52nd Session of the Committee on World Food Security: Address shocks and stresses affecting agriculture

Hon Vangelis P. Haritatos, the Deputy Minister for Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, while addressing the 52^nd Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on the sub-theme: ‘Strengthening Coordinated Policy Responses to the Food Crisis’, said the world’s agriculture and food systems have notably taken further knocks and become more vulnerable and susceptible to multi-dimensional shocks and stress the world over.

He said domestically; Zimbabwe was hit by a devastating El Nino as it did in the whole of the Sub-Saharan African region (SSA), while regionally and globally, skirmishes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Mozambique as well as the Ukraine and Gaza wars are intensifying geo-economic fragmentation between and among nations and creating a global funding squeeze that is not helpful in the collective fight against climate change and other universal and pervasive threats facing humanity today.

He said these challenges and several others like them are testing the resolve of humanity to unify, rally together, and collectively tackle threats of a ubiquitous nature that are threatening the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) like zero hunger, no poverty, and good health and well-being among others.

Hon Haritatos said Zimbabwe, through its Food and Nutrition Security Policy (2012) recognises and reinforces the multiple causes of food and nutrition insecurity and the interconnectedness of sectors and indicates the need for collaborative and coordinated multi-sector response. In 2020, Zimbabwe embarked on its focus to transform agriculture through its Agriculture and Food Systems Rural Transformation Strategy.

To cushion households and build resilience against the 2023/24 El Niño-induced drought which resulted in massive crop failure, depletion of water resources and pastures; the Government of Zimbabwe developed and implemented evidence-based policy responses to mitigate the crisis, inter alia:

Evidence Generation Through the Food and Nutrition Security Information System

Timely, scientific and credible data is critical in informing policy formulation allowing countries to respond to food and nutrition challenges. Zimbabwe established a robust Food and Nutrition Security Information System which generates evidence to inform policy and programming.

Evidence generated through the information system’s annual livelihoods assessments enabled the Government to estimate the population that was likely to be food insecure, identify their geographic distribution, and assess the severity of their food insecurity as a result of the El Nino induced drought. Policy recommendations emanating from these assessments culminated in the development and implementation of targeted and context-specific interventions by decision-makers.

Declaration of the State of National Disaster

On the 2^nd of April 2024, the Government of Zimbabwe declared a State of National Disaster following the El Nino Induced Drought. The declaration was informed by evidence generated through the Food and Nutrition Security Information System. The declaration of a state of disaster facilitated the development of comprehensive, multi-sectoral, and all-encompassing response strategies which included the following:

• Securing food for all Zimbabweans to ensure that no one succumbed to
• Implementation of the Food Deficit Mitigation Strategy in both the urban and rural areas, targeting the worst affected areas and the hard to The strategy also targeted the most vulnerable groups which included the elderly, persons with disabilities, orphaned and child- headed households and chronically ill, among others. Households with malnourished children were also targeted with social protection packages.

• Supplementary grain importation and improvement of the Strategic Grain
• Strengthening of irrigation production for cereals (wheat and maize).
• Drilling of more boreholes to ensure adequate water for people, livestock and wildlife targeting 1,620 drought mitigation centres to complement our village business unit (VBU) program that targets 35,000 VBUs, 1 in each of the 35,000 villages.

1. Up-scaling of the school feeding programme to alleviate short-term hunger, increase school enrolment, reduce school dropouts and absenteeism.

• Distribution of inputs for the next season to enable households to bounce back better and prepare adequately to avert a worsening situation. This program falls under our Presidential Input Program which targets 5 million vulnerable households to be able to grow their own food and guarantee household food and nutrition security going forward.
• Strengthening of community screening for Severe Acute Malnutrition in all districts for surveillance and monitoring as well as early identification and referral to treatment for children with wasting.
• Pre-positioning of therapeutic feeds to all referral centres to prevent stockouts and to ensure a prompt response to admitted cases.

Following the declaration of the state of disaster, the Government also established multi-stakeholder coordination structures allowing different sectors to contribute to the response.

Development of the Zimbabwe 2024 El Niño Induced Drought Disaster: Domestic and International Appeal for Assistance

Following the declaration of a state of disaster, the Government developed a national Appeal that facilitated a coordinated response to the El Nino induced drought and allowed for resource mobilisation and response planning in the short and medium term.

In the Appeal, the Government focused on search and rescue, mitigation and resilience building in critical areas which include agriculture, food and nutrition security, protection, health, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and education.

As the impact of the El Nino-induced drought was projected to last until March 2025 for most communities, the Appeal sought to mobilise USD 3.9 Billion which was deemed adequate to assure communities of sustenance.

Development of the SADC Regional Humanitarian Appeal

In May 2024, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) developed a Regional Appeal for Humanitarian Assistance to support recovery efforts by Member States that had been affected by the El Nino-induced drought as well as floods. Evidence from Zimbabwe’s robust Food and Nutrition Security Information System was also used to inform this regional response strategy.

Strengthening of the Multi-system and Multi-sector Approach in Responding to The Food and Nutrition Challenges:

Zimbabwe boasts of high political commitment and an enabling environment for food and nutrition security implementation as characterised by strong policy documents such as the Food and Nutrition Security Policy (2012); the Multisectoral Food and Nutrition Security Strategy (2023- 2025); the Agriculture and Food Systems Rural Transformation Strategy which is the primary document overseeing Rural Development 8.0; Agriculture Recovery Plan; Livestock Recovery and Growth Plan; Horticulture Recovery and Growth Plan; and Irrigation Rehabilitation and Recovery Plan.

The country has established and continues to invest in strengthening multi-level, multi-sectoral governance structures in order to operationalise a collaborated and coordinated response to the food and nutrition challenges.

These policy implementation structures from national to sub-national level are pivotal in the development, implementation, and monitoring of the response.

Nutrition in Emergencies:

To ensure that nutrition remained at the center of all response efforts, nutrition clusters were strengthened for the implementation of nutrition-specific interventions. In addition, significant efforts were also made towards the strengthening of nutrition-sensitive programming across sectors through the creation of linkages across and within sectors.

The  overarching goal was and remains that no place and no one will be left behind.