Critical need for non-food aid

While food aid needs remain critical in Zimbabwe, aid agencies are desperately trying to focus more attention on the collapsing health system and a lack of adequate social safety nets. In its latest Southern Africa appeal, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted that "with crumbling health services, the region has experienced a general decline in health [and] human development, and an increase in morbidity and mortality rates". Of the six countries included in the appeal, Zimbabwe is the most in need of both food and non-food aid. Agencies estimate that some 5.5 million people, or half the country's population, need food assistance. The rapid economic decline - the government projects that inflation will reach 700 percent next year - coupled with the impact of HIV/AIDS has eroded the coping ability of many previously stable households. "People's ability to withstand shocks has been weakened. Zimbabweans continue to face a particularly severe humanitarian crisis. Nearly half of the population has had their livelihoods eroded by severe macroeconomic decline and precarious food security," OCHA said. Thus, support for social services in the areas of water, health and education, capacity building and other activities for strengthening the safety net were needed to "protect the lives and future of children and a growing number of [HIV/AIDS] orphans". UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Zimbabwe, J. Victor Angelo, emphasised the need for health and social sector support. "We are saving the mother by giving her food ... but then she dies when she goes to a hospital that has no drugs!" Yet the Consolidated Appeal for Zimbabwe, launched in July 2003, for US $114 million in non-food aid, has been only 4 percent funded. A holistic approach to the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe was needed urgently. "A country needs more than just food to prosper. For example, the maternal mortality ratio, which was 283 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1994, had reached 695 [per 100,000] in 1999. Even now, the rate continues to increase," said a UN Development Programme spokeswoman. The Consolidated Appeal for Zimbabwe 2003/04 noted that "the rapid and continued decline in the government's capacity to support national food security and sustain life-saving social services will need to be urgently addressed by humanitarian agencies in 2003/04". However, a lack of funding for non-food aid has hamstrung efforts to deliver in this regard. In terms of food aid, the World Food Programme's (WFP) US $311 million regional emergency operation for six countries, including Zimbabwe, is currently 45 percent funded. The WFP in Zimbabwe has warned that food stocks could run out in January, leaving millions of beneficiaries without the rations they depend on.