AFRICANEWS
Action and contactsCARE FOR SMALL ENTREPRENEURSFocused on long term development approaches that support initiatives to enhance household livelihood secuiryt of poor people working in the informal sector and those living in rural communities, CARE International in Zimbabwe operates under the auspices of a basic country agreement with the government of Zimbabwe. The non-governmental organisation aims at : Strengthening the capacity of banks and NGO financial institutuions to extend credit to micro-enterprises in the informal sector of the economy, establishing and facilitating market sysyems for agriculaturasl products and inputs in rural areas and also create jobs by expanding financial services and non-financial services in both urban and rural areas. To achieve these broad objectives, CARE's projects are done directly with communities as well as unique linkages with partner organisations- other non-governmental organisations and government departments. CARE's activities so far involve agriculture and natural resources management, which entails a small dam rehabilitation project for food security of people living in drought prone rural communities. CARE signed a memorandum of understanding with the Zimabwe government in 1996 to involve in this project and it provides equipment used in the rehabiliation of dams while government departments provide to technical expertise and the local community provides the labour. The Small Dam Rehabilitation project draws its inspiration from among other things, the realisation by the government of Zimbabwe that droughts are cyclical in Africa and therefore mechanisms, methodologies and approaches needed to be tested and established to empower and enhance their capacity to mitigate the potential effects of future droughts. Through the SDRP programme, it has been observed that at the current 108 dams sites in two of Zimbabwe's nine provinces rehabilitated by the organisation, over 160 000 direct participants and another 100 000 people are benefitting from well managed resources and increassed horticultural production. " Each dam on average has had its water holding capcity increased by 27 megalitres or almost 20 percent of its life expectancy greatly improved as siltation rates have been reduced by 86 percent from an estimated average of 7 percent to one percent," CARE Zimbabwe observed at its project sites in the country. To this end, CARE has been involved in interventions, to provide micro-finances with lending banks and non-govenmental organisations which provide loans to rural and informal sector entrepreneurs.
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