Limited funding to impact on rural, urban food assistance
ZIMBABWE is a landlocked, lower-middle income, fooddeficit country. Over the last decade, it has experienced several economic and environmental shocks that have contributed to high food insecurity and malnutrition.
At least 49% of its population live in extreme poverty many impacted by the effects of climate change, protracted economic instability and global stressors. Zimbabwe recorded its first cholera outbreak of 2023 in February.
As of December 31, it had recorded 16 252 suspected and confirmed cases and 320 deaths. Drought is the most significant climate-related risk.
Its frequent occurrence has significant consequences on livelihoods and food security.
About 70% of the population is dependent on rain-fed farming, while most farmers are smallholders with low productivity.
The 2023 Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee's urban and rural livelihood assessments estimate that 29% of the urban population in 2023 (1,5 million people) were food insecure, with a further 19% of the people living in rural areas (estimated at 1,9 million people) projected to be food insecure from October through to December 2023, before peaking at 26% (2,7 million people) in the first quarter of 2024.
The Zimbabwean government, in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP) launched a food deficit mitigation/lean season assistance programme to help vulnerable communities during the peak hunger season, between January and March 2024.
WFP with support from the United States Agency for International Development and multilateral funds will complement government's efforts to reach 2,7 million food insecure people in rural areas by providing food assistance to some 265 000 people within this period.
WFP will also provide technical assistance for the food deficit mitigation strategy implementation in five districts, enhancing joint programming for food assistance to vulnerable communities.
WFP facilitated the distribution of cash to 26 000 individuals in Chiredzi and Mzilikazi high-density suburb in Bulawayo through its urban cash assistance programme.
Additionally, WFP engaged in planning meetings with local authorities for the upcoming urban cash assistance programme in Caledonia and Chinhoyi, in the most food insecure locations within the two domains.
WFP is implementing the Stopping Abuse and Female Exploitation (SAFE) programme alongside its urban social assistance programme.
These activities aim to prevent gender-based violence (GBV) through empowerment and a transformative curriculum while responding to GBV through a referral pathway.
In December, the third cohort benefiting from urban cashbased transfer and SAFE programming graduated in Chiredzi.
Preliminary findings show that participating households have reduced food insecurity, decreased intimate partner violence and improved household cohesion.
Through the Participatory Integrated Climate Services for Agriculture, weather and climatic advisories and warnings were disseminated to over 20 000 farmers in Mwenezi, Masvingo, Chipinge, Mangwe, Binga, Hwange districts through a variety of channels, including WhatsApp, radio and face-to-face engagements.
These advisories assist farmers in making informed decisions on their farming activities.
Under WFP's El Niño mitigation efforts, 13 200 households in Hwange, Binga and Chiredzi received agricultural inputs for one plot, complementing government's climate smart agriculture (Pfumvudza) programme.
Limited funding forecast for food assistance for assets and urban resilience activities will impact on previous investments made on resilience activities in both the rural and urban areas. In Zimbabwe, WFP's resilience activities are integrated emphasising layering of activities to provide incremental support to enhance communities' capacities to mitigate and adapt to future shocks and stressors.