Chronicle Editor
Beitbridge Bureau
THE World Food Programme (WFP) has started working closely with Government and other partners to implement the Urban Social Assistance and Resilience Building Programme to develop a longer-term shock-responsive social protection programme in urban areas.
In a statement yesterday, WFP Representative and Country Director Ms Francesca Erdelmann said they have been able to deliver the Urban Social Assistance programme with support from the many overseas partners and other United Nations agencies.
She said according to the recent Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) report coordinated by the Food and Nutrition Council, hunger in the country’s urban areas increased in the last 12 months.
“According to the report over the past year, 2,4 million people are now struggling to meet their basic food needs,” she said.
Ms Erdelmann said they were delivering monthly cash transfers to 326 000 Zimbabweans across 23 urban areas.
She said they were looking at scaling up the assistance to 550 000 people living in the 28 worst affected and food insecure urban areas in the country.
The official said the households were accessing the money through electronic transfers and vouchers that enable them to buy food items from selected retailers.
“Alongside the cash assistance, WFP is also implementing resilience-building activities that support long-term development so that vulnerable communities are better able to withstand shocks,” said Ms Erdelmann.
She said some of the resilience activities include supporting urban agriculture such as mushroom and vegetable farming and building market linkages between rural-urban food value chains.
Others, she said, include setting up savings and lending groups and entrepreneurship training to support the establishment of small businesses.
Ms Erdelmann said the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change had severely affected the sources of revenue for many people in the town and cities countrywide.
“The recent report states that 42 percent of urban households will not be able to meet their cereal requirements this year compared to approximately 30 percent for the same period in 2019.
“There has been a sharp decline in the standard of living across poor urban communities in Zimbabwe with 83 percent of urban households now below the cost of the minimum expected food items such as mealie-meal, salt and cooking oil compared to 76.8 percent in 2019,” she said. — @tupeyo
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