USAID Zimbabwe Resilience ANCHORS Activity Quarterly Progress Report January 1 – March 31, 2021

The project aims to enhance the resilience of communities in the Savé Valley Conservancy (SVC) landscape through sustainable natural resource management and water governance. Key activities in the second quarter of Fiscal Year 2021 (January 1 to March 31, 2021) included completing the development of the Activity Scope of Work (ASOW) and the project year 1 Annual Work Plan (AWP) for Resilience ANCHORS covering the SVC landscape. The project also finalized partners' subcontracts to start on-the-ground implementation activities in the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2021. Additionally, two sub-partners were brought on board to provide technical natural resource management (NRM) policy and water governance support. The project made significant progress in program development, completing the development of an ASOW for the SVC landscape and drafting the related AWP for project year 1 together with its Environmental Mitigation and Monitoring Plan (EMMP). The project also developed its Community Engagement Plan. Progress was also made towards finalization of partners' subcontracts to start implementation in the third quarter of Fiscal Year 2021. Resilience ANCHORS also accomplished several administrative tasks, including the recruitment of a Finance and Administration Assistant, the registration of the ECODIT Trust in Zimbabwe, securing the project office, and procurement of most of the outstanding furniture and IT equipment for the Field Office in Harare. The team successfully opened a bank account, which is now operational, and obtained a one-year Temporary Employment Permit (TEP) for the Project's Chief of Party (COP), allowing him to officially live and work in Zimbabwe. The project held several networking and collaboration meetings to promote layering and coordination across the Southeast Lowveld (SEL) with USAID implementing partners and other key stakeholders to ensure planned implementation is relevant, complementary, and not duplicated. The Resilience ANCHORS-Project Coordination Unit (PCU) also conducted scoping visits to support implementation planning in the SVC landscape and gain knowledge to develop an Activity Plan for the Gonarezhou National Park (GNP) landscape. Despite challenges associated with COVID-19 restrictions, Resilience ANCHORS gained substantial traction to move the project into its implementation phase during the reporting period. The project will finalize the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plan in the fourth quarter of Fiscal Year 2021 once the baseline survey is complete and USAID has reviewed. The recruitment of project driver(s) and seconded staff to work under the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) in the SVC landscape are also planned to be conducted in the fourth quarter of Fiscal Year 2021.