ReliefWeb

Introduction

1. Seventy percent of the population in Zimbabwe depend on rain-fed agriculture. Vulnerability to climaterelated shocks is a constant threat to their ability to secure enough nutritious food throughout the year.
   In the face of these challenges – made more frequent and intense by climate change – the United Nations World Food Programme in Zimbabwe in 2017 launched the R4 Rural Resilience Initiative (R4) funded by Swiss Development Cooperation, to enable 6,000 vulnerable rural households in Masvingo and Rushinga districts to increase their food- and nutrition security by managing climate-related risks. This initiative combines four risk management strategies: improved resource management through asset creation (risk reduction); livelihoods diversification and microcredit (prudent risk taking); savings (risk reserves) and insurance (risk transfer). In March 2020, insurance payouts were distributed through the initiative in Zimbabwe to compensate for weather-related losses.

2. These Terms of Reference (TOR) are for a decentralised evaluation of the R4 Rural Resilience initiative, funded by Swiss Agency for Development and Corporation (SDC) and implemented in Zimbabwe. The evaluation has been commissioned by the WFP Zimbabwe country office and will assess the R4 Rural Resilience initiative with particular emphasis on its sustainability, effectiveness, and costs efficiency covering the R4 phase one implementation period of January 2018 to June 2021. Whilst this is an activity evaluation, the review of the R4 programme will also generate lessons for the expansion of the pilot project. The findings and recommendations of first-generation Zimbabwe CSP evaluation will also be considered when drawing conclusions during the decentralised evaluation exercise.

3. These TORs were prepared by the WFP Zimbabwe Country Office with support of WFP Regional Bureau (RB), Johannesburg, based upon an initial document review and consultation with stakeholders and following a standard template. The purpose of the TOR is twofold. Firstly, it provides key information to the evaluation team and helps guide them throughout the evaluation process; and secondly, it provides key information to stakeholders about the proposed evaluation. The evaluation serves the dual purpose of learning and accountability with emphasis on learning in order to inform the design and implementation of the next R4 project starting in July 2021 and the resilience approach for the new Country Strategic Plan (CSP) starting in 2022.

4. The aim of the evaluation and its timing is designed to inform the second phase of the R4 rural resilience initiative and the Zimbabwe Country office approach to resilience building programming to be adopted in the 2021-2025 Country Strategic Plan. The evaluation is intended to provide evidence that can inform WFP’s strategy for scaling up and enhancing the integrated risk management and resilience approaches.

5. . TOR will be reviewed and finalised with the Evaluation Reference Group (ERG), chaired by WFP Deputy Country Director. The evaluation team will conduct the Decentralised Evaluation (DE) in conformity with the final terms of reference (TOR).