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Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe Annual Country Report 2023 - Country Strategic Plan 2022 - 2026

Attachments

Overview

Key messages

  • WFP went beyond food assistance, strengthening partnerships to bridge the humanitarian-development gap and connecting food assistance programmes with resilience-building activities, to help vulnerable households gradually reduce reliance on assistance.

  • WFP strengthened collaboration with the Government and non-governmental organisations, coordinating to assist food-insecure communities and build (sub)national systems, tools, and capacities.

  • During the January-March 2023 lean season, WFP provided food assistance to food-insecure rural households, meeting the targeted number of beneficiaries. However, resource limitations affected the scale of assistance, especially in urban areas.

Overview

While humanitarian assistance remains a significant part of WFP’s work in Zimbabwe, there is now a stronger focus on building long-term resilience against food insecurity and livelihood vulnerability. This shift highlights WFP’s commitment to implementing strategies such as those towards rural development, localized food systems, value chains, and collaborating with the national social protection system for improved alignment with national priorities and approaches.

Partnerships with the Government, cooperating partners, United Nations agencies, international organizations, the donor community, academia, and the private sector were crucial for implementing WFP’s 2023 plan. WFP collaborated with 19 cooperating partners, along with businesses, academic institutions, and government ministries and agencies.

In 2023, WFP and partners assisted 985,000 people, 86 percent of whom received support to meet their food needs, primarily through the lean season assistance programme. Funding to WFP in Zimbabwe declined during this period. As a result, despite the high number of people still requiring food assistance, WFP reduced assistance to urban communities, assisting 33,000 individuals, a significant drop from the 326,000 supported in 2021. Additionally, due to resource constraints, WFP postponed the start of its 2023/24 rural lean season assistance (LSA) programme by three months, from October 2023 to January 2024. This adjustment will allow WFP to assist when needs are most critical.

WFP strengthened synergy among activities to ensure cohesive and integrated approaches. WFP linked disaster risk finance, emergency preparedness and response, and shock-responsive social protection systems. Urban cash assistance was combined with resilience-building efforts to foster skills development and bolster urban livelihoods and income, complemented by gender-transformative actions addressing intimate partner violence.

WFP supported 200,000 people under the integrated resilience-building programme. This programme encompassed asset creation, climate risk management, urban food security, livelihood opportunities (both on- and off-farm), improved access to finance and markets, and enhanced social cohesion within target communities to bolster resilience. Additionally, WFP facilitated access to water by constructing water reservoirs (dams) and boreholes, enabling communities to collect rainwater and groundwater for irrigation, livestock watering and domestic use.

To mitigate climate-related risks, WFP combined risk reduction through asset creation, risk transfer through the promotion of micro and macro insurance products, risk reserves through livelihood diversification, and prudent risk-taking through saving and lending schemes. These efforts were integrated with anticipatory action, where early preparedness and community-level actions were pre-planned based on weather forecasts and implemented before disaster struck. WFP procured micro insurance valued at USD 1 million, covering 153,000 people, complementing Government and Start Network (an international network of NGOs) policies.

WFP supported the Government in addressing food insecurity by coordinating the LSA programme with the Government's Food Deficit Mitigation Strategy (FDMS), targeting short-term food insecurity in rural areas. This effort complemented the Government's maize donation to support 13,000 refugees. WFP also supported the Government in enhancing its national social protection systems and preparedness for future shocks. This included developing and piloting a management information system for social protection activities, as well as bolstering capacity in disaster risk planning. National institutions now lead, with WFP providing expertise as needed.

WFP has been tracking gender-specific indicators, such as minimum diet diversity for women and girls of reproductive age, revealing low diet diversity among them. Consequently, WFP augmented the urban cash-based transfer programme with nutrition top-ups to improve access to nutritious food. Additionally, WFP provided specialized nutritious foods to children under 5, chronically ill individuals, and pregnant or breastfeeding mothers, in addition to the household ration under the support to refugees programme.

Looking ahead, WFP will streamline its operations to adapt to diminishing resources, enhance collaboration with the Government and other humanitarian partners, and foster synergies among activities to lower operational costs. WFP is advocating for shock-responsive social protection, and sustainable, resilient food systems, while continuing assistance when necessary and supporting the Government to achieve Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 17. WFP is also increasing investments in the humanitarian-development nexus approach to support communities in building infrastructure and sustainable food systems and supporting livelihood opportunities.