Countries

Overview

In Zimbabwe, hyper-inflation and acute shortages of basic supplies combined with 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). Recent liberalisation of the grain market means that commercial traders are likely to play a crucial role in helping to fill this gap but a substantial international humanitarian assistance programme will still be necessary.

The CFSAM estimated that around 2.8 million people might need humanitarian assistance before the next harvest in April 2010 with the majority (2.2 million) in rural areas, where many farmers will begin to exhaust their own crops as early as October.

WFP is preparing to scale up its operations later in 2009 to assist the most vulnerable people to cope with another year of food shortages. WFP will finalise its plans once the rural Vulnerability Assessment Committee report is completed in August and after discussions with the government, donors and partners.

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:

1. 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;
2. 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,
3. Address seasonally shock-affected food insecure households by providing relief, through Emergency Vulnerable Group Feeding, which comprises the largest proportion of the programme.

The first two are year-round activities targeting chronically vulnerable beneficiaries while the third strategy is a seasonal programme, which is carried out during the ‘lean season’ that normally runs from October to March before the main annual harvest starts in April.

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.