Back to Index

Zimbabwe Humanitarian Situation Report
The UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator’s Bi-Monthly Report No 7/03
April 07, 2003

Matabeleland South Assessment
A UN inter-agency team carried out a rapid assessment of the potential gaps in the present response, and of the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance in Matabeleland South from 24^th – 29^th March 2003. This assessment took into account the priority areas identified in the presidential declaration of disaster, gazetted on 7^th March 2003, of food security, livestock and water availability. The team consisted of representatives from WFP, FAO, UNICEF, IOM, WHO and RRU/HCs Office. The population of the province was recorded as 654,879 at the 2002 census, over an area of approximately 54,000sq.km. The newly resettled population is approximately 36,984.

The mission found that the food security situation has worsened in the province and the conditions for the people have become critical. This situation is mainly due to rain failure, resulting in water shortages, crop failure and livestock deaths. Although there are various interventions by WFP and other non-governmental organisations in the province, these do not cover all households who may now be described as vulnerable. Resources made available by the Public Works Programme are insufficient and GMB distributions are irregular.

The mission noted with concern the sharp decline in water availability for both humans and livestock throughout the province. A significant number of dams have dried up or will dry up well before the next rainy season. In addition, a substantial proportion of borehole pumps in the province are not functioning due to poor maintenance systems, lack of spare parts, or both.

Health services in the province have already been severely strained as a result of the prevailing economic hardship. The current drought will only worsen the situation, especially for the rural population, placing further constraints on all resources (manpower, finance and logistics).

According to the health officials in the province, severe malnutrition was on the increase. A clear indication of the nutritional status of the population will be reflected in the national Nutrition and EPI survey results. Food insecurity was cited as a major handicap in accessing health services as health personnel and community members spend more and more time in search of food, affecting both service delivery and the ability of families to attend clinics.

In addition it was found that populations will be more susceptible to water related diseases due to the severe shortage of safe water for domestic consumption and the lack of adequate sanitation disposal methods. As a result of the higher risk of water borne and epidemic prone diseases, there is a need to step up disease surveillance. The uncontrolled movement of livestock is likely to result in unsatisfactory control of zoonotic diseases (anthrax and rabies). Food insecurity may result in people being forced to consume animals that have died either from starvation or from zoonotic diseases. On top of this the veterinary department is facing serious problems in acquiring vaccines and antibiotics for the control of these diseases.

The joint mission report outlining recommendations will be circulated to stakeholders upon completion this week.

Humanitarian Principles Workshop
A Humanitarian Principles workshop was held in Harare, 3^rd – 4^th April 2003. The workshop was attended by representatives from GoZ, donors, UN Agencies and NGOs. The challenges that emerged as a result of the workshop were identified as the following;

• Co-ordination needs to be strengthened to help bridge gaps, particularly at implementation level;
• There remains a need to cultivate a shared understanding of the humanitarian situation among actors;
• The lack of capacity and perceived marginalisation of local NGOs;
• Difficulties in identifying implementing structures; and
• Continued macro-economic challenges.

Assessment mission to Chimanimani District
The UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator has responded to reports that a number of families have been temporarily displaced in Chimanimani District.

The UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator has approached the Provincial Governor of Manicaland, Ms Oppah Muchinguri, and, to add to measures already being taken by GoZ, has sent a UN mission to the district to review the situation and identify the most immediate assistance needs for those who have become vulnerable. The inter-agency mission arrived in Mutare on 7^th April 2003 and moved on to Chimanimani on 8^th April 2003.

Moves to address information gaps
The UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator is probing the need to make progress urgently on four key information gaps. These are;

• Knowledge on the nutrition survey outcomes and how this will be used in determining the next steps in the humanitarian response strategy;
• Projected crop yields for this season, national requirements and the determination of gaps that would need planning for;
• Policy on pricing and costing for food commodities and essential farm inputs which will determine both access to food and production levels in the coming seasons;
• Figures on GoZ food importation and information on district level food sales.

Some gaps are beginning to be filled, if only partially. The government has announced increases to the producer prices of maize and wheat, effective from 1^st April 2003. The producer price of maize has increased from ZW$28,000 to ZW$130,000 per tonne. Similarly the producer price for wheat has risen from ZW$70,000 to ZW$150,000.

Maize and wheat will continue to be sold to millers at ZW$9,600 and ZW$29,500 respectively. This situation will create deficits for GMB of ZW$120,400 and ZW$120,500 per tonne for maize and wheat respectively and may have a much broader impact.

RRU efforts to enhance the role of NUNVs in HIV/AIDS response
UNDP recruited 12 national United Nations Volunteers (NUNVs) that have been seconded to the National Aids Council (NAC) to assist with the capacity development at the national, provincial and district level to tackle the HIV/AIDS crisis.

The major functions of the NUNVs within the establishment of NAC include the provision of technical support to:

• Assist the Provincial AIDS co-ordinator (PAC) in the administration and management of the Provincial Office;
• Assist the District AIDS Action Committees (DAACs) and community groups at ward and village levels to articulate, develop, implement and monitor their plans and projects in order to assess funds from the National AIDS Trust Fund and other sources;
• Work with the PAC towards setting up systems of effective co-ordination and monitoring of HIV/AIDS prevention, control, care and research activities in the province; and
• Contribute to the compilation and distribution of information generated by NAC including best practices on HIV/AIDS at district level.

Among the initiatives taken by RRU to step up the response to the HIV/AIDS and humanitarian crisis, the Recovery Team of the RRU is working on supporting capacity strengthening at district level for effective response to the complex crisis. In this regard, the RRU/Recovery convened a meeting for all the twelve NAC NUNVs held on 7^th April 2003. Present at the meeting were also UNAIDS, NAC, WFP, SAFAIDS and UNDP representatives. The aim of the one-day meeting was to define a framework within which RRU can collaborate with NAC and effectively utilize the NUNVs in supporting a coordinated approach to the HIV/AIDS and humanitarian crisis.

The group identified the gaps and needs for heightening the response to the crisis and agreed on major strategies for both immediate action and medium to long-term attention that can be proposed to stakeholders, as follows:

• The NUNVs should take a proactive role in ensuring co-ordination of the HIV/AIDS NGOs and stakeholders working at district level. This initiative should be taken immediately by the NUNVs at their respective duty stations and supported with a similar framework at the national level.
• The NUNVs should play a pivotal role in ensuring an enhanced information education and communication (IEC) campaign on HIV/AIDS. This should be done utilising currently available IEC materials with standardized and co-ordinated messages in the short term whereas the development of targeted IEC materials would need to be initiated as soon as possible to support the enhanced IEC campaign.
• The NUNVs clearly indicated the need to specifically target HIV/AIDS affected individuals with an appropriate food basket as a matter of urgency. The Ward AIDS Action Committee (WAAC) is one of the best structures for targeting this vulnerable group and the groups that be easily identifiable include: Mother and child through the Prevention of Parent to Child Transmission (PPTCT) programmes, through clinics: TB patients as a way of reaching the chronically ill as well as provide an incentive for compliance to mediation; Child headed households and orphans through WAACs; People Living with AIDS (PLWA) through support groups; and the affected population within the urban sector. The NUNVs are able to provide support in the targeting of the affected with food provisions.
• The NUNVs are also prepared to work with agencies and NGOs to co-ordinate IEC campaigns with the food distribution networks, utilising the WAACs
• Capacity strengthening needs at the district level were identified as; technical capacity, IT equipment, transport etc.

RRU/Recovery hopes to continue facilitating these initiatives at both the national and district level to support the co-ordinated, comprehensive and effective response to the combined HIV/AIDS and humanitarian crisis afflicting the country.

ZimVAC begins
The national assessment of vulnerability and food security conditions has begun. Officers were deployed to the field following a week of training from 31^st March to 4^th April 2003, and the assessment began on 5^th April 2003 across the country.

The teams will gather data on food supplies and availability; production, markets and prices; income and expenditure; education, health (including HIV/AIDS), water and sanitation; and coping strategies. The assessment will be based on household surveys and community focus group interviews.

It is expected that fieldwork for the assessment will be complete by 17^th April 2003. The ZimVAC will issue a vulnerability and food security report in May detailing the food gap for the April 2003 - April 2004 consumption year, geographic distribution of those in need, as well as the required volume of relief food.

Food distribution update
In what would be its largest effort to date, preliminary figures indicate WFP distributed over 57,000MT of corn soya blend, maize meal, pulses and vegetable oil to 4.7 million people in 49 districts during the month of March - the height of the lean season. During April, the plan is to provide 50,000 MT of cereals to 4.6 million people.

Complementary food aid pipelines such as those implemented by C-SAFE, Save the Children (UK) and German Agro-Action are expected to meet the needs of an additional 900,000 beneficiaries in April.

WFP faces a shortage of pulses and vegetable oil and will not be able to distribute these commodities in April. The WFP distribution figures will drop significantly as of May, which coincides with the end of the maize harvest.

This year's maize crop is still being harvested. There are contradicting reports about the size of the harvest and GoZ's final figures will not be available for several weeks yet. Those figures along with reports from the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) and the findings of the FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission (CFSAM) will form the basis of any future appeal to donors. The CFSAM mission will examine the volume of the maize harvest and the total level of available food supplies to determine the level of shortages.

Donors have been asked to fund the extension of the current emergency operation. Unfortunately, any immediately forthcoming donor contributions would not be expected to arrive in the country before July.

Pilot urban intervention commences in Harare
The pilot urban intervention initiated by WFP in Bulawayo has recently been replicated at two municipal clinics in the city of Harare. As with the project in Bulawayo, Help Germany is implementing the programme in conjunction with city of Harare's Health Department with food from WFP and additional funding by DfID. Children who visit these clinics and exhibit weight loss or whose weight is stagnant receive a monthly ration of 10kg of corn soya blend (CSB) and 1 litre of vegetable oil. The fortified corn soya blend helps the children rapidly regain weight. WFP will evaluate the pilot intervention sometime in June and, depending on the findings, may expand the programme.

Satellite schools follow-up mission
As a follow up to the survey of the conditions in satellite schools a mission, organized through the Education Working Group, visited 10 schools in Mashonaland East and Masvingo Provinces from 25^th to 27^th March 2003. The group was comprised of representatives from UNICEF, the Ministry of Education, Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe (FCTZ) and Save the Children, Norway.

The mission found that facilities were poor in general. Most schools had no basic water and sanitation facilities. At most schools there were just three pit latrines for girls and three for boys even where enrolment is over 200 learners. The mission also found that there were no health facilities in all the schools visited.

Learning facilities were also found to be poor. The schools lack proper desks, benches and chairs. Instead, makeshift benches and desks have been made using pieces of metal. The schools are using pole and dagga structures for learning. Cyclone Japhet damaged some of the makeshift structures. These schools also lack textbooks and in most cases only a teacher’s copy is available.

It was also noted that students walk for up to 10km to school and some pupils have dropped out as a result. Others are using temporary lodgings during the week. Their safety is compromised however, since they are not adequately supervised.

UNICEF is providing ‘school-in-a-box kits’ to the Satellite Schools. In addition a textbook consultant is being hired so that books can also be supplied to the satellite schools. There is need to mobilize funds for the provision of furniture.

Disease surveillance
Weekly surveillance data reports from the MoH&CW continue to show a decrease in completeness and timeliness of reporting of epidemic prone diseases (48% and 40% respectively). This still falls far short of the expected average of 80%. The reporting centres especially in the periphery of the health system continue to face chronic communication problems with frequent breakdowns of telecommunication and thefts of radio communication equipment.

A National Managers (National Programme Officers and Senior Technical Staff from Central Hospitals and Health Training Institutions) Training of Trainers course in Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response, organised by WHO, was conducted in Masvingo from 24^th – 28^th March 2003. This is part of the strategy to strengthen epidemic preparedness and response within the health system.

Diarrhoeal Diseases
There were no new cases of cholera reported in the last two weeks in Beitbridge district. The epidemic seems to be under control but surveillance continues.

In week 12 of 2003 there was a total of 3,320 diarrhoeal cases nationally, a decrease of 24% compared to the previous week with only 2 deaths. With the recent floods in the eastern parts of the country and the drought being experienced in Matabeleland South Province resulting in inadequate access to safe water sources it is anticipated that diarrhoeal diseases will be on the increase. The provinces in those areas continue to be on high alert.

Malaria
The malaria situation continues to worsen across the country. A total of 17,046 cases were reported at the end of week ending 23^rd March 2003, with 30 deaths. Bindura and Kadoma recorded the highest number of deaths. An assessment was carried out in the Sanyati Valley where an outbreak had been reported. Recommendations were made for the two adjacent provinces to have a joint approach to the problem. It was established that there is need to increase community awareness, avail anti-malarials at community level and identify focal persons amongst the gold panners who will be given the anti-malarials.

WHO is currently mobilising some resources to assist in the malaria epidemic. It is also assisting the MoH&CW in the drafting of a proposal to the IFRC for some assistance in the malaria outbreak. A team has been tasked to map out strategies to deal with the outbreak in the most affected districts.

Africa Malaria Day
Africa Malaria Day (AMD), on April 25^th, focuses on pregnant women and young children particularly and will promote the use of insecticides, bed nets and effective treatment of malaria. AMD 2003 marks the second anniversary of the Abuja Targets that committed governments from 44 malaria-endemic countries to an intensive effort to halve the burden of malaria in Africa by 2010 and set interim targets for the year 2005.

Advocacy and communication campaigns for malaria during the AMD for 2003 will build upon the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities implemented during the 2002 SADC Malaria Day. Social Mobilisation, particularly among partners will facilitate, for increased human and financial investment in malaria control.

Measles
There were 18 suspected measles cases reported the past week. Of these, 14 were vaccinated and 4 had an unknown vaccination status. Investigations are in progress and samples have been collected for laboratory confirmation.

NGOs, International Organizations, Donors or private sector groups are welcome to submit articles to the Humanitarian Situation Report.

Information Reference of Humanitarian Assistance Meetings - April 2003
NB: Meetings are by invitation only. Please contact the focal point person if you wish information about any of these meetings

Dates of the HC/GoZ/Donors Meetings are to be confirmed

• 9^th April ‘03
  UNCT Meeting. Contact: Annika Rosing, UNDP.
• 10^th April ‘03
  Nutrition WG: Contact: Thelma Bamhare, UNICEF.
• 14^th April ‘03
  Friends of Humanitarian Coordinator: Contact: Annika Rosing, UNDP.
• 15^th April ‘03
  Urban Vulnerability WG: Contact:Elliot Vhurumuku, FEWSNet.
• 16^th April ‘03
  Food Aid Co-ordination Meeting: Contact: Darlington Sarupinda, WFP.
• 24^th April ‘03
  UN Humanitarian Agencies Meeting
  Contact: Annika Rosing, UNDP.
• 24^th April ‘03
  UN Humanitarian Agencies and NGOs Meeting: Contact: Annika Rosing, UNDP.
• 24^th April ‘03
  Child Protection WG: Contact: Mayke Huijbregts, UNICEF.
• 25^th April ‘03
  Indigenous Foods Task Force: Contact: Ruth Butao, UN RRU.
• 29^th April ‘03
  HC Monthly Humanitarian Meeting with NGO’s, Contact: Annika Rosing, UNDP.
• 24^th Feb ‘03
  Friends of Humanitarian Co-ordinator: contact A. Rosing, UNDP
• 24^th Feb ‘03
  GOZ/Donors meeting, Contact: Annika Rosing, UNDP
• 25^th Feb ‘03
  Inter-Agency Task Force on Health: Contact S Khupe, WHO
• 27^th Feb ‘03
  FAO/NGO coordination meeting on Emergency Agricultural Inputs: Contact Morris Mudiwa, FAO
• 28^th Feb ‘03
  Water and Sanitation WG: contact M. Jonga, UNICEF
• 5^th Mar ‘03
  Education WG: contact Carla Rosa-Borges, UNICEF
• 6^th Mar ‘03
  Nutrition WG: contact Stanley Chitekwe, UNICEF
• 10^th Mar ‘03
  Friends of Humanitarian Co-ordinator: contact A. Rosing, UNDP
• 17^th Mar ‘03
  GOZ/Donors meeting, Contact: Annika Rosing, UNDP
• 20^th Mar ‘03
  Child Protection WG: Contact: M. Huijbregts, UNICEF

NGOs, International Organizations, Donors or private sector groups are welcome to submit articles to the Humanitarian Situation Report. Articles for publication in the next report should be submitted by 16th April to RRU at the email address: rru.zw@undp.org

For additional information or comments, please contact the United Nations Relief and Recovery Unit, Harare Tel: +263 4 792681, ext. 207 or e-mail: rru.zw@undp.org

This Situation Report can be accessed on the Web at: www.reliefweb.int then click on "by country", then click on "Zimbabwe"

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