Attachments
Highlights
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UNICEF and partners have screened 233,950 children for acute malnutrition and provided lifesaving treatment for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) to 7,822 children aged 0-59 months since January 2017.
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UNICEF has provided 219,859 children aged 6-59 months with Vitamin A Supplementation (VAS) since the beginning of 2017, including 53, 290 children since July 2017.
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The child protection sector reached a total of 13,980 children affected by drought and flooding with child protection services focusing on psychosocial support, alternative care and reunification of Unaccompanied and Separated Children (UASC) with their families and supporting recreational activities through Child Friendly Spaces since January 2017.
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A total of US $1.2 million dollars was received from USAID (OFDA) during the month of July 2017 to support drought recovery interventions in the WASH and Nutrition sectors.
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
The ZimVAC Rural livelihoods assessment report of July 2017 projected a food insecurity prevalence rate of 11 per cent during the peak hunger period (January to March 2018), down from 42 per cent during the same period last year. Approximately 1.1 million rural people are estimated to be food insecure during the January – March, 2018 peak hunger season down from 4.1 million people who were food insecure during the same period last year.
The assessment also reported a national Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) prevalence of 3.2 per cent as shown in figure 1 below, as compared with the GAM prevalence reported at the same time in 2016 which was 4.4 per cent, (ZimVAC, July, 2016). Matabeleland North had the highest prevalence of GAM (5.2 per cent). There was a significant decrease in GAM prevalence in Mashonaland West, from 6.7 per cent in 2016 to 2.1 per cent in 2017. The reduction in GAM rates is associated with the support and implementation of drought response programmes focusing mainly on Agriculture and food security, Nutrition, Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and Social Protection sectors implemented by the Government, UN Agencies, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Donor Agencies and the Private sector. The improved harvests also contributed to a reduction in the GAM rates. More cases of acute malnutrition are expected during the period October 2017 to March 2018. Nutrition treatment commodities have been prepositioned in high risk districts to enable a timely and effective response to any increased cases of malnutrition.
During the period July to September 2017, four new confirmed typhoid cases were reported from Harare and Hurungwe district in Mashonaland West province. In 2017, 2,531 suspected typhoid cases have been registered out of which 83 were laboratory confirmed with six typhoid related deaths reported (CFR 0.23 per cent). No cholera cases were reported during the period (July to September) under review. The national dam storage levels decreased by 18.7 percent from 94 percent recorded in June 2017 to 76.4 percent reported on the 11th of September 2017 due to various abstraction interventions for domestic water supply and irrigation purposes. According to the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (ZINWA) report, the decrease in dam levels will not impact negatively on the water security in the country. Provincial dam storage levels are above 50 per cent and have adequate water reserves up to the next runoff season.