Mid term evaluation of the rebuilding livelihoods and resiliency in Zimbabwe project - 674-A-00-10-00002-00 (January 17, 2010-November 30, 2013)

Initially, the project was to be completed in January 2011, later extended by an additional two years in May 2011 up to May 31, 2013. A further extension up to November 30, 2013 was later granted. This project was initiated with the objective of supporting USAID/Zimbabwe"s Assistance Objective 3 (Livelihoods restored and maintained/economy stabilized and growing and assistance) and Objective 4 (Increased income and employment generated by the agricultural sector). The purpose of the midterm evaluation of the Land O"Lakes intervention focused on the following performance factors: (1) project progress; (2) project design, implementation and achievements; (3) processes that affect achievement of project outputs; (4) sustainability of project outcomes; (5) beneficiary rating of project services; (6) documenting lessons learned; (7) suggesting recommendations for the remaining period of the project. The evaluation concludes that based on progress to date, the ZDL program is highly likely to achieve and in some cases exceed most of its targets by the end of the program. The program has successfully revived all the milk collection centers that had either closed down or struggled due to a number of factors. Significant progress has been made in building the business capacity of beneficiary members and linking milk producers to better markets. The program however, remains with a considerable amount of capacity building and training to be completed in the remaining period of implementation. The evaluation also includes ten recommendations for the current implementation period and future programming. (Excerpt, modified)