Ndola - Zambia - Activities Update

Ndola is the provincial headquarters of the Copperbelt Province. It is situated 350km north of Lusaka and covers an area of 1124 square kilometres. It has a population of about 450 000 people. The city was seriously affected by the closure of mines and as a result, it experienced massive economic decline and is just recovering from the negative economic effects of the privatization of mines.

Although not properly developed and coordinated, Urban Agriculture is widely practiced in Ndola. The location of these farming activities is mainly in back yards, forest reserves, along main road tracks, along streams and river banks, on rented plots and small holdings. Mainly the farming carried out involves among other things, the growing of vegetables, pumpkins, maize, beans, groundnuts and sugar canes etc.

Core team

The core team is now in place and has articulated their work plan. Activities for 2007 have been clearly defined and roles ascribed to the different actors.

 MOU

Ndola City council has approved the MOU for the project. The next step is now to have the core team signing the inter-agency MOU amongst the various partners of the core team. A sample inter-agency MOU has been drafted with the assistance of MDP and the various agencies are now studying it before committing themselves.

 Policy Awareness Workshop

The workshop was held on the 2nd of August. 38 people attended the workshop and these included about 25 councillors, the mayor, departmental heads, members of the core team and UA farmer representatives. The workshop managed to raise awareness amongst the policy makers on issues of UA in the city and other cities. In the end they appreciated the need to seriously address UA in Ndola. They recommended the following:

• Coming up with A UA policy for Ndola. Participants felt that the existing policy framework did not facilitate the development of UA. It was agreed that there was need to visit this area and develop a policy in view of the experiences in other cities as discussed at the workshop. 

• Institutional aspects – the workshop agreed that there is need to review the existing council set up and identify a department that would best coordinate UA activities in the city. It was agreed that in the interim, it would be necessary to form a working team (steering committee) which will ensure smooth establishment facilitation and implementation of the urban Agriculture.

Read more:>> Ndola UA Policy Workshop Proceedings Report

Training needs for members of the core team and other important stakeholders was conducted. Results indicated that with the exception of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, the rest of the other stakeholders had low levels of understanding on urban agriculture. Most other staff had low levels of exposure to UA. Therefore most required basic information on UA and its concepts. The TOT was designed to expose the trainers in some of these basic concepts.

 Training of Trainers Workshop.

This was conducted from 17 to 21 September at Henry Mukulu House in Ndola. The training was attended by 11 participants who included some members of the core team who had an interest in training and others who had been identified on basis of their previous history in training activities. These included participants from the Ministry of Agriculture who were very familiar with training adults. Dr. Jacob Mwitwa from the Copperbelt University in Kitwe also participated as he had a very keen interest in subsequent training activities. The training covered the basic concepts of UA, Risks and Benefits, UA Food Security, the MPAP Process and its various phases, Situation Analysis, UA Policies, Funding UA projects etc. The participants also did dry runs of topics they had been allocated prior to the TOT with training materials from MDP.  The ToT resulted in the identification of at least 5 good trainers who will participate in subsequent training activities.

 Appointment of Local Coordinator

A local coordinator, Dr. Raphael Muyaule has been appointed with the full concurrence of the core team. He will assist Ms. Judith Sinkala to implement the activities agreed in the workplan.

 MPAP I Workshop

Click to download> Workshop Report

This workshop was held at the Savoy Hotel from 29 October to 2 December. The objectives of the workshop were to:

• Introduce the MPAP process and its various stages and how it applies to the UA project in Ndola to a wider range of stakeholders

• Provide the stakeholders with a clear overview of the basic facts regarding urban agriculture in Ndola – extent, potentials, risks and benefits

• Motivate the stakeholders to actively support the MPAP process regarding urban agriculture in Ndola.    

• Expose participants to Situation Analysis for UA in Ndola – Review of existing information, UA systems, stakeholder analysis, PRA, policy analysis

• Put in place a team and time frame to conduct situation analysis for Ndola

• Plan for future activities

22 participants drawn from an array of stakeholders participated. These included those drawn from the Ministry of Agriculture, City Health, City Legal Division, Rainbow Group, Ndola Nutrition Group, Kafubu Water, Farmer Group, Care, Ministry of Lands and Social Welfare. The team trained at the TOT did most of the presentations. The MDP arrived in Ndola one week ahead of the training to offer extra coaching to the presenters and make sure that they were ready.

The emphasis of the workshop was to prepare stakeholders and the core team for conducting the Situation Analysis and the Launch of the Stakeholder Forum. After the introduction to the CFF and MPAP process, most of the time was spent discussing information requirements and techniques to be employed for data gathering during the situation analysis. A field visit was undertaken to some of the UA areas in Ndola where participants applied some of the techniques they had learnt.

At the end of the workshop, it was agreed to create working groups that would undertake some of the components of the situation analysis. The groups created were as follows:

Situation Analysis

Following MPAP I training the working groups established for the situation analysis have started work. The PRA team led by Dr Jacob Mwitwa from the Copperbelt University in Kitwe has completed pre-testing of their field instruments. The section of the short questionnaire was giving problems and has been modified so that it is more straightforward. The other groups on Policy and Legislation Analysis, Mapping, Stakeholder Analysis and Existing Information have also started work on their sections. It is expected that the results of this should be available in mid- January 2008.

Launch of Multi-Stakeholder  (Click here to view the report)

The launch of the stakeholder forum was done on the 29th of November at a colourful ceremony presided over by the Ndola District Commissioner, Mrs Glays Kristafor and the Deputy Mayor Mr. Charles Chinala. 32 people drawn from various organizations in Ndola attended the launch. These included Zambia Electricity Supply Company (ZESCO), Heifer International, Zambia National Farmers Union, Central Statistical Office, Kafubu water, Twapia, Chifubu Projects, Panner Seeds, Ministry of Education, District Health and NDCU. The others were came from the usual organizations who had been attending UA activities before – Ministry of Agriculture, Social Welfare, Care International, Rainbow, Departments of City Council, Lands, Ndola Nutrition, and Catholic Diocese. At the launch terms of reference for the forum were discussed. It was agreed to elect a steering committee of the forum that would put in place structures of the forum.

The Steering Committee comprises of the following persons:

 After a meeting of the Steering Committee, Mr. Munsanje was elected the chairperson of the Forum.

From left – Deputy Mayor, Ndola District Commissioner and the Director of Social Services at the launch of the Ndola UA Forum.