Food And Nutrition Security Key To Zim's Recovery

Over the past two decades (1990 - 2010), Zimbabwe underwent a number of economic and political challenges including economic decline (hyperinflation, rising unemployment, decrease in food production and GDP), increasing political instability, combined with demographic changes including internal population displacement, loss of livelihoods and emigration of a significant proportion of the skilled labor in the country. Furthermore, in this same period, Zimbabwe experienced drought, erratic agro-ecological conditions, a cholera outbreak as well as persistently high levels of HIV/AIDS. This has led to changes in the causes, impact and nature of vulnerability in the country, particularly in relation to the impact on food and nutrition security.

The signing of the Global Political Agreement, GPA, between His Excellency President Robert Gabriel Mugabe and Mr. Morgan Tsvangirai, in early 2009 led to a consequent relative stabilization of the economy, Zimbabwe is embarking on a period of transition and recovery. As the country moves toward further stabilization and restoration of livelihoods, there is a need to have information that will inform policies, strategies and programmes that effectively support national capacity strengthening and sustainable recovery.

 A number of threats will continue to threaten food and nutrition security in the region, including in Zimbabwe. These threats include: climate change, a global economic crisis and a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. The cumulative effect of these threats will exacerbate existing vulnerabilities, further deplete the population's resilience to further shocks and will likely have a long-term impact on food and nutrition security in the region. This is already evident in Zimbabwe, for example, between 1995 and 2010 the prevalence of stunting has increased significantly from 22% to over 30%. Monitoring and reversing the impact of these trends will be critical.

There is a critical window of opportunity for ensuring that a system is established that provides a strong evidence-base to inform the development of policies, advocacy and programmes. A strong robust and credible system will also be valuable in securing adequate resources to ensure effective food and nutrition security for the people of Zimbabwe.

Based on Zimbabwe's experiences of food surpluses in the 1980s, it is recognized in Zimbabwe that food security alone is insufficient to ensure nutrition security and therefore, any analytical system needs to consider the impacts of the underlying causes on nutritional outcomes. These underlying causes include the health environment, access to health services, access to water and sanitation and caring practices.

Furthermore, food availability is on its own inadequate to measure food security, therefore, an
analysis must also consider food access and consumption patterns (quality of diet), which are both
critical towards understanding causes and patterns of nutritional outcomes (under-nutrition, stunting, wasting and micronutrient status).

The 2004 Zimbabwe Millennium Development Goals MDGs Progress Report succinctly highlights the need for an effective Food and Nutrition Security Analysis FNSA system in Zimbabwe. Specifically, the report recommends: The establishment of a comprehensive food and nutrition surveillance system. Thus the challenge is to establish a comprehensive food and nutrition surveillance system that will provide accurate, credible and timely information. This will help to facilitate appropriate decision making at all levels, from community to policy making, for improved food security and nutrition outcomes; and the expansion of social protection and security systems. The challenge here is to increase the capabilities of households to manage risk. Humanitarian crises have become a regular feature of the Zimbabwe landscape, associated largely with droughts, floods and the impact of the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Zimbabwe is still grappling with the devastating effects of the Tokwe-Mukosi dam disaster a development with a negative impact on food and nutrition security.