Export Preview | Digital Logistics Capacity Assessments (2024)

Overview

In recent years, food production in Zimbabwe has been devastatedby a number of factors including natural hazards and economic andpolitical instability. Recurrent drought, a series of poorharvests, high unemployment (estimated at more than 60%),restructuring of the agriculture sector and a high HIV/AIDSprevalence rate – at 14.7%, the fifth highest in the world - haveall contributed to increasing levels of vulnerability and acutefood insecurity since 2001. This situation has necessitatedlarge-scale humanitarian food relief operations in the country.

The 2020 Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC)rural livelihoods assessment showed the impact the drought ishaving on acute and chronic malnutrition in the country. Rural foodinsecurity during the peak hunger period from January to March 2020is projected to reach 56 percent or 5.4 million people which is thehighest rural food insecurity prevalence since 2009.

The economy is currently faced with a diverse range ofmacro-economic and financial challenges, which include low economicgrowth. Growth in 2020 is now anticipated at be 4.6% Depressedinternational commodity prices; Liquidity constraints and cashshortages in part due to deteriorating trade balance arising fromlow export receipts, high levels of imports and low levels offoreign direct investment.

The adverse macro-economic environment has also beencharacterised by leakages of foreign currency throughexternalization, underpricing of exports, mineral smuggling andother illicit flows. Hyperinflation of local commodities isoccurring due to a shortage of RTGS/Zimbabwe bonds. Trade in USD isno longer permitted in the country and electronic currency has beendeveloped in an attempt to address the cash shortages. This howeverhas seen increased activity in the black market.

Zimbabwe is a low-income, food-deficit country and is ranked1502 out of 189 countries according to the 2013 UNDP Human DevelopmentIndex. Currently, 72% of the population live below thenational poverty line (less than US $1.25 per day). Some 30% of therural poor are considered to be ‘food poor’ or ‘extremely poor.’Although the prevalence of HIV has been reduced, it still remainshigh with nearly 15 percent of adults living with HIV – many ofwhom also suffer from malnutrition due to food insecurity.

Drier than average conditions have affected parts of southernZimbabwe.The delayed onset of the season combined with a poormid-season rainfall pattern at critical stages of maizedevelopment, have led to unfavourable expectations for regionalmaize production. The Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee(ZimVAC), led by the Government with support various partners andWFP, recently published the 2016 Rural Livelihoods Assessmentreport. According to the report, some 1.5 million people - 16percent of the rural population - will have insufficient means tomeet their minimum food needs during the 2016-17 lean season, thatperiod prior to the next harvest when domestic food stocks tend tobecome depleted.This represents a 164 per cent increase onthe numbers of food insecure people during 2013-14 though it isonly a little above the five-year average for Zimbabwe.

Despite this decrease, food and nutrition security remainsfragile and subject to natural and economic shocks in Zimbabwe,with chronic and persistent rates of undernourishment. One third ofZimbabwe’s children are stunted, or short for their age. Thecountry continues to face economic stress which has implications onfood security, especially for vulnerable groups in ruralareas.Due to deflation/disinflation, household incomes remainlow and liquidity challenges affect the demand for goods andservices, especially for poor households.Barter is a commonform of exchange during lean periods.Where grain is used forsuch transactions, household food stocks tend to get exhausted at afaster rate. Meanwhile, rural poverty has increased from 63 percentin 2003 to 76 percent in 2014. Most households in the rural areasare net food buyers: they do not (for a number of reasons) produceenough food to meet their needs through to the next harvest season.Consequently, they rely on markets and other non-farm sources suchas casual labour to bridge the food gap to the next season. Assuch, a number of people in rural areas will struggle to meet theirdaily food needs.

For more detailed database on disasters by country, please seethe Centre for Researchon Epidemiology of Disasters.

Calamities and Seasonal Affects

Zimbabwe enjoys a temperate climate during the dry season. Thecooler, drier months (May to October) are characterized by warmsunny days and cold clear nights. It never snows, though overnightfrosts and freezing temperatures are not uncommon. The low veld andthe Zambezi Valley experience hotter and more humid temperatures,but in the winter there is very little rainfall. Most of Zimbabwe’srain falls in brief afternoon deluges and electrical storms in therelatively humid and warmer months from November to April. Zimbabwehas the second highest incidence of lightning strikes in the world.Although Zimbabwe lies wholly within the Tropics, the normaltropical continental climate is considerably modified by altitude,especially on the central plateau where temperatures are lower thanat sea level in the same latitude. The Eastern Highlands experiencethe lowest temperatures.

The year falls roughly into three seasons: a dry winter,covering the months from April to August, with cool temperaturesespecially at night when frost is sometimes experienced; a hotseason with temperatures building up to a maximum in October orearly November and a wet season in which the main rains usuallycome around mid-November and continue until March. The main rainsare associated with the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). TheITCZ, where the northerly and southerly air masses meet, followsthe seasonal movements of the overhead sun north and south of theEquator, hence the occurrence of the Zimbabwean wet season duringthe southern summer. June is the coolest month and October is thewarmest: temperature variations correspond with height. Typicallyyou cannot tell if there will be an El Nino until the last month ofDecember or first week in January.

The seasonal effects on transport are minimal in Zimbabwe.During heavy downpours secondary roads can become locallyimpracticable for a short period of time. Transport can temporarilybe disrupted in the path of a cyclone or a tropical storm (January/ February). Some bridges were devastated in Manicaland as a resultof the El Nino (1998) and Eline (2000) cyclones. Cyclone Idai(2019) destroyed bridges in But otherwise transportoperations inside and outside Zimbabwe are not greatly affected bythe seasons. Severe rains may disrupt the road transport operationsalong the Beira corridor (Pungwe Riverand Pungwe Plains). Long andheavy rains in Mozambique also affect the Limpopo railway line.Roads and railways normally get busier during harvest time, wherethere is an increase of traffic and heavy vehicles on the roads,but because of the current economic situation and the low crop itis not foreseeable to see congestions on the roads.

It is to be taken into consideration, though, that the decreasein the number of vehicles available as a consequence of theeconomic crisis might in the long run become a problem whencontracting transporters. In fact, at the moment, considerableportions of transporters’ fleets are idle because of lack ofbusiness or difficulties in procuring fuel, which in the long runmight force them to reduce the number of vehicles and thereforeimpact availability of trucks, with obvious impacts on transportcosts as well.

Government

The Zimbabwe Department of Civil Protection is the lead agencyfor government efforts to manage disaster risk in all the spheresof government. In its effort, the Government of Zimbabwe is workingin collaboration with the humanitarian community in-country. Theoverall objective of the Inter-Agency Contingency Plan is tosupport the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ) in mounting a timely andcoordinated preparedness and response to identified hazards inorder to minimize potential humanitarian consequences. TheGovernment of Zimbabwe (GoZ) champions disaster and emergencypreparedness and response and the humanitarian communitycomplements government efforts. There is a Disaster Management Actin place and legislatively stipulates authority and powers for thedeclaration of emergency or state of disaster. NGO’s can beco-opted depending on the services they offer and the priority ofthe humanitarian issue.

Governments and humanitarian organisations have invested timeand financial resources in contingency planning but the challengehas been in establishing conclusive evidence of the relationbetween contingency planning and effective response. In itsfulfilment of the primary role of protecting its citizens’ livesduring disasters, Government through the Ministry of LocalGovernment, Rural and Urban Planning’s Department of CivilProtection (DCP), Government ministries, UN Agencies and variousNon-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), developed a NationalContingency Plan that is updated annually to reflect the evolvinghazard profile of the country. This plan is part of an importantdisaster preparedness process which allows Government and itspartners to plan for disasters with the aim of minimizing damage toproperty and loss of life.

Zimbabwe has capacities which include the availability of legalframe works and instruments. Of note is the reform of the DisasterRisk Management (DRM) framework guided by the Hyogo Framework forAction 2005-2015. Another notable capacity is the existence of afunctional national platform with a wide cross sectionalrepresentation from Government, UN agencies as well as local andinternational NGOs. This is complemented by relatively functionalCivil Protection Committees both at Provincial and District levels.The National Platform, in form of the National Civil ProtectionCommittee meets regularly to create consensus on issues thatrequire intervention. In addition, there is a dedicated Governmentdepartment, the Department of Civil Protection under the Ministryof Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, which has theoverall responsibility of disaster risk management. Partners suchas the UN System and NGOs (local and international) have beenproviding emergency preparedness and response (EPR), assessmentsand early recovery assistance to the Government of Zimbabwe.

For more information on government contact details, please seethe following link: 4.1 ZimbabweGovernment Contact List

Humanitarian Community

The political and economical situation in Zimbabwe stabilizedcompared to most of 2008. The introduction of a multi-currencysystem practically led to a halt in inflation, although this hasnot yet substantially improved the standard of living of mostZimbabweans. Political violence, which characterized much of 2008,has largely come to a halt, while a process of national healing andreconciliation has started. Humanitarian organisations and NGOshave more space to operate and bans were lifted.

OCHA re-established its presence in Zimbabwe for the 2019Cyclone Idai response in which the IASC cluster system wasactivated, and extending out to the food security situation in2020. The government's capacity to react to emergencies is limited.The cluster strategy has worked very effectively albeit with tensegovernment relations. The main GoZ departments involved within thecluster set up are Ministry of Health and Child Care, and Ministryof Regional Integration and International Co-operation. Theprinciple of last resort has allowed those leading each cluster tocome together when the planned pipeline of aid cannot meet thedemands of those affected hence the need for a functional,predictable and coordinated response. The government hasarticulated the disaster coordination structure, which is headed bythe Inter-Ministerial committee, the Committee of PermanentSecretaries (DYNAMO) and the Department of the Civil Protection. Atthe bottom of the hierarchy are the technical committees, dependingon the nature of the emergency at hand, including the finance andlogistics committees. On the humanitarian side, the HC/RC willpropose the activation of this plan in consultation with the IASCand the Government of Zimbabwe’s Inter-Ministerial Committee.

The Emergency Response Fund for Zimbabwe was established as apooled fund in 2006. It was initially set up to meet the emergencyneeds of people affected by displacement but has continued to bereplenished by donors thereby facilitating response to emergingresponse requirements in the country. Being a pooled fund ofun-earmarked contributions from various donors, the ERF operateswith greater flexibility and speedier approval processes thantraditional funding mechanisms. The guiding principles of the fundis to allow timely emergency and/or gap filling responses throughconsultative and collaborative approval processes by therepresentatives of key stakeholders from UN agencies and local andinternational NGOs participating in the Advisory Board. TheAdvisory Board is chaired by the UN Humanitarian Coordinator.Members are drawn from two UN Agencies, IOM and two NGO (nationaland international representatives). OCHA Zimbabwe providessecretariat support to the management of the fund while clustersare consulted for technical inputs.

Soon after the signing of the 15 September 2008 Global PoliticalAgreement (GPA) that paved the way for the formation of aGovernment of National Unity (GNU) the ERF was used to provideshort term funds in five key sectors; WASH, health, education,protection and agriculture. This was to give implementing agenciesan opportunity to kick-start or intensify some humanitarianactivities as they fundraised for more resources. Implementationperiod for projects is limited up to a maximum of 6 months and thefunding can be made up to US $250,000 per project. Eachimplementing agency can have up to three active projects at a time.The applicant agencies are encouraged to consult relevant partnersin the cluster/working group, geographical areas and localcommunities during development of the intervention. For the finalround of consultation, the Advisory Board is normally given 48hours to make a recommendation to the Humanitarian Coordinator.Once the approval process is completed, an agreement is enteredbetween the implementing partner and the Humanitarian Coordinator,after which OCHA requests for the funds to be released directly tothe implementing agency from the Geneva based account.

Structures Presently in place:

• Operational Governmental decentralized structures under theMinistry of Local Government and Urban Development (MLGUD) ensuresthe liaison between local and national authorities, NGOs and theUnited Nations.
• The Information/Communication Committee formed and chaired bythe GoZ and the HC being supported by OCHA and composed ofinformation officers from the various GoZ, UN/NGOs agencies will beconvened. The group will provide guidelines to the press as well asto the designated spokespersons.
• The UNCT is chaired by the Resident and HumanitarianCoordinator and brings all UN agency heads together for discussionand decision making.
• The SMT is regularly considering security issues and meetsunder the chairmanship of the Designated Official withparticipation from all UN agencies.
• The local level IASC meeting consists of all UN agencies, NGOrepresentation, IOM, IFRC and meets monthly under the chairmanshipof the Humanitarian Coordinator / HC
• Chairs of Sector Working Groups meet bimonthly to inform onprogress made vis-à-vis their terms of reference and to discusscross-cutting issues, bottle necks and opportunities. Forward plansare shared and approaches are harmonized among differentgroups.
• Donor consultative meetings are held on a monthly basis todiscuss current activities, plans, resource needs andimplementation levels of projects and programmes. The HumanitarianCoordinator chairs the meetings.
• NGO consultative meetings are held on a quarterly basis underthe chairmanship of the Humanitarian Coordinator. Issues that areof relevance to the NGOs are discussed there.
• The Crisis committee: Has been established by the IASC and isbeing convened by OCHA Zimbabwe. The members are IOM, UNICEF, OCHA,UNHCR, WFP, UNDP, FAO.
• The Inter-Cluster Coordination Group (ICCG) originally for theCyclone Idai response is still meeting weekly to address the leanseason food shortage situation.

For more information on humanitarian coordination and emergencyscenarios in Zimbabwe, please see the following attachment:Humanitarian Coordination and Scenarios and PlanningAssumptions

For more information on humanitarian contact details, please seethe following link: 4.2Zimbabwe Humanitarian Agency Contact List.