Humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe – a brief overview IASC meeting Ute Kollies/GCMS

Setting the Scence Inter-party negotiations seem hopelessly deadlocked Full blown economic crisis with roughly 231 million % inflation HIV/AIDs – national emergency since May 2002: 1.2 m aids orphans, 2 million deaths so far, 2,214 adults & 240 children die every week of AIDs Humanitarian crisis due to cholera,food insecurity due to harvest failure and economic decline, lack of inputs and near full collapse of basic social services Cross border movements mainly to RSA and Botswana

Setting the scene 3 December: Minister of Health declares a state of emergency and appealed for international assistance 11 December: President Mugabe declares cholera had been halted Regionally, Botswana, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi, RSA have also been affected by cholera Human rights abuses (recent abductions of ZPP director, Jetsina Mukoko one example)

Humanitarian challenges Access to victims Impact of exchange rate on humanitarian activities Political polarisation of humantiarian assistance Additional Natural disasters (floods, epidemics (anthrax, foot and mouth disease), drought) Possible impact of global financial crisis

CAP requirements 550 million USD for 35 appealing organizations including NGOs and faith based organizations Priority sectors: food (320m ) agriculture (58 m), health (45 m), nutrition (10 m), watsan and hygiene (21 m) Address the needs of 5.1 million Zimbabweans vulnerable to food insecurity

Cholera and food insecurity impressions

Alert The United Nations warned on Tuesday,16.Dec. it may have to cut food rations to millions of hungry people in Zimbabwe, due to a lack of funds. The rainy season under way in the region is expected to fuel the spread of the contagious water-borne disease, which has infected at least 18,418 people and killed 978 since August. Nearly 4 million Zimbabweans receive monthly food rations from the U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP), which hopes to feed 5.1 million -- almost half the population -- from January. But donors have contributed only $16 million towards a $140 million WFP appeal for Zimbabwe, leading to smaller distributions of maize and beans to families in the past two months,