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Community
Assessment of the Food Situation in Zimbabwe June/July 2002: SUMMARY
National
NGO Food Security Network (FOSENET)
August
14, 2002
View
the full report
The National
NGO Food Security Network (FOSENET) involves 24 non government organisations
that collectively cover ALL districts of Zimbabwe, and all types
of communities.
FOSENET members
subscribe that food distribution in Zimbabwe must be based on a
platform of ethical principles that derive from international humanitarian
law, viz:
- The right
to life with dignity and the duty not to withhold or frustrate
the provision of life saving assistance;
- The obligation
of states and other parties to agree to the provision of humanitarian
and impartial assistance when the civilian population lacks essential
supplies;
- Relief not
to bring unintended advantage to one or more parties nor to further
any partisan position;
- The management
and distribution of food and other relief with based purely on
criteria of need and not on partisan grounds, and without adverse
distinction of any kind;
- Respect for
community values of solidarity, dignity and peace and of community
culture.
As one of
its functions FOSENET is monitoring food needs, availability and
access. This summary provides a report of the community based monitoring
only for June/July 2002 drawn from all provinces of Zimbabwe.
- Food needs
are high across all areas, with maize shortages reported as the
primary concern. Sugar, salt, cooking oil, beans and matemba shortfalls
were also frequently reported.
- Elderly people,
orphans and young children were reported as most food insecure.
These groups were also reported to face barriers to GMB grain
access arising from costs of travel to depots, difficulties with
proof of origin through IDs (for orphans), with long periods of
queuing and high food costs.
- Food insecurity
was reported to mainly derive from poverty, drought, inadequate
food supplies into areas, child insecurity due to adult deaths
from AIDS and political bias in food access. Communities reported
increasing difficulty meeting increasing costs of food.
- Food deliveries
from GMB were reported to have been variable and infrequent with
an average of 1,5 reported deliveries per month, some areas reported
as having frequent deliveries and others none at all.
- Relief activities
were reported across only 18% of constituencies.
- In the absence
of secure food supplies people reported purchasing maize, substituting
maize for other staples or sourcing wild foods. Food sales were
at widely differing prices. Maize prices ranged from $11/kg to
$24/kg at GMB depots, and from $20/kg to $85/kg at informal markets.
- Reports made
were of people with wealth, political or business influence, with
power derived from their law enforcement role or other sources
of power accessing inequitable shares of available food. Inadequate
food supplies, failures by some people to access deliveries, non
transparent procedures and overt political interference in food
distribution were reported.
- Leakages
from formal to informal supplies and speculation with food was
widely reported. Biased access was reported in some cases to have
led to food being sold on through informal markets at high prices.
- Positive
discrimination in access to relief food was given to vulnerable
groups, with few reports of political interference, mis-targeting
or mismanagement, although some lack of clarity was reported at
community level on targeting criteria.
- Poor households
trying to meet food costs were reported to be bartering goods
for food, selling household assets or livestock to afford the
costs of buying food and, in two areas, selling sex for money
or food.
The first round
of reporting highlights:
- The difficulties
vulnerable people (orphans, elderly) have accessing food from
GMB and commercial sources. Relief food is sparsely distributed
and informal market food costs high, increasing food insecurity
in the poorest groups.
- The economic,
political and other sources of bias in access to controlled price
foods.
- Leakages
between formal and informal food markets driving speculation on
food, increasing the inequity of who is accessing food and widening
the level of vulnerability and food insecurity.
Follow up queries
and feedback to: FOSENET,
Box CY2720, Causeway, Harare - fosenet@mweb.co.zw
Visit the FOSENET
fact sheet
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.
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