Contextualizing the seasonal livelihoods programming tool in drought resilience planning settings: Experiences from southern Zimbabwe

Abstract

The advent of Seasonal Livelihood Programming (SLP) as a resilience planning tool in rural Zimbabwe unpacks exciting practices, relevant in contemporary drought planning processes. The roll out and consultative nature of the SLP process has been viewed as appropriate in supporting the design of context-specific resilience building interventions against recurrent weather-induced shocks and stressors. This article examines the aptness of the SLP tool in strengthening drought-exposed communities' ability to absorb shocks in Zimbabwe. Against this background, the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF) becomes a relevant tool in contextualizing the SLP process and its contribution to resilience building for drought-exposed communities in Mangwe district. The study adopted the desk review approach, supplemented by qualitative data collected from government departments, NGOs and traditional leaders through open ended questionnaires, to gather insights on the SLP's role in capacitating Mangwe district to absorb drought shocks that threaten their livelihoods. The study found that the SLP tool does, indeed, add value to planning processes in resilience building through the analysis of shocks seasonality, livelihoods, vulnerability profiles and partnerships which lay a foundation for the design of relevant drought mitigation strategies. However, SLP processes need to integrate resource mobilization and explore the capacities of communities to execute the proposed context-specific interventions.