Africa Regional

2008/2009 Allocation | $5.7 million

Snapshot

The latest statistics for sub-Saharan Africa indicate the region continues to face immense challenges in eliminating poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), half of Africa's population live on less than US$1 per day.
NZAID supports developing countries in Africa indirectly through its core budget contributions to multilateral organisations (such as UN agencies, the World Bank) and New Zealand NGOs. The Africa Regional Programme also channels direct bilateral assistance through several avenues:

The Development Programme Fund | DPF, which provides grants to indigenous NGOs and regional and multilateral agencies working in areas such as education and health, particularly HIV and AIDS awareness
The Africa Non-Governmental Organisation Facility | ANGOF, which channels support through New Zealand-based NGOs to community-based projects that contribute to poverty elimination
A Development Scholarship Programme that provides scholarship opportunities to scholars from disadvantaged communities in South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. The awards are aimed at providing training in sectors that are aligned with the Africa Regional programme themes, and in which there are skill shortages.

NZAID priorities

NZAID's Africa Regional Programme currently targets five countries selected on the basis of historical linkages with New Zealand and development needs according to the UN Human Development Index (HDI). These are Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya. The programme themes are:

Education: increasing access to basic education
Health: HIV and AIDS awareness
Enhancing community resilience in response to the threat of drought
Supporting responses to humanitarian emergencies.

NZAID on the ground

Supporting orphaned and vulnerable children in Zimbabwe

An estimated one in four children in Zimbabwe, constituting 11% of the population, is an orphan. The Government of Zimbabwe set up a National Plan of Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in 2004 to enable an expanded and co-ordinated response to their needs. This will include strengthening community organisations that are supporting the care and protection of children, and providing increased and more predictable funding for these children.

The goal is to reach out and positively impact on the lives of orphans and vulnerable children, by developing national institutional capacity to provide basic services to all orphans and vulnerable children. The coverage is nation-wide, and support is prioritized to the neediest children and addresses a broad range of issues including:

Access to education
Access to food, health, water and sanitation
Child protection and psychosocial support
Birth registration/succession planning
Coordination and resource mobilization
Child participation.

To fund this, a pooled funding mechanism with a total budget of around US$96 million over 5 years has been set up under UNICEF’s management. The United Kingdom, Sweden, Germany, the EU and New Zealand have already contributed and other donors are showing interest. (New Zealand’s contribution of US$441,000 (about NZ$700,000) will be paid over 2006-2007.)

About 80% of the pooled fund will be disbursed directly to communities through grants, and 131 concept papers were received from Zimbabwean civil society organizations following the first call for proposals. Of these, 21 proposals covering all provinces were finally selected. Some of the grantees are consortia or umbrella organisations, and a total of 171 community-based organisations and NGOs are being funded. Some gaps identified during the selection process have resulted in further targeted calls for proposals in selected areas.

A joint review process is about to be undertaken to measure progress from October 2005 to April 2007. As disbursement to implementing NGOs has only recently started and most of this period was devoted to the finalisation of the framework and the selection process, the first Review will focus on these processes, challenges and opportunities and lessons learned. NZAID is represented on the review committee.

In a difficult operating environment in Zimbabwe, the programme has enabled improved co-operation between donors and the government in pursuit of a common goal - to improve the lives of disadvantaged children.