Attachments
Highlights
- The Government of Zimbabwe issued an El Niño induced drought flash appeal costed at US$ 3.9 billion (US$ 2 billion for immediate response and US$1.9 billion for resilience building interventions).
- An inter-agency El Niño induced drought flash appeal of US$429.3 million was launched by the UN Resident Coordinator in May 2024, to complement Government appeal targeting 3.1 million people with immediate lifesaving services.
- Household food insecurity increased from 29 to 35 per cent with child wasting increasing from 3 to 5.6 per cent in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
- As of May 31, 2024, a total of 983,560 children aged 6-59 months were screened for wasting and 4,721 found to be malnourished were treated.
- A total of 80,712 people including 37,128 children were provided with safe water for drinking and domestic purposes.
- A total of 3,382 women and girls accessed gender-based violence risk mitigation, prevention, or response interventions.
- UNICEF’s school feeding programme reached 36,724 children (18,663 girls and 18,061 boys), during the first term of the school year.
- In May, 13,402 families were provided with emergency social cash transfers improving their food security situation, strengthening their resilience, and preventing beneficiaries from adopting negative coping strategies.
Situation in Numbers
1,700,000 children in need of humanitarian assistance (HAC 2024)
2,600,000 people in need of humanitarian assistance (HAC 2024)
2,000,000 People to be reached. (HAC 2024)
978,611 Children to be reached. (HAC 2024)
Funding Overview and Partnerships
In response to the increasing humanitarian needs in Zimbabwe, UNICEF is appealing for US$26.8 million in 2024, to address the urgent needs of affected populations. The country is facing multiple hazards, including the El Niño induced drought, protracted cholera outbreak, polio outbreak and economic crisis. The funding will enable UNICEF to provide critical humanitarian assistance to 2 million people including 978,611 children in the most affected areas. So far, UNICEF Zimbabwe has received a total of US$9.2 million (35 per cent of the total funding requirement) from various donors. These include the European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), the Government of Japan, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and UNICEF Global Humanitarian Thematic Funds. Funding has also been received from the Health Resilience Fund (HRF) - funded by the European Union, the Governments of Ireland, and the United Kingdom and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Additionally, private sector partners such as Alliance Media and JCDecaux for digital billboards have provided valuable in-kind support, while Universal Postal Services (UPS) have provided essential cash-in-kind logistics support for commodities.
Situation Overview and Humanitarian Needs
Zimbabwe’s humanitarian context remains complex, with a combination of overlapping factors such as the impacts of the climate driven El Niño induced drought, economic instability, and ongoing public health emergencies, including cholera and polio outbreaks. Due to the El Niño induced drought, a total of 7.6 million people including 3.5 million children urgently need lifesaving and life-sustaining humanitarian assistance and protection support, as well as livelihood support, to recover from their losses, rebuild resilience, and access to basic services. This crisis is further exacerbating the ongoing polio outbreak and the protracted cholera outbreak which started in October and February 2023 respectively. As of 31 May 2024, Zimbabwe has recorded a cumulative total of 34,373 cholera cases from 63 districts across the 10 provinces with 716 deaths which resulted in a case fatality rate of 2.1 per cent. Additionally, the country has detected 22 circulating vaccine derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) cases from four environmental samples (ES) in Harare since October 2023 (17 cases from 2023 and five in 2024). Furthermore, in January 2024, one index human polio virus type 2 was reported in a 10-year-old girl with a case of Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP).
The 2023-2024 El Niño induced drought resulted in massive crop failure, depletion of water resources and pastures in Zimbabwe. It also caused compounding humanitarian consequences on food security, nutrition, health, water sanitation and hygiene (WASH), education, social protection, shelter, agriculture, energy, infrastructure, and cross cutting issues. In May 2024 the Government of Zimbabwe issued a flash appeal document, costed at US$3.9 billion for immediate response (US$2 billion) and resilience building interventions (US$1.9 billion)(1). Similarly, an inter-agency drought flash appeal of US$429.3 million was launched by the UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator on 9 May 2024, targeting an estimated 3.1 million people to complement the Government’s joint appeal. The inter-agency flash appeal aims to mobilize humanitarian action funds to deliver most urgently needed lifesaving services to the people who need it the most(2).
The El Niño induced drought emergency is expected to worsen later in 2024, leading to an increase in cases of moderate and life-threatening severe malnutrition as well as health issues affecting children, including disease outbreaks, and infectious and respiratory illnesses. Furthermore, the worsening food insecurity is increasing households’ poverty and vulnerability and the likelihood of school dropouts, gender-based violence, abuse, and exploitation of children. Additionally, the drought situation will exacerbate water scarcity which will contribute to the spread of diarrhoeal diseases and other diseases related to water scarcity among children and vulnerable families. As the drought’s impact intensifies, it is anticipated that the cumulative effects will overwhelm households’ coping mechanisms later in 2024, leading to a peak in the severity of the situation.
The Food and Nutrition Council of Zimbabwe (FNC) launched the Government endorsed 2024 urban Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee (ZimLAC) assessment results in May 2024. The results indicate a deteriorating situation of household food insecurity in urban areas and an increase in household food insecurity from 29 per cent to 35 per cent with child wasting increasing from 3 per cent to 5.6 per cent in 2023 and 2024 respectively. In addition, the report shows that nationally 6.1 per cent of children (4-19 years) were receiving hot meals at school. UNICEF, in partnership with Action Against Hunger UK (AAH-UK), is currently conducting an Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) coverage assessment in six districts and the results are expected in July(3) .
The cholera outbreak is being worsened by a combination of factors, including inadequate and deteriorating WASH infrastructure, frequent sewer bursts, erratic water supply exacerbated by regular power cuts, a shortage of bulk water treatment chemicals, sub-optimal solid waste management and unsafe hygiene practices. Further worsening the situation, is the rapid population growth in urban settings which has resulted in communities settling in areas which are not serviced with water and proper sewer systems. This has resulted in the at-risk communities looking for alternative water sources - shallow wells, and river water, which are contaminated. Perennial sewer blockages in urban residential areas have also been noted, and the sprouting of illegal settlements with inadequate sanitation services has further exacerbated open defecation and or the use of septic tanks, resulting in groundwater contamination. Currently, 4 per cent of the enumerated water sources in the country have dried up, notably in Masvingo, Matabeleland South and Midlands Provinces.
The unprecedented attrition of health frontline workers has also resulted in a shortage of staff to manage the outbreak. Insights from Community Social Listening underscores some of the behavioural and social drivers of cholera that include unsafe burial practices involving washing of the deceased body before burial, poor food handling and hygiene practices at large funeral or religious gatherings.
(1) 2024 El Nino induced drought disaster: domestic and international appeal for assistance | UNICEF Zimbabwe
(2) https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/zimbabwe/zimbabwe-drought-flash-appeal-may-2024-april-2025-may2024
(3) ZimLAC-2024_Urban-Livelihoods-Assessment-Technical-Report.pdf (fnc.org.zw)