Friday, February 4, 2011
PROTRACTED RELIEF AND RECOVERY OPERATIONS – ZIMBABWE 200162
Zimbabwe has a national food gap of 428,000 mt1 and a food entitlement deficit2 of 133,000 mt; 1.68 million food-insecure people continue to need assistance, of whom 1.3 million – 15 percent of the total population – live in rural areas;3 72 percent of the population subsists below the poverty line.
Since 2000, food production has been devastated by economic and political crises and natural disasters. Hyper-inflation and the collapse of pricing systems have halted service delivery and caused chronic shortages of food and agricultural inputs. HIV and AIDS affect 13.7 percent of the population, with 1,090 people dying each week; there are 1.6 million orphans and other vulnerable children in Zimbabwe.
The introduction of a multi-currency system in early 2009 increased the availability of basic foods, but households continue to face difficulties in obtaining cash and food as a result of the longer-term impacts; many households barter assets for food. In January 2010, after a dry spell in the south and southeast, expectations for the 2010 harvest – particularly cash crops – were 60 percent to 70 percent of national requirements.
Protracted relief and recovery operation 200162 will consolidate the activities of its predecessor and initiate early recovery with a view to achieving sustainable solutions to food insecurity and inadequate nutrition. The operation combines relief and early recovery involving food support, cash transfers and vouchers. The scope of WFP’s support is defined through regular vulnerability assessments; annual crop and food supply assessments provide information about the food gap.
This operation will assist food-insecure people through: i) seasonal targeted assistance to protect lives and livelihoods and enhance the self-reliance of vulnerable households in response to seasonal food shortages; ii) health and nutrition to improve the well-being of chronically ill adults with a view to increasing capacities for productive recovery; and iii) social safety nets to promote food access and consumption among vulnerable food-insecure households. Monitoring will assess progress towards expected outputs and outcomes; support for capacity development will assist the Government in designing and implementing food security assessments and hunger-reduction policies.The operation is consistent with the United Nations Development Assistance Framework for Zimbabwe and is consistent with the 2010 Consolidated Appeal; it addresses Strategic Objectives 1, 3 and 5 and contributes to Millennium Development Goals 1 and 6.
Zimbabwe is expected to become a surplus producer again and to provide for the needs of vulnerable groups once political and economic conditions stabilize, agricultural production and markets recover and economic decline is reversed. In the meantime, targeted food assistance is required to sustain vulnerable groups in food-insecure areas.
Since 2000, food production has been devastated by economic and political crises and natural disasters. Hyper-inflation and the collapse of pricing systems have halted service delivery and caused chronic shortages of food and agricultural inputs. HIV and AIDS affect 13.7 percent of the population, with 1,090 people dying each week; there are 1.6 million orphans and other vulnerable children in Zimbabwe.
The introduction of a multi-currency system in early 2009 increased the availability of basic foods, but households continue to face difficulties in obtaining cash and food as a result of the longer-term impacts; many households barter assets for food. In January 2010, after a dry spell in the south and southeast, expectations for the 2010 harvest – particularly cash crops – were 60 percent to 70 percent of national requirements.
Protracted relief and recovery operation 200162 will consolidate the activities of its predecessor and initiate early recovery with a view to achieving sustainable solutions to food insecurity and inadequate nutrition. The operation combines relief and early recovery involving food support, cash transfers and vouchers. The scope of WFP’s support is defined through regular vulnerability assessments; annual crop and food supply assessments provide information about the food gap.
This operation will assist food-insecure people through: i) seasonal targeted assistance to protect lives and livelihoods and enhance the self-reliance of vulnerable households in response to seasonal food shortages; ii) health and nutrition to improve the well-being of chronically ill adults with a view to increasing capacities for productive recovery; and iii) social safety nets to promote food access and consumption among vulnerable food-insecure households. Monitoring will assess progress towards expected outputs and outcomes; support for capacity development will assist the Government in designing and implementing food security assessments and hunger-reduction policies.The operation is consistent with the United Nations Development Assistance Framework for Zimbabwe and is consistent with the 2010 Consolidated Appeal; it addresses Strategic Objectives 1, 3 and 5 and contributes to Millennium Development Goals 1 and 6.
Zimbabwe is expected to become a surplus producer again and to provide for the needs of vulnerable groups once political and economic conditions stabilize, agricultural production and markets recover and economic decline is reversed. In the meantime, targeted food assistance is required to sustain vulnerable groups in food-insecure areas.
Zimbabwe
WFP is working to assist up to 1.5 million people until April 2010 in Zimbabwe. Photo: WFP/Richard Lee
Threats to Food Security
- Poverty
- Low agricultural technologies
- HIV/AIDS
Overview
In Zimbabwe, hyper-inflation, an acute shortages of basic supplies and a series of very poor harvests led to serious food shortages and acute food insecurity in recent years. Along with these factors, the collapsing economy, very high unemployment (estimated at over 80%), a rapidly devaluating currency and a high HIV/AIDS prevalence rate (15.3%) all contributed to increasing levels of vulnerability. This situation necessitated large-scale humanitarian food assistance operations in the country.Despite a lack of key inputs, the FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission (CFSAM) estimated that Zimbabwe harvested 1.14 million tons of maize in 2009 due to generally good and well-distributed rainfall across the country. This represents an increase of 130 percent compared to 2008's record low level. The production of sorghum and millet also doubled.
However, Zimbabwe still faces a cereal shortfall of around 677,000 tons during the current consumption year (April 2009 - March 2010). Liberalisation of the grain market means that commercial traders have been able to fill some of this gap but a substantial international humanitarian assistance programme has still been necessary and will continue until the harvest.
The CFSAM estimated that around 2.8 million people might need humanitarian assistance before the next harvest in April 2010 with the majority in rural areas but the October 2009 ZimVAC found that the number of food insecure people at the peak of the hunger season from January to March 2010 will be 1.6 million. In consultation with its cooperating partners, WFP realigned its beneficiary numbers based on this assessment - reducing the number of beneficiaries targeted under the vulnerable group feeding (VGF) programme to 1.16 million.
Overall, WFP is aiming to assist almost 1.5 million Zimbabweans per month during the first quarter of 2010 through VGF and other social safety net programmes.
WFP Activities
Under the Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation that began in May 2008, WFP and cooperating partners identified a three-tier strategy to prioritise food assistance interventions, which aims to:
- Promote universal access to the care and treatment of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis through Health-based Safety-Net Activities such as home-based care and food assistance to people on anti-retroviral treatment;
- Provide support for livelihoods to address chronic poverty and the needs of food insecure households, including vulnerable urban households, households affected by displacement and children in the most food insecure areas of the country through Social-based Safety-Net Activities, which include institutional feeding, school feeding, assistance to mobile and vulnerable populations and also highly vulnerable households; and,
- Address seasonally shock-affected food insecure households by providing relief, through Emergency Vulnerable Group Feeding, which comprises the largest proportion of the programme.
In recent years, WFP has assisted millions of people across Zimbabwe, including over 5 million in March 2009.
Following the formation of the Inclusive Government and the release of the government’s 'Short-Term Emergency Recovery Program – STERP', WFP is looking at the move from food aid to food assistance as a response to the changing environment in the country. This shift could involve possible pilot projects in new areas, in addition to its traditional programme activities.
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