Regular engagement allowed for the assessment of impacts and adjustments based on feedback, ensuring the project remained aligned with community needs and goals. Monitoring strengthened relationships between implementers and beneficiaries, building trust and accountability.

Volunteering activities, such as constructing honey processing centers, tree planting, and nursery establishment, strengthened community ownership. Contributions like bricks and stones exemplified local investment in the project's success. Stewardship motivated community members to sustain the project beyond its initial implementation phase. Stewardship was the outcome of participatory planning, inclusivity, and capacity-building efforts, reinforcing project sustainability and ownership.

Training sessions equipped beneficiaries with skills in beekeeping, value addition, nursery management, and restoration. This empowerment enhanced local ownership, enabling community members to independently manage and sustain project components like nurseries and apiaries. The trainings were guided by the needs identified and supported through inclusive decision-making, ensuring relevance and community buy-in.

A participatory project committee process and platforms like the SMAG ensured diverse stakeholders, including government, NGOs, and local communities, contributed ideas. This inclusive approach empowered all participants to have a say in shaping activities, fostering collaboration and accountability. Inclusivity built trust and reinforced the outcomes of the needs assessment by incorporating a wide range of perspectives into project planning and execution.

This foundation block ensured the project was community-driven by identifying priorities such as beekeeping and training. By aligning project goals with the Chimanimani Climate Change and Watershed Management Policy and ward development plans, the project reflected community aspirations and offered a framework to guide interventions. This process provided a strong, participatory baseline for project design upon which the project success was built on.

T his building block focuses on raising awareness and providing tailored gender training to highlight the interconnectedness of GBV, particularly exploitative practices like "sex for fish," and environmental degradation in the fisheries sector. With men dominating fish harvesting and women constituting 90% of post-harvest activities, the sector reveals stark gender dynamics. The initiative educates communities and stakeholders on how these transactional relationships exacerbate resource depletion, harm biodiversity, and perpetuate power imbalances between men and women. Using diverse forms of communication, such as roadshows, community dramas, and GBV Watch Committee activities, the project aims to transform perceptions, foster collaboration, and inspire action to address these interwoven challenges.

This building block emphasizes the critical role of engaging men and boys in addressing GBV within the fisheries sector. Recognizing that gender equality requires collaboration between men and women, this initiative targets the predominantly male-dominated fisheries sector to foster a more inclusive and supportive environment. By involving men ie: fishermen, law enforcer, male stakeholders, landowners, transportation providers, and traditional leaders—in awareness raising, training, and GBV Watch Committees, the intervention seeks to transform negative attitudes and behaviours that perpetuate GBV, including exploitative sex-for-fish practices. It also leverages the influence of traditional leaders to drive societal change, ensuring that men play an active role in avoiding backlach and safeguarding women and addressing the interconnected challenges of resource depletion, illegal fishing, and GBV. 

This building block focuses on improving the management of GBV cases and facilitating access to justice for survivors within the environmental (fisheries) sector. Given the unique challenges, such as the remote locations of fishing camps and the limited reach of formal judicial systems, this intervention aims to bridge the gap between GBV referral pathways and the Fast Track Court system. Through community-driven mechanisms like GBV Watch Committees and engagement sessions with key stakeholders, survivors are supported in navigating complex legal processes. This initiative also works to raise awareness of the specific dynamics of "sex-for-fish" practices and ensure that judicial actors and environmental agencies collaborate effectively to address these intersecting challenges.