DanChurchAid
Zambia
Food Security Organisations in Zambia
Within the area of food security, DanChurchAid cooperates with:
Churches Health Association of Zambia (CHAZ)
Churches Health Association of Zambia (CHAZ) is one of DanChurchAid’s long-standing partners. CHAZ was established in 1970 as an interdenominational cooperation between church based health institutions in Zambia, and DanChurchAid has supported the organisation since 1993 within the HIV/AIDS and Food Security programmes. CHAZ is currently implementing a project which aims at improving the food security and nutritional status of malnourished children and HIV/AIDS patients on anti-retroviral drugs. Among other activities, CHAZ gives training in nutrition and home gardening, and the organisation provides the tools and seeds needed to start up vegetable gardens.
Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections (JCTR)
The Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) is a faith based organisation working in the field of research, education and advocacy on issues linking Christian Faith and social justice. Main issues of concern to JCTR are development, gender equity and empowerment of local communities within justice and peace. The centre seeks to address some of the social, economic and political structural barriers that hinder the poor from obtaining just living conditions. JCTR engages in research on social issues like cost of living, social implications of debt servicing, accessibility of healthcare and education and the integrity of local democracy.
Law and Development Association (LADA)
The Law and Development Association (LADA) is a well-established civil society organisation which has worked in the Southern province since 1996. The majority of rural poor are suffering from great poverty and social injustice, and the objective of the organisation is to improve the economic, social and legal status of this group, focusing on women and children. LADA provides legal assistance to especially women and children and has intervened in cases of property grabbing, early marriages and child defilement through trained rural paralegals. The organisation conducts legal training and workshops in the local communities and works for an increased awareness on issues such as law, human rights, gender and HIV/AIDS.
Lutheran World Federation/Zambian Christian Refugee Service (LWF/ZCRS)
The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) has operated in Zambia since 1967. Together with Zambian Christian Refugee Service, the organisation is implementing a food security and livelihoods project for rural poor. The project focuses on agricultural productivity, marketing and capacity building of the community with special focus on women, youth and HIV/AIDS affected families. The organisation provides training in agricultural techniques, capacity building of groups in cooperative management and produces marketing as well as legal registration of groups as cooperatives so that they are able to access loans, goods and services from government and lending institutions.
Monze Diocese (MD)
The Monze Diocese was established in 1962 and has since then been geared towards promoting integrated human development. Currently, it is implementing an integrated development project in the Southern province of Zambia. The project aims at developing capacity in the community to enable people to generate and maintain their means of livelihood. It has special focus on female and child headed households, widowers, HIV/AIDS affected households and small scale farmers. The activities of the diocese cover the areas of food security and household income, HIV/AIDS, water supplies, measures for disaster reduction and advocacy.
Participatory Ecological Land Use Management Association Regional Desk (PELUM RD)
PELUM RD is a civil society network run by its 160 member organisations. It was established in 1995 and works in ten countries in the Eastern, Central and Southern part of Africa. Since 2005, DanChurchAid has supported two of the network’s main activity areas: advocacy and promotion of indigenous traditional foods. The work of PELUM RD aims at increasing the food security by creating awareness within the government of the significance of sustainable agriculture and rural development, as well as promoting the production of traditional indigenous foods. Traditional crops are often cheaper to produce, adapted to the environment and give the possibility to diversify the production instead of only focusing on maize. Furthermore, DanChurchAid supports the capacity building of members and small farmers’ associations to affect food security policies in the country.
Zambia Land Alliance (ZLA)
The Zambia Land Alliance (ZLA) is a network of four civil society organisations working with rural and urban poor communities in the promotion of their land rights. ZLA has existed since 1997, and DanChurchAid started cooperating with the network in 2004, supporting a baseline study on women’s access, control and ownership of land. The aim of the network is to establish a more democratic and equitable distribution of land under customary law, harmonise land policies and laws and strengthen customary land tenure security. Gender is a crosscutting issue. The network also works with sensitisation programmes among traditional leaders and communities and conducts research within the area.
