Zimbabwe
Our Profile
Welthungerhilfe (WHH) is one of Germany’s largest private aid agencies, dedicated to fighting for a world without hunger. WHH Zimbabwe has been operational since 1980, standing as a trusted development and humanitarian actor with deep roots across the country. With a mission to achieve Zero Hunger and promote the right to a self-determined life indignity, our work focuses on inclusive, resilient, and sustainable food systems.
In close collaboration with local partners, we enable people to sustainably break out of hunger and poverty, withmeasurable impact, and with integrity and accountability. WHH is registered in Zimbabwe as a Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO), supporting both rural and urban communities. We drive sustainable impact through our work in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), food and nutrition security, resilience, humanitarian assistance, and emergency response, championing anticipatory approaches and applying triple nexus principles. Beyond partnering with local and national organizations, we actively facilitate collaboration across all relevant sectors, leveraging innovation, including climate-smart agriculture and agro-ecological principles, and promoting agriculture as a business approach to increase the economic viability of smallholder farmer households, to scale our reach.
What We Do
WHH Zimbabwe implements programs through strategic partnerships. We work with government ministries, departments, and parastatals, local and international development partners, the private sector, knowledge institutions, and communities.
Beyond partnerships, we actively facilitate collaboration across all relevant sectors, leveraging innovation, including climate-smart agriculture and agro-ecological principles. We promote agriculture as a business approach to increase the economic viability of smallholder farmer households to scale our reach.
Through a People-First approach, we consult with communities and stakeholders in the design and implementation of projects. We prioritize community-supported approaches and participation in project decision-making to ensure projectownership and empowerment for sustainability. We have a national project footprint in over 20 districts, covering nine of the country’s ten provinces. In 2024, through direct implementation and partnerships, we reached 2.5 million people with improved food production and consumption, clean water, decent toilets, and good hygiene.
From Emergency Action to Recovery and Resilience
From cyclone recovery to pandemic response, WHH Zimbabwe delivers humanitarian aid with a resilience lens. Our COVID-19 Urban Cash Assistance Program reached over 30,000 urban residents with digital cash transfers, nutrition support, and WASH education. Through anticipatory action mechanisms, like our anticipatory humanitarian action initiative (WAHAFA), we reduce risks before disasters strike. This is an approach championed by the Start Network and aligned with humanitarian reform priorities. Our integrated model ensures that immediate relief transitions into long-term recovery. This restores livelihoods, strengthens community systems, and builds back better.
News from Zimbabwe
WHH Zimbabwe Focus Areas
FOOD SYSTEM TRANSFORMATION
WHH Zimbabwe designs and delivers integrated programs that address the interconnected drivers of food and nutrition insecurity. We do this through policy participation, enabling inclusive food value chains and market access, and providing resources and information that best food system outcomes.
We support rural development efforts and the promotion of smallholder farmers. We champion urban resilience and poverty reduction. We promote locally and regionally anchored food systems with a focus on small-scale farmers and consumers. We champion sustainable agribusinesses and diverse food production through climate adaptation, gender equality, sound business approaches, promotion of organic agriculture, and the sustainable use of natural resources.
We promote biodiversity and local species, the co-creation of knowledge and tradition, preservation of cultural assets, renewable energy use, diversified agricultural systems, strengthening of circular food economies, and increasinginvestment into food systems research and education. Through our anticipatory humanitarian approach, we build climate resilience into food systems.
WATER, SANITATION AND HYGIENE (WASH)
Through donor assistance and public sector support, we deliver potable water to previously disadvantaged urban and rural communities. Our partnerships help us establish inclusive sanitation and hygiene infrastructure which amplifies household and community safety. We promote practices that result in safe communities free from risks related to poor sanitation and hygiene. We reinforce sustainable service delivery and strengthen WASH Systems through community focused, partnered advocacy approaches.
HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE
WHH Zimbabwe focuses on anticipatory action and the nexus of relief, recovery, development, and preparedness. We are committed to strengthening communities’ resilience. We use detailed risk and threat analyses to predict extreme weather events and enable the timely launch of disaster response plans.
We respond rapidly to emergencies caused by climate shocks, pandemics, and economic crises. Our interventions include:
- Cash-based assistance
- Sanitation, health and hygiene support
- Food and nutrition support
- Infrastructure rehabilitation (schools, clinics, boreholes)
We emphasize local ownership, working with government departments, civil society, and frontline responders to ensure timely, inclusive support.
Publications about Zimbabwe
Our Approach
Hunger is one of the biggest problems in the world. But it can be solved. WHH envisions a world in which everyone can lead a self-determined life with dignity and justice, free from hunger and poverty.
WHH’s strategic goal is ‘Zero Hunger wherever we work by 2030’, based on the 2nd UN Sustainable Development Goal. By working closely with local partners, we want to end hunger for good in all the countries we are active in. Our actions are intended to improve the prospects of present and future generations, helping them sustain healthy environments and fair societies.
At WHH Zimbabwe, we take a food systems transformation approach that addresses the root causes of hunger, poverty, and inequality. Our model blends emergency response, development programming, and systems change, grounded in the lived experiences of the communities we serve.
We work across the entire food system—from soil to table—to ensure that interventions are Integrated, Community-led, Evidence-Based, Scalable and Sustainable, Gender-Responsive and Inclusive. This systems-based approach ensures we are not just alleviating symptoms of hunger but transforming the structures that perpetuate it—making our work relevant to global frameworks such as the UN Food Systems Summit, SDG2, and the Global Alliance for Food Security.
WHH Jobs and Tenders
Are you looking for a job that is exciting and has clear goals? Welcome to WHH!
Additionally, you can find all current WHH tenders on our eTender portal.
