Climate Change and the Water–Food–Nutrition–Health Nexus: Evaluating a Food and Nutrition Security Programme in Chimanimani, Zimbabwe

Smallholder farming communities in Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands face compounding pressures from chronic poverty, recurrent drought, and climate-induced shocks such as Tropical Cyclone Idai. Integrated programmes linking water, food, nutrition, and health are widely promoted as a means of building rural resilience, yet rigorous independent evidence on their performance remains limited. This study evaluated a community food and nutrition security and health promotion programme, implemented by a local faith-based partner organisation with the support of an international development agency in two wards of Chimanimani District between 2019 and 2025, targeting a planned 1,200 vulnerable households. A mixed-methods design was applied, structured around the six revised evaluation criteria of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD-DAC): relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency, impact, and sustainability. Data were generated through a desk review, a household survey of 162 respondents, twenty-three focus group discussions, twenty-three key informant interviews, six individual interviews, site assessments, and direct observation, and were triangulated using participatory appraisal techniques. The findings indicate that the programme was highly relevant and coherent, aligning closely with community needs and national frameworks. Targeted, asset-based interventions—micro-irrigation nutrition gardens, water-supply infrastructure, small-livestock distribution, and internal savings and lending (ISAL) groups—generated the strongest gains in dietary diversity, income, and women’s economic empowerment. By contrast, large-scale agricultural training, seed distribution, and awareness-raising on hygiene, gender, and HIV proved comparatively less effective, while efficiency was constrained by high overheads, a remote operational base, and weak monitoring systems. The study concluded that prioritising depth over breadth—through market-oriented, water-anchored livelihood models supported by sustainable operation-and-maintenance financing and stronger technical capacity—offers a more durable pathway to food and nutrition security than broad, thinly resourced interventions. These lessons are of direct relevance to the design of future multi-sectoral programming across the water–food–nutrition–health nexus in climate-stressed, resource-constrained rural settings of sub-Saharan Africa, and carry practical implications for donors, implementing partners, and policymakers seeking to strengthen rural resilience. Key words: climate, agriculture, water, food, nutrition, evaluation, resilience, smallholder farmers