Attachments
HIGHLIGHTS
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In 2023, an estimated 3 million people,2 including 2 million children,3 are projected to be in urgent need of humanitarian assistance in Zimbabwe due to the impact of food and nutrition crises induced by such natural hazards as drought, floods and disease outbreaks. A total of 1.5 million people (972,000 females and 528,000 males), including 1.1 million children (572,000 girls and 528,000 boys), will need life-saving health, HIV and nutrition services.
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UNICEF will intensify support for multisectoral life-saving services and for efforts to contain the measles outbreak. Social and behavioural change, accountability to affected populations, gender equality, gender-based violence risk mitigation and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse will be integrated across the interventions.
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UNICEF requires US$47.8 million to meet humanitarian needs in 2023, in (among other sectors) health, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and social protection. UNICEF is aiming to dedicate 15 per cent of the total appeal to gender equality.
HUMANITARIAN SITUATION AND NEEDS
The humanitarian context of Zimbabwe is fragile. People chronically grapple with natural hazards (including floods and drought) that are exacerbated by climate change and economic instability. Disease outbreaks, including measles and diarrhoea, affect the southern parts of the country and the risk of cholera remains high. The disruption of vaccination activities by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has increased the risk of disease outbreaks.
In addition, Malawi and Mozambique have reported confirmed polio cases, posing the risk of importation to Zimbabwe, and the region, due to high cross-border movement.
Zimbabwe has recorded an increased prevalence of wasting at 7.2 per cent, with global wasting at the national level soaring above the 5 per cent threshold into the alert phase for the first time since 2006, and almost doubling compared with a 2021 vulnerability assessment.
Cereal insecurity is at 38 per cent this year10 compared with 27 per cent in 202111 and the situation is expected to deteriorate from now until the peak of the hunger gap (JanuaryMarch), when up to 3.8 million people12 are projected to become food insecure. Average household income has declined from US$75 per month in 2021 to US$57 per month in 2022.13 As a result, about 22 per cent of households14 are using either stress, crisis or emergency livelihoods coping strategies, compared with 17 per cent in 2021.
An estimated 16 per cent of households16 travel more than 1 kilometre to fetch water from the nearest main water source, with 29 per cent traveling more than 500 metres,17 which is still too far according to the Sphere standard. The erosion of the capacity of families to procure critical hygiene items has resulted in households and communities compromising safe sanitation and hygiene practices, thereby increasing the risk of WASH-related disease outbreaks. Women and girls have to walk long distances to the nearest water point, making them more vulnerable to protection risks, including rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence.
The increased vulnerability triggered by climatic shocks has seriously compromised access to education, with 51.8 per cent of children in rural areas reportedly turned away from school for non-payment of school fees during the first term of 2022.18 Out-of-school children are at high risk of child protection violations, including child marriage, teenage pregnancy and sexual and gender-based violence. The heightened vulnerability to shocks has also increased the risk of families resorting to such negative coping strategies as pulling children (particularly girls) out of school, along with child marriage and child labour.