HARARE, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The Embassy of Sweden and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on Wednesday signed an 8 million U.S. dollars grant, giving a boost to the Zimbabwe Resilience Building Fund (ZRBF) set up in 2016 to build the resilience of vulnerable people in the country.
Addressing partners at the signing ceremony, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative Bishow Parajuli said 407,000 labor endowed vulnerable people in nine rural districts in Zimbabwe had benefited from various programs under the ZRBF since its launch in May last year.
The vulnerable people had benefited from climate-smart agriculture; nutrition and livelihoods; productive asset creation; access to finance and value chain development; and community-based natural resources management, Parajuli said.
The ZRBF is a five-year multi-donor fund managed by UNDP in close collaboration with Zimbabwe's Ministry of Agriculture, as well as other national players such as the Ministry of Environment; Water and Climate, Ministry of Public Service, Labor and Social Welfare; Department of Civil Protection; and Food and Nutrition Council.
It was launched with financial and technical support from the European Union (EU) and UK Department of International Development (DFID) and prioritizes 21 vulnerable districts in Zimbabwe targeting 800,000 people with a total budget of 70 million U.S. dollars over five years.
Swedish Ambassador to Zimbabwe Sofia Calltorp said resilience lies at the heart of Sweden's new five-year strategic commitment to Zimbabwe in fighting poverty, environmental degradation and in ensuring absorptive and transformative capacities in the face of climate change.
She said Sweden will strive to ensure that gender equality is adequately integrated into the work carried out by the ZRBF to ensure that Zimbabwean women benefit from the support as they often carry the brunt of shocks, stresses and disaster.
