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Zimbabwe complex emergency fact sheet #2
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
September 30, 2010

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Key developments

As of September, the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) reports stable national food security due to an adequate 2009/2010 harvest and sufficient availability of food in local markets. However, some food-insecure populations will require emergency food assistance starting in October, according to FEWS NET. The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report that approximately 1.68 million people, including 1.3 million vulnerable rural individuals, will likely require emergency food assistance from January to March 2011, the peak of the 2010/2011 lean season.

Programs instituted by relief agencies, including USAID/OFDA and grantees, in FY 2009 and FY 2010 helped prevent a recurrence of the widespread cholera outbreak that killed nearly 4,300 Zimbabweans in 2008/2009. In 2009/2010, the number of cholera cases and deaths declined by more than 99 percent.

Context

Humanitarian conditions for most Zimbabweans have improved significantly during 2010, although many Zimbabweans remain unemployed due to the nation's decade-long economic deterioration. Poorly maintained infrastructure for agricultural production, health, water and sanitation, and power generation, resulting from earlier Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) corruption and policies, continue to limit access to basic services such as healthcare and clean water.

On October 15, 2009, U.S. Chargé d'Affaires, a.i., Donald S. Petterson reissued a disaster declaration in Zimbabwe due to the complex emergency. Since FY 2007, USAID has provided more than $658 million in humanitarian assistance to benefit vulnerable Zimbabweans.

As in the past several years, USAID/OFDA has focused FY 2010 humanitarian assistance on agriculture and food security, urban livelihoods, protection of vulnerable populations, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) activities. Through provision of seeds and fertilizer, distribution of water purification tablets and water containers, hygiene promotion, conservation agriculture training, income generation projects, and programs to assist vulnerable children, USAID/OFDA assists Zimbabwean communities in building resilience to food insecurity, waterborne diseases, and displacement.

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