Tafadzwa Hazel Muyengwa

 Widows’ economic empowerment through Poultry Production in Mabvuku-Tafara suburb. Submitted by……………MUYENGWA TAFADZWA HAZEL FEBRUARY 2020 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Despite constituting more than half the world population, the economic welfare of women continues to be in a sorry state. Women especially those in already struggling economies like that of Zimbabwe are some of the most affected. In appreciation of the importance of women’s inclusion the project seeks to address the concerns related to women’s economic empowerment especially those of unprivileged circumstances, in particular the widows. The project is community based and aiming at poultry production in the high density suburb of Mabuku-Tafara by virtue of it being one of the oldest low income areas in Zimbabwe’s capital. In terms of timeframe, the project is expected to run from January to December 2021. The project beneficiaries will be the Mabvuku-Tafara widows and the stakeholders include the Member of Parliament for the area and various Non-governmental organisations such as Economic Justice for Women Program (EJWP) and Empowerment 365. The focus is on unemployed widows and efforts to give them an economic standing. The project aims to fully empower these underprivileged women economically through income generating projects. These ought to make the women self-sufficient and effective breadwinners. EXECUTIVE SUMMARYii 1.1 INTRODUCTION1 1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY2 1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT3 1.4 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES3 1.4.1 GOAL3 1.4.2 OBJECTIVES3 1.5 PROJECT JUSTIFICATION4 2.1 PROJECT PLANNING TOOLS4 2.1.1 LOGICAL FRAMEWORK4 2.1.2 WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE6 2.1.4 GANT CHART6 3.1 IMPLEMENTATION PLAN7 4.1 QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM8 5.1 MONITORING AND EVALUATION SYSTEM10 7.1 REPORTING SYSTEM STRUCTURE14 8.1 CONCLUSION14 LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Logical Framework……………………………………………………………………………...4 Table 2 Gantt Chart……………………………………………………………………………………...7 Table 3 M&E System…………………………………………………………………………………....10 Table 4 Budgeting……………………………………………………………………………………….13 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Work Breakdown Structure…………………………………………………………………6 Figure 2 Total Quality Management System………………………………………………….8 Figure 3 Reporting system………………………………………………………………….…14 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Gratitude goes to all those who facilitated the coming out of this project. 1.1 INTRODUCTION Since time immemorial women have been prejudiced and in Africa due to the culture of patriarchy women have been at the bottom of the food chain. However, the situation has been worse on the widowed women who no longer have male figures to fend for them. This particular project therefore acknowledges the vulnerabilities associated with one being widowed. Hence, the aim of the project is to facilitate the economic independence of widows in Mabvuku-Tafara. The project seeks to equip widows with the necessary skills to gain economic independence. Galor and Moeav (2004), define women’s economic empowerment as a multi-faceted issue involving womens ability to contribute, participate and benefit from the economic growth process. They further note that economic empowerment is a significant driver of other forms of women’s empowerment since access to economic resources facilitates opportunities to develop personal capacities and to participate fully and equally in society. The project will thus ensure that widows are the full beneficiaries and that they fully participate and reap the full benefits of the project. The project is motivated by the widely accepted realization that poverty in urban areas is a reality and that it is even worse in women and child headed households. United Nations (UN) Women (2015), affirmed this reality by highlighting that poverty comes with many risks, discrimination and leaves widows highly vulnerable and this is even worse when the nation’s economy is struggling like that of Zimbabwe. International organisations such as the UN and the World Bank acknowledge the fact that empowerment is key to any poverty alleviating strategy. The project at hand lays a foundation for the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the creation of employment and fostering gender equality. It is expected that the poutry production project will prove beneficial and also achieve its goals. It is expected to touch the lives of widows and make them self-sufficient such that these women will fully engage in income generation. Malapela (2016), notes that poultry production is helping families supplement their income while Pedzisai (2014), lists quite a number of benefits that come as a result of this endeavor and these include that it ensures food security, poverty reduction, survival of women and children social inclusion and development. Due to the risks associated with the poultry production, like any project, it aims to equip women to be able to overcome these and be able to use the skills in the future 1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Various scholarly and even non-scholarly works concur with the fact that women and girls are the most vulnerable citizenry. Despite efforts to promote gender balance and equal opportunities for men and women, it seems that women are still lagging behind. Men continue to have an upper-hand as far as development is concerned. Women play critical roles at home and thus there is need to empower them so that they can fully perform their duties. Men constitute the highest numbers of politicians, business persons and even farmers thus they share the larger chunk of the economic pie. Since men are mainly the ones occupying the dominant and influential positions, what then becomes of their wives when they die? Most women struggle when they become widows due to lack of such opportunities. It is therefore the aim of this project to create equal opportunities for widows. According to Hasin et al (2018), women prepare up to 90% of meals in their homes around the world and yet when time are tough, women and girls may be the first to eat less with households headed by women not able to eat enough simply because women earn at lower levels and are less prepared to cope with the sudden crises. The implications of such are that women continue to languish in poverty especially when they do not have a husband. As noted by Nhuta and Makumba (2017), 70% of the world’s 1.3 billion poor are female and around the world women‘s earnings average 75% of men’s. These statistics are a clear indication of the gender inequalities that exist. In addition the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 2013), notes that women’s earnings from self-employment are 60% lower than of men, with competitive disadvantages for companies owned by women translating into lower levels of labor and productivity. Thus they are more constraints for women in attaining their economic development. Hence the need to embark on this project, to facilitate economic empowerment of the most disadvantaged of women. Nhuta and Makumba (2017), note that in Zimbabwe small and medium enterprises have long acted as engines of economic growth and consider entrepreneurship a solution to unemployment and other socio-economic challenges like poverty. Despite that a number of central government ministries, local authorities and non-state agencies have adopted a number of policies and strategies to address urban poverty in Zimbabwe, widows prevalently continue to dominate low return development activities (Manyoni, 2011). It has been shown that women represent 52% of the population in Zimbabwe yet female entrepreneurs have not been able to achieve their full potential in a male dominated business society due to innumerable constraints they face in their endeavor to set up viable business ventures (Nhuta and Mukmba, 2017). Therefore this project seeks to address the economic challenges faced by women paying particular attention to widows in Mabvuku-Tafara. 1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT Despite constituting the greater part of the world population, women still hold an insignificant percentage in terms of the economic pie. However it should be noted that on top of women generally being sidelined the circumstances are even worse for the widows. Hasin et al (2018) question the fate of the world if half of its population endures social, familial, and economic discrimination. A country cannot develop when the majority of its population remains underdeveloped Therefore if ever the world is to foster development; all groups of women have to be included. 1.4 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES 1.4.1 GOAL To empower widows economically through poultry production in Mabvuku-Tafara suburb 1.4.2 OBJECTIVES To alleviate poverty in widow headed households To create income generating projects for widows To equip women with the skills and resources needed to effectively engage in their local economy To foster gender equality through reducing income inequality between men and women 1.5 PROJECT JUSTIFICATION Despite continuous efforts to empower women, some of the groups of women such as widows remain prejudiced either by men or even their fellow women. The project will therefore give recognition to widows. It is also critical to embark on the project because it will help widows get an economic footing in society. The project is necessary as it will enable widows as well as women in general to gain independence as well as a strong sense of self-worth, meaning it will assist them in shaping their own choices because they will be having access to resources and opportunities. This is made possible by providing them with the knowledge and skills of how to run a viable poultry business and providing them with the capital to do so. The project will help foster the progress of their families and their society at large. This highlights the fact that the benefits will overlap to their whole community. It will act as a helping hand towards the attainment of generally desired outcomes in that it will create employment, reduce poverty, and reduce hunger of widows as well as give them the capacity to help. In addition it will also assist in breaching the gap between men and women, the gap that places men at advantage over women. Hopefully the project will help in promoting public policies on female entrepreneurship including fostering a gender neutral, legal framework for business. 2.1 PROJECT PLANNING TOOLS In preparation of the project, three planning tools are to be used. The tools to be used include the Logical Framework, Work Breakdown Structure and the Gant Chart. 2.1.1 LOGICAL FRAMEWORK Table 1. Logical Framework PROJECT DESCRIPTION OBJECTIVELY VERIFIABLE INDICATORS OF ACHIEVEMENT SOURCES AND MEANS OF VERIFICATION ASSUMPTION GOAL To empower widows economically through poultry production in Mabvuku-Tafara suburb Number of widows who significantly benefit from the project Monitoring and Evaluation reports Community participation PURPOSE -To alleviate poverty in widow headed households -To create income generating projects for widows -To equip women with the skills and resources needed to effectively engage in their local economy -To foster gender equality through reducing income inequality between men and women -Number of households represented in the project -Percentage of income increase -Number of widows who attend workshop training -Number of widows with access to income against the number of men -Project reports -Workshop registers and reports -M&E surveys -Availability of resources -stakeholder involvement -Widows’ participation -Community participation OUTPUTS -Trained and skilled widows -Poultry housing -Poultry production -Number of widows showing signs of project -Number of poultry houses built -Number of chickens produced -M & E Reports -Field reports -Field reports -Field reports ACTIVITIES Recruitment of women to be part of the project. Procurement of materials Training of beneficiaries Preparation of land Building of poultry houses and drilling of boreholes Commission and handover Monitoring and Evaluation Number of widows recruited Amount of materials available Number of widows attending training Number of housing built and number of functional boreholes drilled. Number of widows taking part after handover Monitoring and evaluation reports done Project report Audit reports Workshop reports Monitoring and evaluation reports Monitoring and evaluation report Monitoring and evaluation reports Willingness to participate by widows Availability of resources Willingness of the community to accept and continue with the project The above logical framework is a representation of what the project seeks to achieve, how it will be achieved. It allows information to be analyzed and organized in a structured way, so that important questions can be asked, weaknesses identified and helps in the decision making process creating room for informed decisions based on their improved understanding of the project rationale, its intended objectives and the means by which objectives will be achieved 2.1.2 WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE Figure 1 Figure 1. Work Breakdown Structure The above is a figure of the Work Breakdown Structure of the project. The project is broken down according to the phases of a project to simple indicate the small steps to be taken that form the whole project. This is so because it makes the project work easier to do because the work is broken down into smaller manageable tasks. 2.1.4 GANT CHART According to Meredith (2003), the Gant chart is useful in expediting, sequencing and relocating resources among tasks. It serves as a plan of execution of activities. Therefore the Gant chart below shows what is going to be done during the period under investigation. Thus the letters from J to D represents the months of the year in their order starting from January going on December 2021. Table 2. Gant chart ACTIVITY 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th J F M A M J J A S O N D Project coordinated meetings Stakeholder identification Stakeholder engagement Recruitment of women Training of women Land preparation Building of poultry houses Drilling of borehole Allocation of resources to beneficiaries Poultry production begins Monitoring and evaluation Commission and handover 3.1 IMPLEMENTATION PLAN The project will be implemented in line with the UN SDGs. The project upholds the values of the goal number one that is concerned with the end of poverty in all forms, goal two that focuses on ending hunger as achieving food security, goal five that is centered around gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls seeks, last but not least is goal number eight that is after the provision of descent work and economic growth for all. The project will also serve to complement the efforts that have been done by the government of Zimbabwe in empowering women. The project team will start off by conducting weekly meetings. The purpose of this to assign duties and closely monitor to work as a team so that all is done on time. The project coordinator will go to the community and consult the community as it pertains to the project. This will ensure the engagement of the community. The project coordinator will help with the identification of important stakeholders. The engagement of stakeholders is there to work in the assisting of networking. 4.1 QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Figure 2. Total Quality Management System This intervention involved all stakeholders before and during implementation including community and project beneficiaries this was meant to ensure quality assurance. In a project in the quest for quality with customer satisfaction as the driving force. This project will have to meet the expectations of the widows in Mabvuku-Tafara and the stakeholders. The diagram below is a representation of all that has to be done in order to ensure total quality management in the end ensuring that the project ensures quality products to the satisfaction of both internal and external customers. 5.1 MONITORING AND EVALUATION SYSTEM Table 3. M&E System Objectives Indicator Data source Data collection method Baseline Target Value Responsible person Assumptions Data collection frequency Reporting 1. economic empowerment of widows Output: empowered widows Outcome: improved widow’s economic participation Number of widows who significantly benefit from project Number of participating widows Percentage of participating widows Project reports Recruitment register Project repots In-depth Interviews Focus group discussions Surveys no baseline of previous project conducted 0 0 100% 100% 100% Project manager Field officer Project manager Willingness by women to participate Cooperation from local authorities Availability of resources Quarterly Monthly Quarterly Data capturing and reports monthly project reviews Data capturing and reports 2. To create employment for widows Output: job creation for women Outcome: improved access to employment for women Number of widows now employed Number of widows with jobs through the project Number of widows participating in their local economy M&E reports M&E reports M&E reports Field visits survey Focus group discussions 0 0 0 100% 100% 90% M&E officer M&E officer M&E officer Willingness to participate by women Availability of resources Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Project reviews Quarterly Project reviews Quarterly Project reviews 3. To create income for widows Output: widows earning income through the project Outcome: improved income for widows Increase in widows income Number of widows earning an income through the project Improved income for widows Project reports M&E reports M&E reports focus group discussions survey In-depth interviews 0 0 0 90% 100% 95% Field officer Field officer Field officer Availability of resources Stakeholder involvement Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Project reviews Quarterly Project reviews Quarterly project reviews 4. To reduce poverty amongst widows Output: poverty reduction Outcome: improved lifestyle Reduction in poverty Reduced levels of poverty amongst widows Number of widows who benefit Project reports Project reports M&E reports Survey Survey Focus group discussions 0 0 0 95% 90% 100% Project manager Project manager Project manager Availability of resources Stakeholder involvement Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Project reviews Quarterly Project reviews Quarterly Project reviews 5. To capacitate widows with technical skills on poultry production and entrepreneurship Output: trained women Outcome: improved knowledge on poultry production and entrepreneurship Knowledgeable widows Percentage of women who benefit Number of widows who undergo training Workshop reports Workshop reports Workshop register Survey Survey Focus group discussion 0 0 0 95% 95% 100% Education manager Education manager Education manager Willingness to participate by women Availability of resources Every fortnight Every fortnight Every fortnight Survey report Survey report Survey report 6. To foster gender equality through reducing the income gap between men and women Output: Outcome: Number of women against that of men in the community Equal access to income for women and men Reduction in the levels of income inequalities between men and women in the area Project reports Project reports Project reports Survey Survey survey 0 0 0 90% 90% 90% Project manager Project manager Project manager Stakeholder participation Availability of resources Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Quarterly Project reviews Quarterly Project reviews Quarterly Project reviews 6.1 BUDGETING The table below is the budget for the project. It shows the allocation of the financial resources against the activities required to accomplish the goal. Due to hyperinflation in the country the budget is in United States dollar (USD$) to avoid challenges as a result of unstable prices. The project is expected to cost a total of United States dollar $- Table 4. Budgeting ACTIVITY Baseline data collection DESCRIPTION Collection of information on the status of widows in Mabvuku-Tafara COST $ 3 000.00 Procurement of materials Supplies needed $- Workshop trainings Training of beneficiaries for capacity building $ 2 000.00 Monitoring and evaluation Continuous monitoring and evaluation Assessments ,reports $ 5 000.00 Land preparation Digging and miscellaneous $ 500.00 Poultry houses Well ventilated houses for keeping the chickens $ 3 000.00 Operational costs Administration costs $ 2 000.00 Salaries for auxiliary staff $- Salaries for project leaders $- Grand total $- . 7.1 REPORTING SYSTEM STRUCTURE Figure 5. Reporting System The above is a figure of the reporting structure of the project. The project team will work together to ensure the attainment of the objectives. The reporting system of this particular project is based on the functional structure which means that the positions are grounded according to their functional or specified areas. As seen every individual involved in the project team is reporting to the respective personnel with the project manager being the ultimate person overseeing the project. This implies that everyone reports to them directly or indirectly through their functional manager 8.1 CONCLUSION In an effort to upgrade the stutus of widows in society the project seeks to facilitate the economic empowerment of widows in Mabvuku-Tafara. The need to focus on widows emanates from the fact that despite women being generally vulnerable, it is even worse when one is a widow. Women in general continue to live in poverty and are excluded from participating fully towards the development of their respective countries yet it is with no doubt they carry with them great potential as far as fostering development is concerned. In Zimbabwe just like the rest of the world women continue to lag behind men, with their duties being confined mainly to their household unpaid work. Eventually this has led them to be amongst the most vulnerable groups found in society, who are not able to live dignified lives because they are excluded. Therefore through this project the widows in Mabvuku-Tafara are given an opportunity to realize their potential by training the on how to run a successful business with the hope that they will also extend the benefits to other women and even impart the knowledge on their children. REFERENCE Bangkok Declaration on Beijing + 15 of 2020 in Nxopo, Z. (2014). The Role of Government in Empowering Female Entrepreneurs in the Western Cape, South Africa. Master of Technology: Business Administration (Entrepreneurship). Cape Peninsula University of technology FAO (2007). Profitability and sustainability of urban, peri-urban agriculture, Rome, Italy Galor, O., & O. Moav (2004), From Physical to Human Capital Accumulation: Inequality and the Process of Development, Review of Economic Studies. 71 (4): 1001–26 Hasin, A. 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