Govt fine-tunes disaster response strategy

In an interview, Civil Protection Unit (CPU) director, Mr Nathan Nkomo, said all Grain Marketing Board depots across the country have been notified about the President’s directive and districts in need have started accessing the grain. “After the pronouncement by His Excellency President Mnangagwa, we wrote to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) about the directive and that grain should be set aside in various depots across the country,” Mr Nkomo said.

Rumbidzayi Zinyuke-Senior Reporter

THE Government has developed a comprehensive approach to address the effects of the devastating El Nino-induced drought which has left more than 1,7 million people in urban areas and another six million in rural areas food insecure.

On Tuesday, Cabinet received the 2024 Zimbabwe Livelihoods Assessment Committee (ZimLAC) Urban Livelihoods and Nutrition Assessment Report, which established that 35 percent of the urban population (1,732,770 people) will likely be food insecure this season.

The assessment was carried out in February this year.

The Rural Livelihoods Assessment is currently ongoing in all 60 districts across the country to determine the extent to which the current drought has affected the population.

President Mnangagwa declared a state of disaster last month and since then, an appeal document for domestic and international assistance has been launched. Zimbabwe originally sought US$2 billion to fund the search, and rescue mitigation but an additional US$1,3 billion was added to build the resilience of communities.

Civil Protection Department chief director Mr Nathan Nkomo said the Government had taken a holistic approach to address the disaster.

“We are looking at both urban and rural, and all the figures that we get from ZimLAC, we are using them to make rational decisions in response to this El Nino-induced disaster.”

Mr Nkomo said the Government would use village-based registers to target the people who need food assistance while a similar approach would be used in the urban areas where cash transfers would be made to those in need.

“So market forces will be allowed to play a part and cash will be distributed in the urban areas, especially targeting the 1,7 million food insecure people.”

Mr Nkomo said while the country had come up with the appeal document to solicit assistance from partners, the Government was prepared to play its part by putting in place robust systems that would complement any assistance from outside.

This will involve all structures of leadership, from the grassroots up to the national level.