By Flata Kavinga
The Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe (CCJP-Z) has launched the Urban Resilience, Inclusion and Socio-Economic Empowerment (URISE) programme to strengthen the resilience and economic participation of marginalised communities in urban areas.
The programme will particularly target women, young people and people with disabilities, CCJP-Z national coordinator Paul Muchena said.
Muchena was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a Stakeholders Engagement and Programme Ownership Meeting held at St Edwards Catholic Church in Kwekwe.
He said the initiative was being introduced against a backdrop of challenges affecting urban communities, including declining service delivery, which he said was impacting residents’ health and economic and social well-being.
“Urban communities are also having a lot of challenges, most of them coming from lowering standards in service delivery,” Muchena said.
He said CCJP-Z had traditionally been involved in social justice, peace-building and dialogue but was now seeking to complement these efforts by supporting communities to identify opportunities that could improve their livelihoods.
“As Church and CCJP, we have then come up with this project where we want to try and address some of the challenges that people are facing,” he said.
Muchena said the programme would promote inclusion by ensuring that marginalised groups were involved in community development processes and had opportunities to participate economically.
URISE is being implemented by CCJP-Z in collaboration with funding and development partners Camfed, Goal and Plan.
Muchena said the programme would also involve local authorities and government structures, including the District Development Coordinator’s office, in an effort to ensure broad community participation and ownership.
“We are not only doing this work within the church but we are collaborating together with local authorities and also collaborating with the local government,” he said.
He said the initiative would also promote social dialogue as a way of addressing conflicts and strengthening cooperation within communities.
CCJP-Z is the social arm of the Catholic bishops in Zimbabwe and works on justice, peace and social issues at national, diocesan, district and parish levels.
