US $285 million needed to survive crisis

The United Nations needs US $285 million to help Zimbabweans survive a humanitarian crisis and the worst food shortage in 50 years.

The UN consolidated appeal, which was released on Thursday, said short term goals identified by the UN Country Team (UNCT) include preventing vulnerable populations from becoming destitute and laying the foundations for recovery in food security, education, health services and the economy at large.

The programmes covered in the appeal would include tackling HIV/AIDS, helping with agricultural recovery and irrigation, supporting stressed health care facilities and depleted drug stocks and even helping to protect children from being abused as the crisis takes its toll.

The report accompanying the appeal said six million Zimbabweans - half the population - are at risk due to the food shortages. Around 2.2 million people - 30 percent of the adult population - are living with the HI virus.

At least 600,000 children are orphaned by HIV/AIDS. Some 150,000 are in desperate need of protection services and 600,000 need targeted nutrition initiatives.

Zimbabwe's current crisis was not a "traditional complex emergency", the report said. Policy choices and economic conditions, natural phenomena like drought and Cyclone Eline and the HIV/AIDS pandemic compounded each other, "with the worsening food crisis acting as a multiplier effect on previously existing problems".

"The drought of 2002 exacerbated an already critical situation, and can therefore not be wholly responsible for the current levels of crisis," it said.

Agrarian reform, under the government's fast-track land reform programme, led to a 70 percent drop in maize production. This production could have offset the decimation of smallholder maize production caused by the drought, the report noted.

Government policies had made assistance delivery more difficult. The report cited the government's refusal to accept genetically modified (GM) food aid amid concerns that this would affect its beef exports.

The crisis was also exacerbated by the Grain Marketing Board's (GMB) monopoly on cereal importation, and the government's price and foreign exchange controls.

"Without re-establishing a conducive policy environment, the humanitarian assistance and recovery is clearly going to have limited effectiveness," the appeal document said.

It warned that even after projected imports by the World Food Programme (WFP), NGOs and the GMB between July 2002 and June 2003, there would still be a glaring shortfall of maize.

Without the participation of private sector companies, the government, faced with foreign currency shortages, could not cover the deficit and the price of maize would rise beyond the reach of the poor. This could lead to "mass starvation and further population displacement and migration across the borders of Zimbabwe", warned the report.

"In 2002 an exhaustion of the traditional coping mechanisms and an increasing reliance on dangerous or damaging survival strategies were seen," it noted.

"These strategies, including poaching, prostitution and theft, if allowed to form the basis for survival for vulnerable populations, will have severe medium-term effects on the population, the natural resource base, and the environment."

The exchange of children for food had also been recorded.

While it had been recognised that there was an HIV/AIDS pandemic in Zimbabwe, the government had only recently acknowledged the extent of the problem.

"Food shortages also lead to an increase in prostitution and other high risk behaviour of women, and girls in particular," the report said.

"Food shortages also make it impossible for families to provide adequate food for people living with HIV. The food shortage has a particularly negative impact on children who are often asked to drop out of school and engage in child labour in order to contribute to the family income or to care for an infected family member. Cutbacks in education and separation from a child friendly environment make them more susceptible to HIV infection."

Projects covered under the appeal include the rehabilitation of water infrastructure, helping vulnerable populations increase agricultural production, helping improve fishing activities and a mass vaccination programme to protect livestock.

The health sector plans include disease surveillance, strengthening health service delivery and the procurement of vital drugs and medical supplies. Peripheral health facilities were found to have less than 30 percent of their average drug stocks. Reproductive health was found to need urgent attention.

The programme to fight HIV/AIDS would include support for procuring condoms and test kits, drugs for the prevention of mother to child transmission, home based care projects and scaling up HIV/AIDS awareness and education.

Children, who are particularly vulnerable during the crisis would benefit from a number of projects, many to protect them from abuse.