World Food Programme Fighting Hunger Worldwide

Food production in Zimbabwe has been devastated by a combination of economic and political instability, and natural disasters. Recurrent droughts, a series of poor harvests, high unemployment (estimated at more than 60%), restructuring of the agriculture sector and a high HIV/AIDS prevalence rate – at 13.7 per cent, the fifth highest in the world - have all contributed to increasing levels of vulnerability and acute food insecurity since 2001. This situation has necessitated large-scale humanitarian food assistance operations in the country.