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UN envoy advises Mugabe to ensure food security
Mail & Guardian (SA)
December 12, 2006

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=293070&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/

United Nations special envoy James Morris on Monday told Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe that his government should ensure food security in the country of 12-million in order to halt a seven-year economic meltdown.

Zimbabwe is in the throes of a damaging economic crisis that has driven inflation to 1 098,8%, the highest in the world; fanned shortages of food, fuel and foreign exchange; and seen unemployment rising and poverty take root.

Morris, who was in Zimbabwe as part of his final tour of Southern Africa before stepping down next January, also met international aid agencies, donors and government officials to assess the humanitarian crisis in the country.

The humanitarian crisis has been worsened by an HIV/Aids epidemic that kills 3 000 people weekly. Although the country’s HIV prevalence rate has declined over the years, it still remains worryingly in two-digit figures.

"President Mugabe and I had a very cordial conversation. We have met eight to nine times over the years . . . and we talked about issues related to orphans, we talked about Zimbabwe’s national strategy to reduce issues related to children," Morris told journalists after meeting Mugabe.

"We talked about issues of food security and how important that is to a country’s ability to sustain itself and to be economically strong," he added.

Zimbabwe, which used to be the region’s breadbasket, now relies on food handouts and imports, which analysts blame on the government’s land-seizure policy that has decimated commercial agriculture.

Mugabe has in the past railed at aid agencies, accusing them of using food aid to turn villagers against his Zanu-PF government that has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.

The World Food Programme has said 1,4-million Zimbabweans are in need of food aid between now and the next harvest in April.

Agencies say the government’s projections of a bumper, 1,8-million-tonne crop of maize are doubtful, pointing to the Grain Marketing Board, which the government said would take delivery of 900 000 tonnes of maize. Only 500 000 tonnes have been delivered.

"I affirmed the commitment of the United Nations agencies to be a partner with Zimbabwe, to be as helpful as we can in matters related to food security and matters related to the HIV pandemic across the region," said Morris.

He said his trip also allowed him to "gather information to give the secretary general a final report before he leaves office and to have some information for the new secretary".

"The trip has been to look at human issues of food security, issues of what makes food security difficult, issues of HIV/Aids and its impact on economics and families, on children and women ... and then to look at government capacity and civil society capacity to respond." -- ZimOnline

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