Attachments
CONTEXT
- Zimbabwe is susceptible to various recurrent climatic shocks—including drought, floods, and the spread of livestock diseases and pest infestations—that hamper agricultural production, increase food insecurity, and result in increased humanitarian need. Drought conditions linked to El Niño, including below-average rainfall and above-average temperatures, resulted in decreased crop production in 2023 and 2024, with the national maize harvest in 2024 approximately 60 percent below ten-year average levels, according to the Government of Zimbabwe (GoZ). As a result, approximately 7.6 million people—nearly 50 percent of the population—are expected to face food insecurity by the end of 2024, with widespread Crisis—IPC 3—levels of acute food insecurity likely to persist across the country into 2025, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) and the Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee (ZimLAC).
- Rapid currency depreciation and rising staple food prices continue to diminish household purchasing power and further limit access to food across much of Zimbabwe, while drought-induced livestock deaths threaten rural livelihoods. The drought has also driven widespread malnutrition, with nearly 5 percent of children under five years of age in Zimbabwe experiencing wasting, the deadliest form of malnutrition, compared with 4 percent in 2023,
ZimLAC reports. As a result, vulnerable households are adopting severe coping strategies—such as reducing meal frequency and portion sizes, sharing food among households, and engaging in illegal activities—to meet their basic food needs, according to the UN World Food Program (WFP). Furthermore, water scarcity generated by the drought has also reduced households’ ability to access safe drinking water, leading to increased spread of diarrhea and other waterborne diseases among children, according to FEWS NET. - More than 23,000 refugees and asylum-seekers—primarily from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique—remained displaced in Zimbabwe as of September, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Most refugees are sheltering at Manicaland Province’s Tongogara refugee camp and remain reliant on humanitarian food assistance.