600K households get food aid under Zim-Asset

Clemence Manyukwe in Harare
MORE than 600,000 households have received food aid in the country as the Government lives up to its promise that no one would starve due to drought.

In a report presented at the Zim-Asset communication and media engagement strategy workshop held here yesterday, the blueprint’s social services and poverty eradication cluster said efforts have been made to reduce vulnerability levels.

“Social Protection Services: 614,363 households received food assistance from the Government and humanitarian partners against a target of 602,008 households. However, the basket given was minimal and may not guarantee safeguarding nutritional status of households. 29,967 children were reached with specialist child protection services with support from Government and other development partners. This was against a target of 27,500 children,” reads part of the report.

It said so far 52,079 households received bi-monthly cash transfers against a target of 60,000 households for 2016.

The report said in terms of health services, the number of people on anti-retroviral therapy has reached 834,641 against a target of 900,271, thus the majority of those who should be on ART have been initiated.

According to the social services and poverty eradication cluster report, in a bid to improve policy effectiveness and efficiency, the Government is crafting policies that include the Social Protection Policy Framework, the Education Strategic Plan on School Feeding, and the National Sport and Recreation Policy.

The Senior Principal Director in the Department of Public Affairs and Knowledge Management in the Office of the President and Cabinet Ambassador Mary Mubi said there a lot of success stories coming out of ZimAsset that have gone unreported.

She said the ZimAsset communication and media engagement strategy which will help highlight some of the success stories will be launched later this month.

The primary goal of the strategy is to improve awareness, understanding, participation and action around ZimAsset.

“We do not need to make up stories. There are sufficient stories out there that we can communicate,” she said.