Land O’Lakes has been implementing the Rebuilding Livelihoods and Resiliency in Zimbabwe (ZDL) project aimed at building livelihoods and promoting food security of farmers through interventions in the livestock and dairy value chains. It was expected that the significant gains from dairy in terms of income, improved food security and improved asset base that had been demonstrated regionally could be replicated in Zimbabwe. The purpose of this end-of-project evaluation was to carry out the final evaluation of the ZDL project in order to track program progress towards set targets; assess the appropriateness of project design; review constraints and how ZDL addressed them; and document the impacts, key lessons and best practices that will inform implementation of other USAID, Land O’Lakes or local stakeholder development programmes. Highlights of the accomplishments are: (1) the ZDL project activities included the linking of dairy farmers to high-value milk markets, increasing access to animal health services, increasing capacity of fodder flow management, and promoting the use of donkeys for milk transportation; (2) the project has been a major success, setting a foundation for smallholder dairying in Zimbabwe; (3) the project distinguished itself through the promotion of a pro-business approach, facilitation of commercial dairy production, capacity building of local MCCs and the ZADF; (4) the project achieved an overall physical progress rate of 97.2% against set targets, with the majority of the project’s indicators surpassing expectations and the set targets; (5) the volume of milk produced per household each month increased from 50 litres at the baseline to 562 litres in 2013 (1,124% increase); (6) the number of households with adequate food provision increased by 21.4%; (7) the mean Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) was 8.2 compared to averages of 7.2 during the baseline period and 7.6 during the mid-term evaluation period; (8) the number of jobs achieved and attributable to the Feed the Future (FTF) initiative stands at 932, with 783 for males and 149 for females; (9) average annual dairy incomes increased by 743%, increasing from US$312 during the baseline to US$2,943 currently, and a paltry US$206 for the control group (non-beneficiaries). (Excerpt, modified)
