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UN steps into rescue starving Zimbabweans
Eleanor Momberg, Independent Online (IOL)
September 23, 2007

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Africa&set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=vn20070923084605995C869826

More than 3 million Zimbabweans will be receiving food aid from the United Nations by the end of the year.

This week the UN World Food Programme (WFP) started expanding its feeding programme in Zimbabwe, hoping to reach a million starving people by the end of this month, and triple that number by year's end.

The increase in food aid came in a week when a new report declared that the country was closer than ever to total collapse, and a storm brewed over the announcement by Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, that he will boycott the December European Union-African Union meeting in Portugal if Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe is allowed to attend.

The economic meltdown and lack of food and other essential items in Zimbabwe has been blamed on hyperinflation, the impact of HIV/Aids and the decline in the past seven years of commercial agricultural production.

Mugabe has consistently denied that his policies have been the cause of the collapse, instead blaming the West.

The crisis has prompted an exodus of millions of Zimbabweans to neighbouring countries, mainly South Africa. Figures from the department of home affairs indicate that the number of deportations of illegal immigrants back to Zimbabwe in July and August was nearly 18 000 a month, but that this was lower than the deportations in May (19 801) and January (20 132).

Last year, Zimbabwe became the country to provide the most seekers of asylum in South Africa when 18 973 applications were received - more than double those in 2005.

During the first quarter of this year 3 074 Zimbabweans applied for asylum and 79 for refugee status. Most applications cited economic issues related to poverty, hunger and employment as the reason for coming to South Africa.

According to the WFP, the distribution of monthly food rations in what was once called Africa's breadbasket is being directed at communities worst affected by the drought in 26 districts, most of which are in the south, where tens of thousands of people are facing starvation.

"We are working with 14 local and international NGOs to distribute the food," said Richard Lee, a spokesman for the WFP in southern Africa.

The aim is to increase food supplies to 2 million Zimbabweans by November and 3 million by December. The distribution of food aid will continue until the next harvest season in April.

NGOs said this week that the number of starving Zimbabweans requiring food aid was closer to 4,1 million, or a third of the population of 14 million.

This year's cereal production will meet only 55 percent of Zimbabwe's requirements. As a result, the Zimbabwean government plans to procure 400 000 tons of grain from Malawi and to purchase half the national harvest through the Grain Marketing Board for distribution.

But this will leave a shortfall of around 352 000 tons, which the WFP and C-Safe - a consortium of NGOs, including CARE, CRS and World Vision - are importing and distributing as food aid.

Rather than selling crops to the Grain Marketing Board, citizens are storing food they produce locally and bartering to access local food stocks.

"Terms of trade for barter, especially between livestock and grain, are worsening, meaning that poor families are increasingly selling more of their livestock to buy the same amount of food," said an aid worker. "The result is increased impoverishment and vulnerability to malnutrition, ill-health and destitution. Families that do not have livestock to sell are that much worse off."

Oxfam said it would be distributing food in five of the hardest-hit areas and would be working closely with the UN agencies to distribute food parcels.

Caroline Hooper-Box, Oxfam's southern Africa spokeswoman, said the agency was working in seven districts in the north, north-east, central and south-west of Zimbabwe.

"Our assessment is that 30 to 40 percent of households in those regions are in need of assistance to meet basic food and livelihood needs at present, and an additional 15 to 25 percent will need assistance by November.

"It is vital to have timely relief to prevent a further slide of the poor from conditions of insecure livelihoods to absolute destitution beyond recovery; that is, to avoid unsustainable sales of livestock and household items," Hooper-Box said.

Lee said that while the WFP had already received $30 million (R213 million) to fund its operations in Zimbabwe, a further $97 million was needed to cover costs and food purchases until the next harvest.

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