Widespread rural food insecurity in Zambia, Malawi

The lack of assets in rural households struggling with the impact of HIV/AIDS in Malawi and Zambia is making them extremely vulnerable to shocks such as last year's drought, a recent survey has found. The Consortium for Southern Africa's Food Emergency (C-SAFE) - a jointly planned and implemented response by World Vision, CARE and Catholic Relief Services to the current food security crisis in the region - recently conducted a baseline survey to collect data that would inform its aid programming. Among the goals of the survey was to "increase understanding of livelihood security factors impacting lives of rural households", and to "identify groups and geographic areas where food and livelihood security may be low". The Malawi and Zambia surveys found that about 80 percent of rural households in the two countries could be "classified as 'asset poor' or 'very poor'". This was of concern, as "households with limited assets are vulnerable, not only because of their relative poverty but also because they have few items to divest, should they be forced to spend money on food or emergencies". While both Malawi and Zambia had made significant strides in recovering from the widespread food shortages last year, there remained pockets of need in both countries. C-SAFE was thus focussed on "addressing the immediate nutritional needs of targeted vulnerable groups, as well as building productive assets and working with communities to increase their resilience to future food security shocks". Households in rural Malawi and Zambia generally "expect that the current harvest will be about one-half of what they normally obtain through cropping activities. This trend is similar for every household type analysed, and demonstrates that food security problems in [these countries] are widespread and impact on many livelihoods". In Malawi almost 40 percent of asset-poor households spend 75 percent or more of their household income on food, "which leaves little to spend on other items such as health care, school fees, etc.", C-SAFE reported. The majority of households have relied very heavily "on food aid to provide for part of their food requirements, and food aid is an important source of calories for many rural Malawi households. One-half of surveyed households have relied on food aid for meeting part of their nutritional needs, and the majority have received these benefits through general feeding. Targeting of vulnerable households through other food aid programs may need refining", the survey found. THE IMPACT OF HIV/AIDS The Malawi survey noted that "during the previous year, almost one in five households experienced at least one death, and the average age of death was 23 years old. In over half of all deaths the individual was ill for more than three months". Over the past year in Zambia, "18 percent of households experienced at least one death. The average age of death was 25.5 years old". "In just over half of all deaths, the individual was ill for more than three months. All vulnerable household categories had at least one death at a significantly higher rate than the general survey population, averaging about one in four to one in five, or 20 percent to 25 percent, for most vulnerable groups," the C-SAFE Zambia survey added. In Malawi, "chronically ill individuals were present in 30 percent of households surveyed, and only a small but significant difference exists between the percentage of chronically ill found in male- versus female-headed households". The survey found that chronic illness and the resulting loss of productive capacity was "having a severe impact on household food security". "Although [these households] have, on average, access to more land, they have the largest gap between what they have access to and what they cultivate. This signals a labour shortage in these households, and more land is left fallow," C-SAFE noted.