WFP Zimbabwe Country Brief, October 2021 – Zimbabwe 

Source: WFP Zimbabwe Country Brief, October 2021 – Zimbabwe | ReliefWeb

In Numbers

4,769 mt of food assistance distributed

USD 3.4 m cash-based transfers made

US$65 m next six months (December 2021-May 2022) net funding requirements

801,819 people assisted in October 2021

Operational Updates

• Lean season distributions started in October, implemented through a network of eight NGO partners. In October and November, WFP will assist 432,000 people in 10 districts. As the lean season approaches its peak, WFP will scale-up its assistance to include more vulnerable Zimbabweans in rural areas across 12 districts.
• To complement emergency cash-based transfer assistance, WFP supports urban communities through sustainable resilience, livelihood creation and socio-economic empowerment activities. The pilot, which ran throughout the first three quarters of 2021, targeted 30,000 beneficiaries of cash-based assistance. As of October 2021, with support from the US Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs (US BHA), the programme is scaling-up to reach 140,000 people across 19 domains, through hydroponic urban farming, development of food and non-food value chains and training youth on information technologies and other digital skills. Under the urban programme, WFP reached 297,317 people in October. Cash-based transfers are provided to address immediate food needs, while participation in resilience-building activities will improve long-term food security.
• WFP provided technical assistance to the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare (MoPSLSW), to support the finalisation of their Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Framework to be able to report against the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) indicators and to initiate the technical working groups -social assistance & livelihoods, social insurance and labour market interventions-, which will coordinate government and development partner interventions.
• In collaboration with Agritex, 8,844 smallholder farmers were registered across five districts, to participate in WFP’s Smallholder Agriculture and Markets Support Programme. This initiative creates stable demand, promotes inclusive aggregation systems and supports households.