WFP plans major food aid

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Thursday it was about to undertake a large-scale relief operation in Zimbabwe in response to the swelling numbers of people facing hunger.

A team of WFP emergency experts who recently returned from Zimbabwe strongly recommended a major emergency intervention to feed 558,000 rural people who face acute food shortages, and who are not receiving assistance through NGO bilateral food aid programmes.

"The WFP team was in Zimbabwe for three weeks. It worked with NGOs and other organisations in order to build-up a comprehensive picture of the food needs," Judith Lewis, WFP's Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa told IRIN.

Zimbabwe, normally a food surplus country, has seen a sharp deterioration in food security due to a combination of factors: erratic rainfall preceded by widespread flooding; a strong downturn in the economy combined with steep rises in staple food prices; and disruption to the commercial farming sector due to land acquisition activities.

The government of Zimbabwe has made a formal request for humanitarian assistance - a prerequisite for UN agencies, including WFP, to intervene. WFP plans to start operations in November, with food aid arriving in December together with the establishment of a formal Country Office for Zimbabwe. "Initially we'll probably be buying food in neighbouring South Africa and driving it up to Zimbabwe," Lewis said.

"We've been carefully monitoring the growing food shortages in Zimbabwe," she added, "And what we're seeing right now is a developing complex emergency." The opposition and some NGOs in Zimbabwe have voiced fears that food aid may be used politically in the run-up to the country's presidential poll early next year. Lewis emphasised that WFP would monitor food distribution to ensure that it was delivered impartially and to those in greatest need.

The agency's press release noted that already, many Zimbabweans average only one meal a day, or even sometimes go an entire day without food. What little grain many rural families managed to harvest last year was consumed long ago. The ability to buy food is constrained by increasingly high prices, and limited opportunities to either earn cash through casual labour, or receive remittances from family or friends who work in urban areas or in South Africa.

The hardest-hit populations are spread throughout 22 districts located in the south, west and extreme north of Zimbabwe, areas where food shortages and hunger are a chronic problem. In past years, the government brought food surpluses from the north to meet the needs of structurally food deficit areas, mostly in southern Zimbabwe.

While the food situation in rural parts of Zimbabwe is dire, the ability of those in towns to procure food is little better. Lewis told IRIN that WFP was concerned about the plight of urban Zimbabweans and that the next phase would include an assessment mission to towns and cities to determine food needs there.

Operational details, including budget, for WFP's planned emergency operation in Zimbabwe are in the final stage of approval at the agency's Rome headquarters. A major appeal for food and cash will be issued shortly after, the agency said.