Govt assessing needs before calling for food aid

Zimbabwe authorities say the results from a second round of government-run crop assessments will determine whether the country will appeal for international food aid. Chairman of the National Taskforce on Food Security, Didymus Mutasa, said on Wednesday that the government was on top of the situation, and refused to comment on media reports of dwindling stocks and rising food prices. "All I can say is that there are multisectoral food needs assessments going on, but I cannot give you details about what we are looking for. These are security issues, and ... we cannot make public statements on such issues. We are watching the situation and taking corrective measures," Mutasa told IRIN. So far, officials have maintained that 1.5 million Zimbabweans were in need of food assistance, based on a government crop assessment undertaken between December and January. However, this figure contrasted sharply with some international relief agency estimates that up to 4.5 million people urgently needed food aid. With all the indicators suggesting that crop output this year has once again fallen far short of consumption needs, the government has been under increasing pressure to allow a transparent audit, which would allow the international community to rapidly respond with aid if required. The issue of food needs has become politically highly charged in Zimbabwe, with the opposition during campaigning in the March legislative elections accusing the government of mismanaging the situation. The US-funded Famine Early Warning System has called for an "objective" crop assessment to determine the extent of food insecurity in the country, and whether outside assistance was required to close the food gap. Zimbabwe needs 1.8 million mt of grain annually to meet domestic consumption requirements, and the 2004/05 harvest is believed to be well below the 2.4 million mt predicted by the government after it cancelled a UN-led crop assessment in April last year. Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Nicholas Goche confirmed last week that about 150,000 mt of grain had been received from South Africa over the past month, and the country was now turning to Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania for supplies, as the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) sought to restock maize and wheat holdings. FEWS NET has predicted a temporary improvement in food availability as the new crop is harvested, but described the "inefficient grain distribution system" of the state-owned GMB as having previously "exacerbated the situation" of shortages. "The major food security problem at the national level remains the inability of a significant proportion of poor households to generate enough income to buy adequate food to satisfy their dietary needs," FEWS NET noted in a report released in March. Responding to the calls for the government to reveal the extent of the country's food needs, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Joseph Made stressed that Zimbabwe would only seek external aid if there were a need to do so. "The government has the capacity to make its own assessments through various provincial and district food committees. Our teams are already out updating the records, and in two months' time we will have a clear picture," Made said. "So far, we are aware of food deficits in seven provinces of the country, and that forms our basic guide for food distribution. Any new areas of need will be recorded and provided for accordingly," he noted. The seven traditionally food deficit regions include the northern Zambezi Valley, and the provinces of Matabeleland South, Mashonaland East and West, Manicaland, Masvingo and Mashonaland Central. Apart from imports, Made said, the country still had internal food-security safety nets, including the winter wheat farming season, which begins this month. The government confirmed that it was prepared to accept the findings of an upcoming survey by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZIMVAC), provided the results were credible and reflected the country's "national situation". The ZIMVAC, scheduled for later in May, is a collaborative effort by United Nations agencies, the government and donors, to gain a clearer picture of household vulnerability. "If the assessors carry out their duty diligently, we will accept only what we see as portraying our national situation - allowing international organisations to carry out the assessment does not mean we cannot do it; this is our country and we know its needs better than any foreigner," Mutasa insisted. Meanwhile, the donor community said the longer the wait for credible figures, the greater the delay in launching a humanitarian response if one were required. "At the moment it is a wait-and-see situation - we are working on contingency plans with other humanitarian partners in the event the government does decide to call on us for assistance," European Union food security coordinator, Pierre-Luc Vanhaeverbeke, told IRIN. "We must stress that there are many people who are already facing food shortages, and to wait until July [when the government's assessment results are due] could be dangerous," he added. Food insecurity has been exacerbated by the country's economic crisis, in which the minimum wage covers only about 40 percent of basic household expenditure. According to FEWS NET, poor families have so far survived by "borrowing, reducing the number and size of meals and skipping meals on some days". Vanhaeverbeke explained that if the EU was asked to respond, it would need "sufficient time" to source funds and set up food distribution networks. "Preparations for general food distribution do not happen overnight, and are extremely costly. We need to rebuild capacity on the ground and that takes time, so we would appreciate some forewarning. "We are not saying that we do not trust food need assessments undertaken by the government, but we remain open to assessment figures that are credible, and that other important stakeholders, such as FAO [Food and Agricultural Organisation] confirm as a reasonable reflection of the food security situation," Vanhaeverbeke said. International food aid programmes provided much-needed relief until mid-2004, but these were stopped when the government told the UN and donors that the country had had a "bumper harvest" and no longer needed assistance.