Back to Index

ZIMBABWE: Resettled farmers in need of aid
IRIN News
November 18, 2003

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=37950

JOHANNESBURG - A recent survey of households in Zimbabwe's northwestern Zvimba district, in Mashonaland West province, indicates that newly resettled communal farmers are in desperate need of humanitarian aid.

However, there appears to be reluctance by donors to assist these communities, as this might appear to be giving tacit approval to Zimbabwe's controversial land reform process, the international NGO Save the Children UK (SCUK) told IRIN.

The report, released by SCUK on Monday, also pointed out that former commercial farm workers - jobless and displaced by the government's resettlement of landless blacks on former commercial farms - were in need of assistance.

Chris McIvor of SCUK told IRIN that the "Household Economy Assessment Report on A1 Communal Resettlement Areas and the Mutorashanga Informal Mining Communities" pointed to a gap in humanitarian efforts in Zimbabwe.

The Mutorashanga informal mining communities consist of a significant number of former commercial farm workers and former commercial mine workers who were retrenched.

"Former commercial farming areas have populations that are as vulnerable as the other populations that are receiving food aid. [Yet] those sections of the population are not being adequately targeted [for assistance by aid agencies]," he said.

Assisting these communities has "been problematic for some donors ... [perhaps] because it [may be] seen as tacit approval of, or acceptance of, the land reform programme, and that may have prompted some reluctance to engage these communities", McIvor added.

The report noted that "poor harvests in 2002 left settlers with no grain stocks; maize availability in markets was a problem; and alternative foodstuffs were often unaffordable".

While the situation had improved from March this year, "as green maize became available", many new farmers harvested just enough to last them an additional five to seven months. "For most settlers, therefore, at the time of this survey, grain stocks had run out or were remaining only for up to one month," the report commented.

It added that for the landless as well as settlers, "different types of casual labouring remained the most importance income source". But, "overall for the 12 months to September 2003, the landless groups had [food] deficits of 10 to 20 percent of their minimum needs; the poor settlers had deficits of 5 to 15 percent".

McIvor told IRIN that, as a result of difficulties in accessing food, some young girls were turning to prostitution, "which, in some ways, is a death sentence".

"The international community needs to stand a bit more solidly behind the principle of vulnerability. If they are vulnerable, and if they are needy, they should be [receiving food aid]," he added.

The report states that "donors and humanitarian agencies must apply the humanitarian principle of need and impartiality in implementing their programmes and, therefore, must include resettlement areas in their activities, where needs have been identified".

The government should address medium- to longer-term issues "if the land reform programme is to be successful". In particular, the report said, a serious shortage of inputs and the resulting lack of preparation for the coming season was reported and observed - a situation which had to be addressed urgently.

The government began its fast-track land reform programme in July 2000 after a wave of often violent farm invasions led by veterans of Zimbabwe's armed struggle. The controversial programme was initiated to redistribute land from white commercial farmers to landless black Zimbabweans.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP