We create platforms that drive change and provide a holistic approaches to the vulnerable.

 Food Security & Livelihoods

LEAD food security programs target the specific needs of individuals and HHs through tailored interventions that promote resilience and graduate households into long term food security. Program interventions promote the following:
Sustainable and intensified agriculture practices to overcome environmental and climate challenges and insufficiency of skills while increasing agricultural outputs. Agricultural productivity is improved in part by facilitating increased access to land, water management, selection of the most strategic crops for farmers and linkages to technical information and support services.

Programs also encourage farmers to enter into higher-value crop production and non-farm income-generating activities, such as small-scale processing and trading, which further supports household diversification and livelihood strategies.
LEAD programming facilitates access to markets and services, often by making use of a gendered value chain analysis and approaches through the identification of the most critical structural barriers that limit the productivity of poor farmers,
LEAD programs puts priority on understanding the implications and impacts gender has on attaining food security and ensuring that all activities advance gender equality and avoid (even inadvertently) over-burdening women. Programs systematically analyze gender dynamics within the household, ensuring the interventions promote gender equality at all levels.

Our approach promotes appropriate changes in behavior at the community level that includes building a support system for individuals and households to achieve optimal household health and nutrition, focused on vulnerable populations including women, children and people living with HIV/AIDS in resource poor environments.

FSL Programmes

1. Program Description: EU funded Food Security Program ( 2011-2015)
LEAD with funding from the European Union and in collaboration with Food and Agriculture Organization has been  promoting the production of maize and other staple crops through the provision of subsidized inputs under the input voucher program. The program has benefited more than 30,000 households who through access to inputs, improved training and extension support improved yields of maize by more than 40% with some of the beneficiaries managing to achieve yields ranging from 2000kgs to 5000kgs per hectare.

2. Program Description:  Support for Improved Livelihoods of Vulnerable Households in Zimbabwe through Timely Provision of Agricultural Input through Market-Based Mechanisms(2012-2014) Funded By EU
It is a European Union funded program implemented by LEAD in collaboration with FAO in Hurungwe, Lupane and Matobo districts. The program benefited more than 13,500 households through the timely provision of agricultural inputs under the input voucher program.

The objectives of the program are:
To improve food and nutrition security of vulnerable households
To resuscitate the rural agricultural supply chain
To reduce dependency on donor aid and
To give farmers the choice of inputs to purchase, based on their preferences.

HEALTH AND NUTRITION

The Health & Nutrition Programme which is funded by WFP focuses on nutritional rehabilitation for individual patients by providing  them with a monthly 10kg ration of Super, Cereal (a fortified food supplement  served as porridge).  The patients household is provided with a monthly food basket which contains a ration of 10kg cereal, 0.6kg vegetable oil and 1.8kg pulses per each household member.
The objective of the programme  are to
This programme is linked to other food security and livelihoods programmes implemented by LEAD.

 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

LEAD provides catalytic leverage for commercialization of micro and small agricultural and non-agricultural enterprises. LEAD assists entrepreneurs in refining their business ideas, through direct and indirect help in feasibility studies, markets analysis, financial and economic analysis. Support is also given to enterprises in ensuring that comprehensive business planning is undertaken and implementation of the same done.

LEAD has embraced the value chain approach in assisting smallholder farmers participate in high value formal markets. Playing an honest broker role, LEAD has been successful in bringing delicate issues of value chain governance to the fore in a bid to ensure fair relationships between small scale farmers and private sector actors. Provision of market information has been one of LEAD’s arch roles in market linkages serving both producer groups and buyers.

Over the years LEAD has refined its 3Ms approach to microenterprise with an underlying philosophy that ‘for businesses to make Money, they should be Managed for the Market consequently intervention efforts have targeted these Ms. LEAD provides tailor-made capacity development to SMEs in areas of; business systems development, corporate governance, business planning, marketing planning and financial management and reporting.
LEAD continues to play a pivotal role in enhancing access to finance by small scale farmers and other micro organizations. Immense work is also done in building capacity of micro associations in managing revolving loan funds (RLF) and other internal saving and lending initiatives.

Current Projects (Local Partner for USADF grantees)
Managing a portfolio of 13 grantees with a value of $2.1 million LEAD has been able to provide technical assistance to these on behalf of the investors. Portfolio is diverse with 15% of the funding going towards dairy (this is set to increase) and rest among poultry, horticulture, micro manufacturing and cash cropping.The focus is building the capacity of the grant recipients to self manage, account for resources and build sustainable businesses.
LEAD employs participatory approaches in planning, implementation and monitoring of enterprises. These efforts have resulted in coherent groups with proper governance structures and sound understanding of business performance and financial management. Farmer groups have been able to negotiate with buyers, manage their revolving funds with high loan recovery rates and spur member in improving productivity. The 13 supported grantees have an outreach of 7053 beneficiaries.