Zimbabwe, the Southern Africa country riddled with problems including poverty, inflation, unemployment etc may get a reprieve from the United Nations as it called for increased international support for the country. Roughly half of its 16 million people face acute hunger and destitution.
As a sequel to this, the World Food Programme is planning to double the number of Zimbabweans that it assists to 4.1 million. However, to bring that many people under welfare program, WFP may need US $200million to meet its needs in the first half of 2020 alone. The situation may further worsen in 2020 with the prediction that rainfall is likely to be below normal, which will affect the food production.
Women and children are the most affected lot. They resort to alternative mechanisms to cope up with their difficult livelihood. School drop-outs, early marriage, domestic violence, prostitution and sexual exploitation are happening in Zimbabwe at a higher scale than ever before, which is a direct fallout of the poor economic conditions. The bread is now 20 times more expensive than it was six months ago. Power cuts, for long hours are common.
The government’s decision to increase the fuel prices has had a cascading effect on every aspect of life. Since other Southern African nations are in the grip of severe economic crisis caused by drought and lack of food materials, the WFP authorities have to source food from countries beyond the continent. That also increases the cost of procurement. According to WFP’s estimate that it might require nearly 200 000 metric tons of food to assist the 4.1 million Zimbabweans it plans to target. Can UN alone undertake these massive food operations is the question being raised by many?
