Food crisis projected to intensify

ACCORDING to World Food Programme (WFP)’s HungerMap LIVE monitoring platform, which collects data from rural and urban households through mobile surveys on a number of indicators including food consumption patterns and coping strategies, about 5,2 million people were estimated to be subjected to insufficient food consumption during the first week of January 2023, a decrease of 10% or 600 000 people from 5,8 million reported during the last week of November 2022 and 100 000 less than 5,3 million in October.

The number of people estimated to be resorting to “crisis and above” food-based coping strategies was estimated at eight million, which is an increase of about 200 000 people from the 7,8 million reported in November and 400 000 from 7,6 million in October 2022.

The increase in food insecurity levels as the country approaches the peak of the lean season, which starts in January, is in line with the projections of the 2022 Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee, which shows an increase in cereal insecurity from 30% from September to December to 38% between January and March 2022.

The biggest increase in estimated prevalence of insufficient consumption over the past three months was reported in Midlands, Matabeleland North, Mashonaland Central, West and East provinces.

The estimated prevalence of “crisis and above” food-based coping remained high (ie 40% and above) for all provinces except the major metropolitan areas of Harare (36%) and Bulawayo (36%).

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network continues to project an intensification of crisis (Integrated Phase Classification Phase 3) outcomes between December and January 2023 mainly in typical deficit-producing areas in the south, east, west and far north as households increasingly rely on the market for staples and other basic food commodities.

Stressed (Integrated Phase Classification Phase 2) outcomes are likely to continue in the communal areas of the surplus-producing northern districts and urban areas.