Summary of WFP assistance:
WFP in Zimbabwe promotes a transition from the provision of solely emergency assistance to enhanced support for recovery and resilience, while maintaining a strong capacity to respond to disasters. WFP's activities combine direct implementation with technical support and capacity strengthening to government for national safety net systems. Under a Protracted Relief and Recovery Operation (PRRO 200453) that is extended through June 2016, WFP’s programmes operates through three overarching components: i) Disaster risk reduction and response (DRRR), ii) Health and nutrition promotion, and iii) Food and/or cash assistance for livelihood and assets creation (FFA/CFA). WFP activities in the country are aimed at protecting livelihoods, enhancing resilience, treating acute malnutrition, and addressing the transient food insecurity of the most vulnerable during the lean season.
All activities promote equal access to assistance by both men and women, whilst promoting the empowerment of women through increased representation in leadership positions in project management committees.
Under DRRR, in line with the government's Food Deficit Mitigation Strategy, WFP provides targeted relief cash and/or food transfers to food-insecure households during the height of the lean season, between September and March, also linking lean season assistance recipients to light trainings and livelihood promotion activities to strengthen resilience.
In the 2015/16 lean season, WFP plans to reach 821,460 food insecure people by the peak (January-March 2016), whilst preparing to respond to heightened food insecurity linked to impacts of the El Niño weather phenomenon. WFP also assists some 7,420 refugees, primarily from the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa, at Tongogara Refugee Camp.
WFP's Health and Nutrition Promotion activities, in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, provide nutritional supplements to treat moderately acute malnourished (MAM) HIV and TB patients, pregnant and nursing mothers and children under five years of age at select clinics.
Alongside UNICEF, FAO, WHO, and UNFPA, WFP helped pilot a joint stunting prevention programme in July 2015 in one priority district, eventually to expand to others. As an active member of the Scaling Up Nutrition movement in Zimbabwe, WFP provides technical support to government to scale up and implement multi-sectoral nutrition programmes and policies, which in 2015 included the launch of a National Food Fortification Strategy.
FFA/CFA activities build resilience to climate-related shocks through the creation of productive community assets, such as irrigation schemes and rainwater-harvesting structures. Whilst providing temporary food assistance to workers and their families, the programme helps to gradually reduce their dependence on food assistance through improved agricultural production and livelihoods. The 2015 implementation period resulted in the creation or rehabilitation of 114 productive assets in 10 priority districts.
WFP's operation is in line the Government’s 2013-2018 Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimASSET), the Food Deficit Mitigation Strategy, the Food and Nutrition Security Policy, the Productive Community Works Policy Framework, the Social Transfer Policy Framework, and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework. WFP will continue to support national commitments made in the Malabo Declaration and towards Sustainable Development Goal 2 - End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture.