The Centre for Agriculture and Food Policy (CAFP) is a registered Trust governed by a Board of Trustees drawn from the public and private sector. CAFP evolved from a structured Technical Assistance Policy facility of the Livelihood Food Security Programme (LFSP) “Strengthening Evidence and Analysis to Influence Policy and Private Sector Investments”, a collaboration and partnership between the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute and the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries Water, and Rural Development (MLAFWRD) with funding from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).

CAFP was set up as an exit strategy to continue and scale up activities initiated by the LFSP programme during its six (6) years of implementation in Zimbabwe. It was set up to work with agricultural stakeholders in policy development processes and provide analytic assessments to programmes and projects to aid policy making.

CAFP coverage is national in scope with structures and systems to provide specialized support at provincial, district programme level and individual institution level. CAFP’s principal mandate is to coordinate, implement and conduct objective research and analysis to provide evidence–based policy solutions needed to sustainably transform Zimbabwe’s agricultural and food systems that will aid the country in dealing with food and nutrition insecurity and poverty, and stimulate the country’s agricultural competitiveness, promote trade, create jobs and invigorate rural and urban economies.

The activities of CAFP are broadly anchored on three core operational pillars as follows:

1. 1) Research and policy development:
2. 2) Partnerships, outreach and communications:
3. 3) Capacity strengthening for policy implementation: