Government to be sole distributor of food aid

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's government declared on Sunday that it would bar non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from distributing food aid to alleviate growing hunger in parts of the country.

Ethan Mhlanga, programme coordinator for Oxfam in Zimbabwe told IRIN on Monday that his agency was seeking clarification from the government on the issue. "Obviously this would be a setback to our work," he said.

The government-controlled Sunday Mail quoted Information Minister Jonathan Moyo as saying that only the government would be allowed to participate in the issue of food given by donors, because NGOs would use food aid to campaign against Mugabe in presidential elections due at the end of March.

"Suggestions by these groups to distribute food through NGOs are totally unacceptable," Moyo was quoted as saying. "We will not allow any strangers to roam around our country interfering in the political affairs of our country."

Both the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Zimbabwe and the World Food Programme (WFP) told IRIN last week that they were concerned to insist on the equitable distribution of food aid to those most in need.

"What we are trying to put in place is a mechanism to ensure that the delivery of assistance is as transparent and impartial as possible," Jose Victor Angelo, UNDP Resident Coordinator in Zimbabwe told IRIN.

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 due to erratic rainfall, economic decline combined with steep rises in staple food prices, and disruption to the commercial farming sector due to land acquisition activities.

WFP announced on Thursday that it was launching a major feeding programme in Zimbabwe and that it hoped to have food in place by December. The agency told IRIN that it planned to distribute food in partnership with both the government and NGOs.

Diplomatic sources in Harare told IRIN that anti-NGO declarations from the government would do nothing to encourage donors to provide funds for food aid. "Donors want to help needy people, not fund Mugabe's election campaign," one diplomat said.