UN assessment team arrives as new food report is published

A United Nations team that is to assess Zimbabwe's land crisis has begun arriving in Harare, an official from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) told IRIN on Thursday. A specialist in land information management arrived at the weekend from FAO headquarters in Rome and is providing technical help to the ministry of lands, said Victoria Sekitoleko, FAO's Regional Representative for Southern and Eastern Africa. "The specialist will begin work on establishing a comprehensive land information resource for the government," Sekitoleko said. She added that the government did not have proper information on land use, ownership and quality and had requested help from FAO to help establish this resource. The specialist is part of a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) assessment mission due in Harare next week. It will be headed by Abdoulie Janneh, Assistant Secretary-General and Director of the UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa. The mission will assess total progress made under the Abuja agreement. The UN assessment mission was called for under a Commonwealth deal signed in Abuja in September. Zimbabwe agreed to curb political violence tied to its land reforms in exchange for British financing of the programme. Part of the deal called for Zimbabwe's government to work more closely with the UNDP on the land issue. Meanwhile, a joint report by the USAID-backed Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) and the state agricultural department made public on Wednesday predicted worsening food shortages. The report marks a departure in government's attitude to the nation's food situation - it had previously allegedly sought to play down evidence of shortages as the presidential poll to be held early next year approaches. The report said as many as 30 percent of the population in some districts in central, western, southern and arid northern Zimbabwe suffered food shortages during October. It noted that the nation's stocks of grain, the staple food, stood at about 200,355 mt in mid-October, the lowest level in two years, or 63 percent lower than at the same time last year. The report does not conflict with earlier studies that suggest the combined affects of drought, economic collapse, and the government's land reform programme would lead to severe food shortages next year.