Building thriving communities
Mafisa works with traditional cattle farmers in the Western and Southern regions of Zambia, supporting them to build sustainable livelihoods. Ninety per cent of these communities live in poverty, driven by a lack of access to sustainable, resilient, profitable livelihoods.
Impact at a glance
Mafisa’s current planned programmes and activities will enable at least 75,000 people to enjoy greatly improved livelihoods within 5 years of start-up. Cattle farmers could increase average incomes by as much as five times without increasing the number of breeding stock they own.
All our programmes are developed from the outset in partnership with local communities and their chiefs. On-going dialogue and feedback loops ensure we maximise the impact of our programmes by keeping communities involved in the planning, management, and delivery of the programme.
Active regenerative rangeland management of the current project area of up to 1 million hectares of land will help restore biodiversity and grassland cover. Regenerative grazing plans and better fire management can remove as much as 0.75 tons of carbon per hectare annually. Better management will ensure year-round access to grazing, improving nutrition and health for cattle.
Sustainable pastoralism contributes to soil formation, soil fertility, soil carbon, water regulation, bio diversity, conservation and fire management.
Mafisa is developing programmes aimed at ensuring women and youth continue to access livelihood opportunities. Opportunities and priorities have been identified by communities, and pilot programmes are being rolled out. These include small livestock, sunflower, cassava, maize, and groundnut production. There will be further trials to support small scale processing and value addition at community level.
The grazing programme will be supported with the addition of four boreholes and/or improved water points per participating community. Besides enabling better grazing, improved water points will provide drinking water and create opportunities for small scale irrigation.
Mafisa’s programmes are estimated to create around 150 new jobs in the project area, with 65 posts being filled to date. These jobs include management positions, as well as a network of community-based agents and certified Community Livestock Auxiliary Workers. The vast majority of these are reserved for people recruited from the community. Each job comes with training, ensuring that new skills are developed in the project area.