoring report for all the clubs to forward to the Health 
department. Such initiatives are good as they not only increase efficiency but also contribute to sustainability after the 
project period. 
3.3 Effectiveness 
3.3.1 Effectiveness as Measured by Project Indicators 
The program has two specific objectives which were to improve communities’ responses to WASH shocks and diseases 
and improving urban populations’ reliable access to nutrition. The progress on each of these objectives as measured 
against indicators given in the project proposal are indicated in table below. 
Table 4: Progress on the Indicators 
Indicator Project 
Target
Oxfa
m
Care CRS Africa
re
MC Total
Sector 1: Water, Sanitation, Hygiene
Objective 1: To increase community resilience to WASH related shocks such as disease outbreaks for 11 000 HH
Environmental Health
1.Number of people benefiting from solid waste 
management, drainage and/or vector control 
activities (without double counting)
- 40 60 70 960 114 1 244
Hygiene Promotion
2.Number of people receiving direct hygiene 
promotion (excluding mass media campaigns 
and without double counting) 
1500 3950 2865 705 5625 14 641
Sanitation Infrastructure
3.Number of people benefiting from this 
sanitation infrastructure program
0 0 0 15 60 75
Sector: Agriculture and Food Security
21
Indicator Project 
Target
Oxfa
m
Care CRS Africa
re
MC Total
Objective 2:To improve urban population’s reliable access to nutritious food
Improving Agricultural Productivity and Food 
Security
1. Projected increase in the number of months 
of food self sufficiency due to distributed seed 
systems/agricultural input for beneficiary 
households
2.Number of people benefiting from seed 
systems/ agricultural activities disaggregated by 
sex
-
85
-
70
-
218
-
105
-
83
-
561
Achievement of Objective 1 -The number of households (it is assumed that only one person trained or participating in 
clubs was from one household) benefiting from the WASH interventions was 14,641 which is about 133% of the projected 
target of 11,000 HHs. The over achievement was mainly due to the high community response to formation of clubs in 
order to take active roles in the delivery of their WASH service whilst being economical empowered. The number of 
households which are benefiting from the WASH intervention is actually higher because the partners are only recording 
HH who are directly participating in the program. A more accurate measure would be the number of households living in 
the vicinity where the interventions are being carried out. The results of the recent 2012 census can probably give a more 
accurate guide on the number of HH in the affected wards as they all benefit from the interventions. The failure to 
implement declogging trainings and implementation in 4 of the 5 towns as well as the non-commencement of solid waste 
recycling projects has reduced the number of beneficiaries and thus the program is expected to highly surpass its WASH 
indicator. 
Achievement of Objective 2 - Though consolidation has not yet been done, indications are that this objective as per 
given indicator is not on course to being achieved. One of the reasons is that the Agricultural initiatives began late and 
only the vegetables had been harvested by the time of the MTE. Even for the vegetables the cash received data was still 
being consolidated and therefore it was not possible to measure the program effectiveness based on the indicator related 
to food self reliance. The number of households benefiting from agricultural activities was 561. The program adopted the 
lead farmer approach where the trained farmers where to form subgroups to teach others what they had learnt. The 
cascading of the trainings was still being done and registers of how many each of the lead farmers had trained were not 
yet consolidated. The need for land and water also limits the number of households who can participate in the agricultural 
based activities. 
The effectiveness of the program was also assessed through an analysis of how the outputs from the program assisted 
the achievement of the project’s two objectives. Information flow and incomes are key ingredients in reducing vulnerability 
to diseases and malnutrition. 
3.2.1 Information Flow 
One of the requirements for responding to WASH disasters is information and the program established platforms for 
sharing information to all members in the community. The program managed to establish health clubs in schools where 
school children could be reached. The club membership included both girls and boys. 
Losthe school children singing about diarrhoea Masvingo Mayor promoting motorists not to throw litter 
22
The enrolment into the clubs was based on volunteer bases so in theory all children could join. The health masters and 
school club members met in schools for Harare, Bulawayo, Masvingo and Mutare indicated that membership was drawn 
from across grades. However in some schools in Chitungwiza membership was limited to the classes which the health 
masters taught to avoid situations where other classes may be doing something else at the time that they want the pupils. 
In primary schools and secondary schools pupils lower than grades 3 and those in Form 1 respectively were generally not 
members. In primary schools the reason for exclusion was that the younger pupils finished earlier and needed to get 
home before the time of clubs which are usually done after lunch. In secondary schools F1 are usually expected to do 
general work within the school during the club times. In both primary and secondary schools the number of children 
enrolled into clubs was general less than 10% of the total school enrolment. 
Though all schools met indicated that club members are given time at assembly to reach out to the others it is unlikely that 
the few minutes sessions could lead to change of the bulk of the school children. The clubs were effective in transmitting 
information of hygienic education to children. At one school in Mbare 60% of pupils were able to respond to questions on 
hygiene whilst in Masvingo the inter schools competition proved that pupils understood what was being taught. In a PHHE 
schools competition held in Masvingo an event which was supposed to last until 1pm was extended to 3 pm because 
judges were finding it difficult to separate schools as all pupils were getting all the answers correct. According to the 
health master in Chitungwiza transmission of hygienic education from children to children was more effective than having 
teachers instruct the pupils because the pupils spend a lot of time together and can give advice that is targeted at 
inappropriate peer behaviour. 
The clubs within the communities of target were also good vehicles for information flow to the general public. The clubs 
were general not discriminatory and any member could join. However in some areas like Chitungwiza and Masvingo 
members needed to monitor the behaviour of those joining for three weeks before making them join the clubs. The clubs 
meetings were conducted within the residential areas of all the club members such that no one could be excluded from 
sessions by virtue of no transport money. The tools used for the sessions were also pictorial such that even the least 
educated and the aged could understand what was being done. The facilitator was also one of the community members 
who used their own language and therefore members understood the language well and no-one expressed fear in 
approaching their facilitators. The use of the promoters was gaining acceptance among the residence who were now 
giving respect to the hygiene promoters. The respect was also because the promoters have for a long time been part of 
the volunteers in programs such as HBC facilitators and in some cases like Bulawayo they were not getting paid so 
community members understood that the promoter’s interest was more for community improvement than money. In a club 
competition all members of Tasimukira club in Masvingo had more than 50% when visits to check on compliance of 
households with expected hygienic was done to their homes. In the same case the household which was given position 1 
had 93%. The clubs were also effective in communicating the information to members polluting the environment. Being 
residents of the same areas their information and education is targeted at households who either usually pollutes the 
streets or open areas close to their areas of residence or whose homes are often unhygienic. Furthermore hosting of the 
training in the areas where the problems were being experienced increased the effectiveness of what was being learnt by 
both the promoters and club members since the examples of the issues under discussion were in their local area. Beside 
the door to door campaigns done in areas of Bulawayo were more effective in imparting the information to the households 
since the education was given in privacy. 
The farmer’s clubs formed were also effective in transmitting information to the farmers. Some farmers especially in 
Masvingo remarked on how they now farm from an informed position and now regard farming as a business. The farmers 
met were able to articulate some of the key issues in farming ranging from planning, financing options, fertilisers, seed 
choice, spacing and marketing. However farming was not open to all members of society because some could not join the 
clubs due to shortage of land and also the limited number of farmers to be reached. For example in Chitungwiza farmers 
needed land to do the seed multiplication. 
23
3.2.2 Income Flow
The farmer’s clubs and the practise of money lending within clubs was effective in improving nutrition. The farmers were 
given information which allowed them to grow a variety of vegetables thus improving their nutrition. The factors 
contributing towards this effectiveness was that the gardens were completely under the control of the households and use 
of the vegetables was dependent on need. In Masvingo where farmers were doing sack potatoes, families had an average 
of 13 sacks of potatoes with an anticipated harvest of 10kgs per sack translating to an income of $10 per sack. 
3.4 Impact of the Program 
The program was built on to earlier JI phases and therefore though it was only midway through, significant positive 
impacts have already been realised in terms of social networking, communication between councils and its residents, 
economic, hygiene and health improvements. Some negative impacts like dongas have also been brought to the 
operating environments. 
3.4.1 Positive Impacts 
3.4.1.1 Social Networking 
The existence of initiatives such as the hygiene clubs, farmers and solid waste recycling groups has brought the residents 
in the same locality together. This togetherness though initial to do the project related activities such as farming and 
PHHE sessions has improved socialisation among community members. This improved socialisation and networking has 
allowed sharing of ideas among members especially the women. The clubs were cross cutting in terms of ages of its 
members and thus interaction between the young and aged women was improved in the society. “The clubs have helped 
me to network with people I would otherwise never talk to” remarked one club member in Mbare. The sharing platforms 
created were also important for discussing other social problems which brought psychological burden among the 
community members. The creation of interactive communities create a togetherness which may greatly assist prevention 
of tensions even during political unrests which at times characterise some of these areas in times such as elections. 
Among the school children socialisation was improved through one identity of being club members within a school with 
many pupils. In some schools like Lotshe, Shingai and Sakubva the club members were responsible for monitoring litter 
and thus encouraging interaction across grades. In most schools membership was across grades and the networking 
within the school was improved. The clubs provide a platform where children can also present their issues for example in 
at Frances A Phiri one of the school health club members was able to share her problem of using a communal towel at 
home though hygienic knowledge advices her against it. 
3.4.1.2 Dialogue between Residents and Council 
Perhaps the biggest impact was creation of dialogue and interactive platforms between the residents and the council and 
also with government workers. The platform was good for both the residents and those in council. It is often difficult for 
residents to raise voices as individuals but as an entity such as clubs residents were able to get their views heard by 
council. The residents through their hygiene facilitators had the contact numbers of the relevant people within council and 
they could phone to request refuse trucks to move accumulated refuse if necessary. In the areas of Mbare residents also 
phone to report incidences of pipe bursts and blockages. Though at times the required assistance does not come at least 
the channels of getting their issues known by council have been activated and are working. The council is also finding it 
easier to pass their relevant information to the communities. In the city of Masvingo, the Mayor uses the clubs as conduits 
to advocate against improper disposal of pampers and also to campaign for good land conservation so that activities like 
the sack potato do not cause dongas within residential areas. The clubs within the program have been used by councils to 
communicate issues and roles which the community can play to improve service delivery since “it has become evident 
that council cannot handle the issues of service delivery without supportive community participation” said Mr Ndhlovu of 
Bulawayo city. Even the councillors have been involved in clean up campaigns leading the community by example. 
Government extension workers such as those from Agritex and Ministry of Youth have also improved their dialogue with 
the farmers in the urban areas. Due to poor resourcing of the government extension programs it was often difficult for 
24
extension officers get the attention of urban communities who often require financial returns from their activities. EMA has 
also been brought closer to the community which they intend to educate. 
3.4.1.4 Economic Improvements 
Both the projects derived from solid waste recovery and agriculture provided the much needed income for the families as 
well as for the local authority. Use of waste paper to make baskets and hats provided incomes for the women. One 
disabled women (64 year old Mrs Mudzingwa) in Mbare reported that she can sell up to four hats and two bags a month at 
a cost of $3 each whilst another woman in Masvingo indicated that up to six baskets a month can be sold for $6 each. In 
Mutare the Shingisanai club members who are engaged in making glasses from recycled bottles can sell as many as 120 
sets per month at an average of $3 per set. Others in Masvingo were making up to $50 from selling Cobra/floor polish 
made from recycled plastics. For local authorities economic gains were in the fuel saved in running refuse trucks. In 
Mutare the collection of waste for recycling by club members coupled with composting practises had reduced the number 
of council refuse trucks from 8 to 5 per week which is a reduction of about 20%. Though the extent was not quantified in 
the other towns the reduction in trips is inevitable since the vendors collect the waste before it is transported to the dump 
site. The collection of waste before the dump site is beneficiary to the waste recyclers because they do not have to pay a 
monthly scavenging fee ranging from $3 -$20 if they collect the waste direct from the producers. 
Both men and women engaged in farming and were already deriving incomes from the project. The production of 
seedlings is giving families an income after periods of about two weeks. One group in Mutare got an average of $60 profit 
from their sales of tomatoes and rape translating to $10 per member within two weeks. In Chitungwiza the bean seeds 
were anticipated to bring $350 for the farmers. In Masvingo one resident who never used to sell any of her vegetables has 
used the compost and now makes an average of $20 from selling tsunga, rape and spinach per month. The money 
generated was enough to attract her son into gardening as a means of earning an income. Another innovative farmer Mr 
Mutinye has already started selling his fruit seedlings from his vegetable market stall in Rujeko and to date he has sold 50 
at an average of $2 each. The income gained from the farming initiatives has been used to do various empowering 
activities. One woman in Mutare’s ZIMTA area used her funds to establish a tuckshop from which she is now getting an 
income of about $2 a day. In Mbare members of the Noble Ideas farmers’ club had $74 from the sale of their seedlings 
but they had not shared it out to members. 
Economic empowerment has also been derived from participation in sanitation related programs. In Chitungwiza one of 
the three youth groups has managed to do 3 declogging assignments for a total of $24 shared among the 5 members. In 
Bulawayo the youth groups were undergoing training of gully trap raising where they expected to charge about $10 for 
raising gullies of affected households. All the community health clubs have also diverted to money saving and lending 
schemes. Members contribute $4 to $100 a month and the money is used to lend out to club members and is shared in 
cash or as groceries after defined periods which range from 3-12 months. The money borrowed is charged an average 
interest of 20% per month. These schemes have enabled some members to buy kitchen utensils, personal phones and in 
highly successful cases of Masvingo’s Rujeko suburb (Tasimukira Club) even houses. It is however worth noting that 
some of these schemes started before the current phase. 
Chitungwiza club members sharing groceries 
Masvingo club members at a 
nutrition garden and house 
bought by the scheme
25
3.4.1.5 Improved Hygiene 
The JI project has also brought hygienic improvements within the homes and the general environment. “We feel that the 
program should also be taken to Gweru where solid waste is all over in public places” remarked one woman at a meeting 
at Mucheke Hall. The valuing of good hygiene with the homes of club members has increased and in Rujeko nearly 25 of 
the 60 of the club members have fitted hand washing basins into their toilets in order to encourage hand washing for 
family members. The clubs have managed to provide the labour required to keep clean environs and this impact in 
Harare’s has caused the city fathers to demand 15 more clubs instead of the original number such that the flats areas 
with high concentration of both people and waste can be improved. “The clubs have changed the face of Mbare” said an 
official from DA’s office in Mbare. The clubs who organise several clean up campaigns outside the project have been 
instrumental force behind the clean up campaigns in all cities including reclaiming some spots that have been as used 
dump sites for years. The reclaimed areas have been turned into beneficiary areas. In Chitungwiza reclamation of the 
area near St Marys Clinic has restored the once neglected park whilst in Mbare close to Mupedzanhamho market a 
vegetable garden has been established by a group led by Mr Masimba. The improved hygiene within cities like Bulawayo 
is evidenced by the fact that the number of clean up campaigns have decreased from once a week to once a month. The 
involvement of communities have assisted in maintaining clean environments as their hands experience have shown them 
the labour required to remove the waste. In the urban areas of Masvingo, Bulawayo and Mutare the club members have 
become police ensuring that their streets are clean. Other members in the area now recognise the roles of Health 
Promoters and the report cases of dumping to them. The improved hygiene has also come about as a result of knowledge 
of what can and cannot be done. In Mutare the public is now so aware of the antilittering laws that at one time a local 
business man was fined by EMA after a member of the public identified his address on the dumped address. Furthermore 
in the same city when members observe incidence of pipe bursts they report to EMA whom they know have the capacity 
to direct council to carry out repairs. Before the program EMA used not receive to receive reports on pipe bursts. Now 
they receive up to four reports a month. 
Within schools health masters also reported improved hygiene within schools though absence of hygiene enabling 
facilities such as water to wash hands after toilet use and tools to do clean ups in the school limit this impact in areas such 
as Mbare. 
3.4.1.6 Improved Health
The project has also improved the health of the people because people now live in cleaner environments through the 
clean ups and hygiene lessons. The nurses from the clinics in Chitungwiza remarked that the patients are now better 
informed. Furthermore, the handling of food and water which are usually pathways for disease transmission have been 
partially blocked because women responsible for providing these to the families are now aware. Some of the targeted 
women also run backyard food outlets and their improved hygienic practises are passed on to these businesses. “Our 
vending sites are distinctly cleaner than those of non-club members” said one club member from Mbare. Furthermore the 
gardens have also improved food availability and diet within the homes which all contribute towards improved health. One 
woman in Masvingo who has to feed a disabled child remarked on how easy life was for her now since she easily 
accesses the food from the garden. 
3.4.2 Negative Impacts 
3.4.2.1 Land degradation 
Some farmers not necessarily members of the clubs have embraced the sack potatoes and obtain soil without backfilling 
the pits where they obtain the soils. This has created dongas in the suburb of Rujeko in Masvingo “some of the dongas 
have caught the mayor’s attention who visited Rujeko to find out what was happening” said one potato farmer in 
Masvingo. 
26
3.5 Sustainability 
The program across the five towns has put in measures to ensure that the benefits currently being enjoyed by the 
communities will continue after the program ends. These measures fall into three broad categories namely ownership, 
capacity building and felt value from participation. However lack of resources and incentives will tend to work against 
sustainability of the program. 
3.5.1 Ownership 
The JI program across the five towns has ensured that the local authorities are in the driving seat of the program. The 
supportive local authority departments (Health, Engineering, Public Works, Social Services) are actively involved in the 
planning and delivery processes. This is done to ensure that all involved will continue with the processes until the end. 
However in some towns such as Harare despite the repeated call some key departments including Public Works and 
Health Education do not work with the program and are unlikely to work the program later. Such actions may derail the 
communities members who need to feel that their efforts are being noticed and supported those responsible. One 
example raised was the slow response to blockages which makes all cleaning efforts done in the blocked toilets futile. The 
DA for Harare however insisted that all missing departments will be brought on board to support the program and all that 
is required is to report the non supportive members to the DA’s attention. In all towns the activities of the project are 
reported in council meetings and in Area Coordination Committee meetings for Mbare. These committees will continue to 
function even after the program. Some of the long term plans such as the DRR plans which have been developed by the 
towns have long term plans which already go beyond the life of the project indicating the seriousness of the responsible 
authorities to function beyond the JI program. In Chitungwiza someone from the council has already been assigned to 
take care of the reclaimed park on a daily basis and hence the Park benefits will continue to be enjoyed beyond the 
project. In addition some towns like Bulawayo were planning to launch a program termed Bulawayo Solid Waste 
Improvement Plan (BSWIP) whose focus is on solid waste implying that issues of solid waste will take center stage even 
after the program. In Masvingo the Mayor felt that war against solid waste was” a Masvingo town issues and the program 
was to continue with or without CARE”. The communities also feel that they own the responsibility to keep their cities and 
in all cities clean up campaigns organised independent of development parameters are occurring. 
The school clubs are being regarded as part of the school clubs and in all town schools have clubs have seen been in 
existence since 2006 and these have been a constant as NGOs changed. Such is an indication that the clubs will 
continue beyond the project but it also points to the need for some sort of common belonging for these clubs. Clubs within 
schools are affected by sporting activities and they general receive the most attention during third term. The practise of 
closely involving the district officials as was done in Masvingo town will probably lead to better sustainability since the 
district level is keen on monitoring and continuity of the clubs. The district pledged to ensure that all school inspectors will 
St Marys reclaimed park
27
need to report on the progress made by the clubs. The clubs have shown better signs of sustainability in the schools such 
as Njube (Bulawayo) and Shingai Primary School (Chitungwiza) where the headmasters have also been called for 
sensitisation workshops. The hygiene promoters and club executive leadership run the clubs based on agreed 
constitutions and members feel that they own the clubs and it is unlikely that they can collapse due to ownership crisis. 
The community clubs have been supervised together with the environmental related departments within council though in 
Harare the respective department has not been forth coming. The clubs need to be linked to some permanent department 
so that those responsible can continue to visit them and or organise competitions to increase the concentration of the 
members. In Masvingo, Chitungwiza, Mutare and BYO the facilitators have long periods of linkages with the respective 
city council and it is likely that these links will enable continuation of the clubs through providing the support required. The 
frequency of visit to these clubs will also increase chances of their sustainability. Within one farming club (Noble Ideas) in 
Harare the children also participated in the activities like gardening though either the mother or father were members and 
should the parents die the children will continue with the membership. 
The farmers club were also been closely linked to Agritex in Harare, Chitungwiza, Mutare and Masvingo as these have 
participated in the training and monitoring of the farmers. Since the Agritex extension staff are permanent government 
staff members in these areas they are likely to continue interacting with the farmers even in the absence of the 
development partners. However in Bulawayo the training was done by Farm and City and the interaction is likely to last for 
as long as there is mutual benefit. Disputes related to prizes and supply may cut the relationships should the private 
company see the clubs as not adding any value to their business. 
The residents own the responsibility of keeping their city clean. In cities such as Masvingo, Bulawayo and Mutare the club 
member’s responsibilities are backed by council who respond with cautions, fines or penalties on the offenders reported 
by the club members. In these cities the council respond by closing water and asking the offender pays a fine of between 
$20 and $50 depending on the town. These fees have been deterrent enough and households have general not dumped 
waste at the cleaned up open spaces. Those who continue to do so in towns such as Bulawayo do it in the night when no 
one sees them for they know that if found out they will be forced to remove the waste and or pay a fine. In Mbare and 
Chitungwiza the backing of club members by council through enforcement of their reports on offenders have not been 
common. The non-dumping activities have been more of voluntary than fear of enforcement as Chitungwiza has scrapped 
all fines to offenders. Such a system is unlikely to be sustainable in the long run. 
3.5.2 Capacity Building and Resources 
The participants of the program were capacitated with both the knowledge and resources to continue with the work 
beyond the program. “To us being given knowledge instead of handouts is like being given fishing hooks and not the fish 
and so we will continue fishing to get our fish even after the program” remarked one member of Shasha pahutsanana club 
member. The club members for hygiene, solid waste recovery and farming clubs had the knowledge to continue carrying 
out their current functions. The facilitators were also given tools to use in teaching the new members who will join the 
clubs even after the project period. The clubs also had developed their own reporting structures which had been 
capacitated with the basic skills of running a club. However only the members involved in the farming or waste recovery 
business had been given a business management course. Virtually all clubs members met had diversified into one form of 
business or the other and therefore they also needed to be given business management skills to enable them to proceed 
sustainable. 
The club members have also been capacitated with the resources to continue with their work. Those in clean up 
campaigns have been provided with pushcarts, brooms, protective clothing and. While the push carts can last up to 12 
years the other materials such as brooms have shorter life spans of around three months. Unless councils or another 
stakeholder take active tools of providing this equipment to community the activity may eventually be stopped as residents 
are unlikely to buy the tools on their own. “Council will continue as long as resources to do so are there” said one 
Chitungwiza employee. In Bulawayo on ESATS a leading uniform supplier had provided some assistance to the clean-up 
but a more organised system for the provision of tools will be required to increase chances of sustainability. In one school 
28
club in Bulawayo the members were given $20 as kick start funds for raising money to buy all the equipment they needed 
to turn their theoretical knowledge on hygiene into practise. 
The clubs members have also been capacitated through linkages to the platforms necessary for continuity. This has 
especially happened with the farming groups where everyone met knew where to buy seeds, fertilisers, special soil and 
chemicals. In Masvingo the members of the waste recycling groups have been put into direct link with a prospective 
Private Sector buyer of their products who also promised to provide a pelletiser and the agreements where officialised 
through an MOU of the parties. However these linkages have not yet been done to completion for those clubs which have 
not yet started production. The same trend has been observed for virtually all land dependant projects such as the Youth 
waste recycling project in Mutare. The land bureaucracy delaying start of programs is likely to make the program 
unsustainable as the club members will continue to need support in the learning curve for all prospects for their work. 
Land ownership will probably work against sustainability of land dependant projects unless councils donate land. 
3.5.3 Diversification or Value of Participation
The urban population who live a life driven by the need to provide for their survival will always need some value in 
participation in the programs. Virtually all clubs met had diversified in order to get some income generating or saving 
components within the clubs in order to attract members. About 90% of the members in the clubs have been drawn to the 
clubs by the prospects of self empowerment in a country where unemployment is high. The issue of incomes from 
projects done within the clubs have especially attracted males and who are likely maintain their presence in the clubs. All 
the males who attended the MTE discussion were in the money lending schemes. 
Besides the monetary value some club members have been promised priority consideration should jobs in the sectors 
relevant to what they are already doing arise within council. Whilst this hope was farfetched in light of retrenchments in 
most local authorities it was likely to sustain members’ participation in the short to medium term. Other values which have 
kept members in place include incentives such as bars of soap after clean ups. However in towns such as Mutare they 
have withdrawn these incentives and the turn up for clean ups has not been significantly affected. In other towns such as 
Masvingo the municipality through the mayor vowed to continue giving half bars of soap to clean up volunteers. 
Furthermore private companies have been lured into participation by increasing their value for example permission to 
advertise through initiatives financed by them. One such example will be placement of the company name on drums in 
public parks and street donated by the private company and or printing the company name on the recycled plastics 
produced. 
29
4.0 Best Practices and Lesson Learned
4.1 Best Practices
The following are regarded as best practices drawn from the partners indicated: 
Practice Partners best 
Exhibiting them
Reclamation of previous dumping area into productive areas guarded by those deriving 
benefit from them- The solid waste recycling groups who were also taught about farming cleared 
dumps which had accumulated in open spaces. However the public still continued to dump waste onto 
these spaces forcing the solid recycling clubs to be involved in a cycle of cleaning the same spaces. 
The clubs decided to use the cleared areas as either gardens in the case of Mbare and as Parks in 
the case of Chitungwiza. After that dumping stopped.
Oxfam and 
Africare
Restoring areas into previous land uses- Councils were reluctant to designate new land for 
recreational activities. Partners then decided to identify areas which had been designated as Parks 
before but for one reasons or the other had become neglected. The councils then became forth 
coming and restoration activities are underway.
Oxfam, Africare 
and CRS
Working through Existing Initiatives-The program made use of the structures such as Health and 
School clubs which were already on the ground as functional entities. The clubs were general for 
hygiene lessons but after some time monotony was affecting functionality. The program then 
capacitated in the members with new skills such as farming, compost making and business 
management. This made the attendance to clubs to remain high. 
All Partners
Giving Marked Work to Pupils- It is difficult for teachers to assess whether or not pupils are 
mastering the PHHE lessons. Giving written tests during the club times helped the teacher in 
Chitungwiza to determine the effectiveness of their lessons. An objective measure of the knowledge 
getting to the clubs members can also be determined
Africare
Supporting Council priority areas- The supported municipalities already had some plans on the 
ground regarding improving WASH services but these were lacking effective strategies and financing. 
Identifying and supporting these plans got an automatic buy in from the council officials making the 
subsequent implementation fast. 
All Partners
Gully Trap Raising-Sand and foreign particles contribute the most towards sewer blockages. The 
councils cannot really do much since the low gully traps are on privately owned land. Development of 
a private youth group to provide gully raising expertise was a good initiative.
CRS
Officialising private sector Engagements- Most small enterprises fail because of lack of capital 
equipment and market. In addition some community groups have to deal with markets that change 
rules as and when they feel like making it difficult for small players in business. In Masvingo a private 
company was engaged and agreed to buy recycled waste from the community groups. Besides 
providing the market the private company also promised to donate equipment to use in the project. All 
these agreements were officiated by an MOU to ensure that relationships will continue even after the 
project. 
CARE
Family Involvement in clubs-The club members were involving their families in activities such as 
compost making and gardening. The members were coming to do the parent’s duty in the absence of 
the club member ensuring that the clubs projects would not suffer. In other settings the family 
members started their own projects such as compost making and sack potatoes copying from the 
family member who was in the project In other settings involving long term projects a family member 
was allowed to take over in the death of a relative
Oxfam and CARE
Collaboration with related Activities -The JI was addressing topical issues and there were some 
initiatives in the area of operation. Combining with these activities reduced the costs to the program
whilst achieving the project objective
Africare
Community Financing of Projects-The targeted members were vulnerable and often did not 
contribute cash to the projects they ran. However in one situation in Mutare the members of one club 
started the farming project with their own reserves. The members have a strong commitment to the 
success of the project since they committed their own funds. 
Mercy Corps
Giving Community Quick Wins-People in urban areas are not sure of the benefits to be derived 
from programs. Activities which give quick and visible benefits such as clean up campaigns make the 
All Partners
30
Practice Partners best 
Exhibiting them
communities to develop faith in the JI partners
Making Councils Identify Resources Persons-Programs general stop after the partners pull out 
because the supported local authorities are not sure about how to do it. Making the local authorities to 
be lead the process of resource persons identification will promote their continuation with the capacity 
building activities after project comes to an end
Mercy Corps
Collecting Waste at Generation Point- General waste is collected at the dump site where waste 
pickers pay a fee to access the waste. Transportation of the waste to the dump site also increased 
volume of waste carried by local authorities. Thus collection of recycled waste at the point of 
generation saved money to both the communities and the council through savings from licence fees 
and transport cost respectively.
Mercy Corps
Making new clubs part of old ones- Club members learn better from each other and thus making 
new clubs sub groups of existing ones makes this learning easier.
Mercy Corps
Getting Buy inns from Headmasters-School health clubs suffer from lack of support by the school 
decision makers. The engagement of the headmasters prior to the initiation of health club activities 
makes it easier for health masters to run the clubs within the schools.
Africare and CRS
4.2 Lessons Learned
The program has provided the following lessons to the programming: 
 Seasonality should be considered in implementing agricultural initiatives in order to align seasons to appropriate 
crops and activities 
 It is difficult for community members to be given space to do income generating activities such as de blocking 
which are in conflict with council employees’ interests. 
 All contributory factors to observed poor WASH service delivery problem need simultaneous addressing 
otherwise the weakest link within the system will make the system ineffective. In this program council 
supplementary services make or break community participation 
 Appropriate punitive response to volunteer reports on those dumping waste at undesignated sites encourages 
them to do their work with vigilance and profiles the volunteer high within their communities 
 Discussions on land leases need to start early on in the program as council processes are bureaucratic and can 
take for ever resulting in programs ending before some land dependent projects can go through at least once 
cycle 
 School health club most active if the teachers of the classes involved have undergone the PHHE training 
 People in urban areas take keen interest in programs with an economic return at personal level. 
31
5.0 Conclusions and Recommendations
The conclusions and the corresponding recommendations for improvements in program implementation are shown in the 
table below: 
Table 5: Conclusions and Recommendations 
Conclusions Recommendations
Partners have strength and best practices 
which can benefit their counterparts in 
different
-Each partner should make detailed case studies of their 
success stories
-Exchange visits among partners for the purposes of learning
Community hygienic efforts are not 
consistently being complimented by the city 
fathers. Some non complimentarity are due 
in part to non participating in the stakeholder 
meetings
-Continue to engage local authorities for them to understand 
the effect their non-complementary services are having on the 
program. The key departments for engagement are the Health 
Education, Public works and refuse collection
-Use the DA to invite all stakeholders to the project meetings 
and use the same channels for follows to ensure accountability
Initiatives which depend on either council 
leasing land and/or touch deep into the core 
of council departments activities are 
progressing the least
-Hold frequent all stakeholder meetings which puts pressure 
on councils to make decisions
-Diversify to other complimentary non-core council business 
activities such as the gully raising done in Bulawayo
Club members within both schools and 
communities require recognition and 
exposure to keep them motivated.
-Encourage all councils to appreciate efforts from the clubs
-Publicise the work carried out by health clubs in solid waste 
management possibly through meetings and if possible 
through the press
-Promote exchange programs
-Advocate for promotion and adoption of what has worked best 
With increased diversification of activities 
there is risk of reduction in the actual PHHE 
sessions during meetings
Ensure that PHHE is still discussed by organising regular 
theoretical and practical competitions
Waste recycling projects are unlikely to go 
through the whole project cycle before the 
end of the project
-Allow for a No cost extension to allow solid waste projects to 
go through at least one cycle in order to offer the necessary 
backstopping support
-Speed up provision of all the promised material resources
-Link the waste recycling projects to a volunteer mentor 
company doing the same business in order to provide the 
required business 
Some government partners fear exclusion 
from success stories
The ownership of the processes through involvement has been 
important and all stakeholders including government 
departments need to be kept abreast with all developments so 
that no one will feel like they helped push start a car which 
later dropped them off.
Visits to health clubs in both schools and 
communities are irregular in the towns of 
Harare, Bulawayo and Mutare
Regular visits to ensure that tools are used properly since the 
audience reached by the facilitators and HM are high and 
therefore one person's error is spread to at least 30 persons 
Most community clubs have diversified into 
business either as groupings or as individual 
entities
Give courses in business and project management to all 
community club members
Program with benefits other than the 
program ones are the ones which will 
continue to move after project subsidy
-Concentration should be to find a business element in every 
program components
-Pulling factors needed for both school and community clubs 
32
Conclusions Recommendations
so mechanism to strengthen self sustenance of pulling factors 
need to be given the greatest attention 
-Encourage the members to share the knowledge within 
families for continuity
There is a high expectant for program
renewal among beneficiaries
-Let Clubs know of exit date 
-Gradual withdrawal of soap incentive for communities and 
gauge reaction
-Exchange programs for schools and clubs 
PHHE knowledge content is rarely being 
tested 
-Encourage Health Masters to give written work to pupils write 
some tests and records be kept at the schools to complement 
the register
-Organise competition for schools and communities
Clubs require some place to give reports to 
and identification
-Link the clubs to council offices and do gradual withdrawal 
-Publicity of health club contribution to hygiene
-Encourage councils to start clubs in areas not covered by 
program as their own program
- School inspectors to be also trained so that they monitor the 
clubs during their visits to the schools
- Ensure that relevant council employees are given the same 
knowledge as the communities they interact with otherwise the 
community members will view the council employees as 
incompetent leading to loose of confidence in them.
Logical sequencing of activities affected the 
extent and timing of benefits to communities
-Compost making to proceed planting so that farmers can 
make use of their own compost
-Give seeds in time so that farmers do not plant too late
-Issues taught to be accompanied by equipment to practise 
what will have been learnt
-Market side to be done in time to reduce chances of side 
marketing and or personal consumption
-Market research and analysis for products and possible risk 
factors and mitigatory factors to be clearly laid out and 
management plan for the done
-Private sector engagement need to be speeded up and tied 
up by means of documentation
Communities members expect the program
to finance all their capital requirements for 
projects
-Hand outs to be given later in the program after farmers have 
put in something of theirs 
-Encourage communities to find solutions from themselves
The means of verification for the various 
program components are not always easy to 
locate find
Partners filing system for registers which are the means of 
verification for work done need to be improved
33
Annex 1: Key Informants 
Names Organisation Designation Contact
1 Mutambara S Mercy Corps Project Manager 0772401214
2 Mashanga W Oxfam Project Officer 0774077036
3 Meki k Oxfam Project coordinator 0772139253
4 Perekwa M Africare 0772614972
5 Wariva E Africare WASH Assistant 0772528079
6 Bodzo Africare M&E 0774415574
CRS
CARE
Harare/Mbare
D Sakupwanya City of Harare Cleansing 
Superintendent
0772260475
Terrence 
Chatikobo
City of Harare Student 0776684134
Gift Marozva Min of Youth District Head 0773101742
Paul Ndudza DA Office Admin officer 0773463552
Tapera P Samanda DAAC Chairperson 0733477291
P. Kwedza CPC/Red cross Vice Chair
H. Towindo City Health Environmental 
Health Tech
0735193193
7 Nyamabande R St Peters School Health Master 0773271408
8 Mukarakate St Peters Health Master 0772808222
Chitungwiza
9 Kachena Shingayi Primary Health Master 0772867151
10 Katsande Chitungwiza 
Municipality
Senior Health 
Promotion Officer
0772
11 Manyumbo Chitungwiza 
Municipality
Environmental 
Health Officer
0773828103
12 Mukunya Chitungwiza 
Municipality
Health Promotion 
Officer
0772634359
13 Manduna Chitungwiza 
Municipality
EHT 0773479334
14 Dumba Chitungwiza 
Municiplaity
EHO 0775023967
15 Kawisi Chitungwiza 
Municipality
Parks and 
Ammenities 
Superintendent
0772208881
16 Bvoro Chitungwiza 
Municipality
Refuse Manager 0772604022
17 Makuni Agritex AEO 0772677869
18 Chipumho Agritex AEO 0772897224
19 Mapamba Prime Agro Agronomist 0772819567
34
Names Organisation Designation Contact
Masvingo
20 Chikutuva F Agritex AEO 0772678984
21 Chiguhune E Masvingo 
Municipality
EHT 0773421389
22 Fidizie Masvingo 
Munipality
Mayor
23 Ndlovu S EMA P and M officer 0772981311
24 Mudume Ministry of 
Education
Schools 
Psychological Officer
0773550747
25 Mugweni Frances A Phiri Health Master 0772243743
26 Rupanga Frances A Phiri Health Master 0773906616
27 Muhwati M CARE Project Officer 0772847835
Bulawayo
28 Nyama Community Worker Health Promoter 0775604200
29 Ncube P BYO Municipality Divisional EHO
30 Ndhlovu BYO A/Cleansing Sup 0474450
31 Marara Farmer
32 Sithole BYO Municipality Councillor
33 Nyathi Njube High School Health Master 0771604200
34 Zaba Njube High School Health Master 0772928167
35 Ndhlovu BYO Municipality Councillor 0733814279
36 Mudzingwa Lotshe Primary 
School
Health Master 0778989624
37 Gezana Lotshe Primary 
School
Health Master
38 Velempini F BYO Municiplaity Building Technician 0775942860
39 Machingura F CRS Program Manager 0772573253
Mutare
40 Marange 0773293031
41 Mapungwana Sakubva Primary Health Master 0775083895
42 Mutsanya Sakubva Primary A D/Head 0772811550
43 Chabani Sakubva Primary Health Master 0772905090
44 Makawa Agritex AEO 0774032656
45 Nyamagodo Agritex Attache 
46 Chirawu Mutare 
Municipality
Senior SWHW 
officer
0772271559
47 Machona Mutare 
Municipality
Community Services 
Officer
0772588102
48 Dhakama EMA P and M officer 0772894569
50 Chipunza EMA DEO 0773731916
51 Makande Ministry of Youth YDO 0773460082
52 Dube Mercy Corps Project Officer 0772586480
Mercy Corps Program
Coordinator
35
Annex 2: Terms of Reference 
The Joint Initiative (JI) for Urban Zimbabwe 
Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Mid-term Evaluation for the JI Program 
The Joint initiative (JI) is a unique NGO-led consortium that builds on three core pillars of: urban humanitarian 
coordination, program implementation, and information sharing and advocacy. The JI has expanded its widely recognized 
and successful urban humanitarian co-ordination and effective urban program implementation role to encompass the 
wider urban programming environment in Zimbabwe including urban WASH and urban agriculture and food security 
issues. All the targeted locations (Mbare, Chitungwiza, Masvingo, Mutare and Bulawayo) have problems with solid waste 
accumulation; waste disposal in the majority of cases is nonexistent or simply dumped in open locations leading to 
contamination of water sources and environmental pollution. The JI program seeks to address these problems through a 
comprehensive approach that targets key constraints within the sanitation chain, contributing to the improved health and 
wellbeing of the target populations. Specifically, the JI partners are working with communities to both address current 
waste accumulation and to maintain a healthy environment going forward, critical to mitigating the risk of disease outbreak 
in crowded urban neighborhoods. To safeguard gains made in solid waste management and environmental health, the JI 
partners will work with communities to promote healthy behaviors and practices for families by targeting households and 
institutions with effective PHHE information and training, including a heavy emphasis on water handling at point of use. 
The program is also undertaking a strategic package of activities designed to bring communities together in taking 
ownership of their own safety and well-being while specifically addressing identified hazards. In an attempt, to address 
food security risks specific to urban households, the JI program will help improve production of staple and nutritious foods 
in the targeted urban centres while increasing the participating household incomes, compost production (for households 
with little access to land) and seed multiplication. 
Program Title: NGO Joint Initiative for Urban Zimbabwe: Community Based Support to Vulnerable Urban Populations 
Location: Five urban centers of Zimbabwe (Harare-Mbare), Mutare, Bulawayo, Chitungwiza, Masvin go) 
Funded by: USAID/OFDA 
Implementation: 1st July 2013 – 31 December 2014 
Period to be evaluated: 1
st July 2013 – 30 April 2014 
36
Evaluation Consultancy: 
Time period: The evaluation is scheduled over 2 week period beginning on the 16th of June 2014 through to the 11th of 
July 2014. 
3) Background: 
The NGO Joint Initiative for Urban Zimbabwe (JI) began as a unique collaboration between five international NGOs and 
multiple donor agencies to address pervasive vulnerability and intense 
Poverty in Zimbabwe’s most densely populated cities. Established in 2006, in response to
Operation Murambatsvina which displaced more than 700,000 people, the first phase of the JI provided life-saving 
assistance through WASH activities, food distribution, care for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC), and livelihood 
support. As the political and economic situation in Zimbabwe has gradually improved, the JI has transitioned toward 
disaster risk reduction interventions to build household and community resilience against future shocks. The current 
phase of JI; 
1. Continue to support the transition from relief to recovery, while addressing immediate needs and critical barriers 
to recovery, maintaining systems and building capacity for coordinated emergency response should conditions 
deteriorate. 
2. Mainstream Disaster Risk Reduction across all sectors to provide communities with the plans, tools, and 
resources they need to mitigate the impact of socio-political shocks. 
3. Expand the focus to include the Agriculture & Food Security sector through an innovative approach that links 
urban beneficiaries with peri-urban communities through mutually beneficial interventions around compost 
production and seed multiplication. 
4.
Program Goal: To promote, improve and protect sustainable livelihoods for urban and peri-urban communities in 
Zimbabwe through effective response and information coordination of urban actors. 
Sector 1: Water, Sanitation & Hygiene 
Objective: To increase communities’ resiliency to WASH-related shocks, such as disease outbreaks. 
Sub-Sector 1.1: Environmental Health 
Activity 1: Cleanup/debris removal campaigns 
Activity 2: Solid waste management 
Sub-Sector 1.2: Hygiene Promotion 
Activity 1: Community-led DRR planning 
Activity 2: Participatory Health and Hygiene 
Activity 3: Promotion of point of use water treatment 
Sub-Sector 1.3: Sanitation Infrastructure 
Activity 1: IGA-led Sewage Services 
37
Activity 2: Public sector capacity building 
Sector 2: Agriculture and Food Security 
Objective: To improve urban populations’ reliable access to nutritious food through improved incomes and production. 
Sub-Sector 2.1: Improving Agricultural Production/Food Security 
Activity 1: Compost production 
Activity 2: Seed multiplication
Purpose of the Mid-term Evaluation 
The program provided for an end of project evaluation. The evaluation is primarily meant to measure the extent to which 
project objectives/desired outcomes have been achieved and to determine whether the program met the needs of the 
targeted population. The outcome of the evaluation should also help to refocus the project where necessary in order to 
meet all the set targets. In order to achieve this goal, the evaluation should satisfy the following sub-objectives; 
 Evaluate the coverage, relevance, appropriateness, efficiency, impact and effectiveness of the interventions 
undertaken. 
 To evaluate connectedness between JI partners, the private sector and government. 
 Determine the potential learning opportunities for future programming 
 Evaluation Methods 
This is a participatory, process oriented evaluation that will be led and facilitated by an external consultant, and the 
evaluation report should be submitted to Mercy Corps. 
The following data collection and analysis methods will be used to address the evaluation questions: 
 Review of documentation and secondary data – The evaluator will assess project records and reports as well 
as the results of prior surveys carried out with beneficiaries, including food security data obtained from the 
ongoing surveys. 
 Site visits and observations – The evaluation exercise would include field visits to the urban centres where the 
program is being implemented. 
 Semi-structured stakeholder interviews & focus groups – The consultant will prepare a loose questionnaire, 
and facilitate focus group discussions with beneficiaries and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, 
such as the representatives from the local authorities and select beneficiaries. 
 Staff interviews – The consultant will discuss with the program staff of the JI program 
The consultant will have the responsibility for compiling and analyzing the data, though Mercy Corps staff may be 
available to assist. 
Deliverables: A Mid-term evaluation report and presentation to Mercy Corps and JI Implementing Partners and other 
interested stakeholders 
38
Reporting and Dissemination Requirements 
The Mid-term evaluation report should have the following sections: 
 Cover Page, List of Acronyms 
 Table of Contents which identifies page numbers for the major content areas of the report. 
 Executive Summary (2 to 3 pages) should be a clear and concise stand-alone document that gives readers the 
essential contents of the evaluation report in 2 or 3 pages, previewing the main points in order to enable readers to 
build a mental framework for organizing and understanding the detailed information within the report. In addition, the 
Executive Summary helps readers determine the key results and recommendations of the report. Thus, the 
Executive Summary should include: major lessons learned; maximum of two paragraphs describing the program, 
summary of targets and intended outcomes; areas of meaningful under or over achievement; and possibly a few lines 
describing the action plan developed to follow up on evaluation recommendations and how the evaluation report will 
be disseminated. 
 Methodology: sampling method including strengths and weaknesses of method used inclusion of stakeholders and 
staff, rough schedule of activities, description of any statistical analysis undertaken, including justification and 
software package used. The discussion of any random sampling used should include details on how the random 
respondents were identified and invited to participate. This section should also address constraints and limitations of 
the evaluation process and rigor. The methodology section should also include a detailed description of data 
collection techniques used throughout the evaluation. 
 Limitations of the study: this should also include areas for further research. 

8) Notes
 While MC undertakes the responsibility of facilitating travel and organizing meetings for the evaluator, it is the evaluator’s 
ultimate responsibility to follow through and ensure that all relevant parties are interviewed and relevant project sites 
visited. 
 Prior to arriving in the respective targeted urban centres, the evaluator must submit a list of people / groups that s/he 
wishes to talk to, so that the JI staff and partners can arrange the meetings. Upon completion of the midterm program 
evaluation Mercy Corps will notify the consultant to send soft and three spiral bound copies of the report to the Country 
Director. 
Timeline: 16 working days spanning from the 16th of June to the 11th of July 2014 for four weeks. A half-day to present 
findings of the research will be arranged at a later stage. 
39
Qualifications: The consultant will require extensive experience in implementing and evaluating Urban WASH 
agricultural programs, an understanding of URBAN vulnerability and URBAN WASH challenges. The consultant/s should 
be a strong writer, thinker, leader, advisor, and have demonstrated ability to produce high quality outputs in a relatively 
short time. 
To apply: Please submit a CV, cover letter outlining experience and technical knowledge and a copy of a previous 
evaluation by the 9th of June, 2014 and send to: sbowa@zw.Mercy Corps.org or 
Mercy Corps 
73 Harare Drive, Mount Pleasant 
Harare, Zimbabwe