NGO de-registration stalls aid for 90,000 kids

An international NGO involved in a school feeding programme has had to leave Zimbabwe because the authorities refused to renew its registration and work permits for expatriate staff.

International aid agencies and NGOs must register with the government and have their activities vetted and approved.

The NGO Medair, which has its headquarters in Switzerland, told IRIN on Monday that it was "disappointed" at having to leave Zimbabwe last week "at such a critical time".

Medair communications officer Severine Flores noted that, as a World Food Programme (WFP) implementing partner, Medair provided up to 90,000 children in 150 schools with at least one daily meal.

"Very often it was the only meal they would get that day," added Flores.

She said they had received no explanation from the authorities - "we were just not desired to be there, regrettably".

The NGO had applied for the renewal of work permits for its expatriate staff six months ago, Flores told IRIN, but the applications were refused. The school feeding programme was suspended in August after its registration was not renewed.

Medair's desk officer for Zimbabwe, Mark Screeton, said in a statement that the organisation had hoped it would be able to continue the school feeding programme.

"But instead, we found ourselves prevented from distributing, and so the food has sat deteriorating in the warehouses since August. It's been so frustrating - not being free to work - and now we leave, knowing the increasing food insecurity that faces those primary school children and their families," Screeton added.

Medair has operated in Zimbabwe for two years and its pull-out followed months "in which we had seen our temporary registration to continue our school feeding programmes in Gokwe North [in Midlands province] and Mudzi [in Mashonoland East province] ... expire and not be renewed, despite our best efforts", the organisation said. It noted that "the timing of this decision is all the more significant because of the deteriorating economic and humanitarian situation within the country".

Earlier this month the Famine Early Warning System Network "reasserted their prediction that 2.2 million rural households would require food aid before the end of the year". Medair noted reports of "falling school attendances in Mudzi district as parents took their children out of school to work in the fields or find food".

A WFP spokesman told IRIN that "unfortunately, the school feeding programme for some 90,000 children is suspended while we look for another implementing partner. We have some food at a number of the schools to last until the end of term, but since there is no implementing partner there are delays at various schools - there's no monitoring going on and no follow-ups. These delays are affecting the children".

"Many of these children ... live in traditionally food-deficit areas, as highlighted by the ZimVAC [Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee] report released by the government in October. For many of them this is the only meal that they have," the spokesman added.

WFP was "very concerned that this has happened, when we are now in the traditionally lean season [the between-harvest period when food stocks start to run out], when there is less food available for vulnerable households".

Despite this, "we are grateful that we are currently reaching 360,000 school children in Zimbabwe", the WFP spokesman said. The aid agency aims to reach some 500,000 school children in January 2005.