The Community Investment Fund (CIF) will contribute to the improvement of the welfare of poor communities by increasing the access to quality social and economic infrastructure.

The sub-projects will be identified, prepared, implemented, managed and maintained by beneficiary communities. The responsibility for operation and maintenance of the sub-projects will depend on the nature of the sub-project, but is likely to be that of the community and line ministry.

The target group will be poor communities but within those communities ZAMSIF will ensure that the needs of the most vulnerable are addressed. The most vulnerable will be identified by the communities themselves but might include orphans and vulnerable children, women, female headed households and families affected by HIV/AIDS .

There will increased decentralisation of decision making and devolution of responsibilities to local levels. There will be an emphasis on community projects as a focus for social development and increased access to information. ‘Modules’ will be developed for a variety of topics for facilitation and delivery at community level during the life of the project. These will include discussions related to HIV/AIDS, environment, community based strategies for orphans and vulnerable children etc. The ZAMSIF Information Strategy (IEC) will encourage the use of the community based project as an information centre by providing relevant information, regularly.