Kubatana - Archive - Community Assessment of the Food Situation in Zimbabwe Aug/Sep 2002: Full Report - FOSENET

Community Assessment of the Food Situation in Zimbabwe June/July 2002: FULL REPORT
National NGO Food Security Network (FOSENET)
October 12, 2002

If you do not have the free Acrobat reader on your computer, download it from the Adobe website by clicking here.

Background
In March 2002 a number of National NGOs viewed the growing food crisis with concern, and formed a network to share experience, views and resources on a response. This National NGO Food Security Network (FOSENET) involves 24 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.

FOSENET Monitoring
As one of its functions FOSENET is monitoring food needs, availability and access through NGOs based within districts and through community based monitors. Monthly reports from all areas of the country are compiled by FOSENET to provide a monthly situation assessment of food security and access to enhance an ethical, effective and community focused response to the food situation.

FOSENET is conscious of the need to ensure and constantly improve on data quality and validity. Data quality is being improved through training, supervision and verification cross checks. Validity is checked through cross reporting from the same district, through verification from field visits (to be implemented in the next round) and through peer review from those involved with relief work, including the UN, to enable feedback on differences found and follow up verification.

Comment and feedback on this report is welcomed – please send to fosenet@mweb.co.zw

In this second round, the NGO monitoring piloted in July was implemented on a national scale. Further work on community based monitoring was being done so that this report does not include the evidence from the community monitors. It is thus compiled from reports from NGO monitors located within districts.

The report provides general evidence by province, with some evidence by district where there is consistency between different reports or across districts. District evidence is raised to signal issues for follow up verification and investigation, through both FOSENET and the wider UN, international and national network of organisations working on food security and relief. FOSENET will actively follow these issues up within these frameworks. The evidence presented with greater certainty is that reported from a large share of districts. The report for August / September signals broad issues to be addressed in dealing with food security as monitored from community level.

This summary provides the report of the NGO based monitoring for August / September 2002.

Follow up queries and feedback to: FOSENET, Box CY2720, Causeway, Harare - fosenet@mweb.co.zw

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.