Social Capital and Development Projects: A case study in Zimbabwe

The main objective of the SoCapZ project is to develop and test a methodology to measure indicators of social capital, productivity and resilience of farms and rural communities. This methodology will be applied at the onset of the EU funded development project RAIZ in Zimbabwe, which aims at co- developing sustainable intensification technologies and practicesamongsmallholderfarmers.

The data generated during the SoCapZ project will allow us to test hypotheses about the interactions between social capital at farm and community levels, the co-development of agricultural innovations, and the resilience of farming communities.

It is important to note that we intend to apply this methodology again at the end of the RAIZ project. It will then allow a thorough understanding of the different pathways of changes induced by the project and conduct a proper impact analysis. This impact analysis could be considered the long term objective of the SoCapZ project.