Why?
This Emergency Appeal supports the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society (ZRCS) to reach 10,830 people with a focus on interventions on the sectors of water, health hygiene promotion, food security, nutrition, and livelihoods (carried out through cash distributions). A slow onset of the rainy season was followed by severe flooding that destroyed crops in 2015. This situation was followed, and exacerbated, by a long dry spell, resulting in a crop yield below the 5 year average. Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZIMVAC) report estimated 16% of Zimbabwe’s rural population are food insecure and 1,490,024 people will be in need of food assistance at the peak of the hunger period. Coping mechanisms are severely strained, and social safety-net interventions by the Government and partners are limited. The ZRCS will target two of the affected districts, Mudzi and Muzarabani.
What?
The ZIMVAC report highlights the need to scale-up nutrition-specific interventions to promote crop production. Malnutrition remains a challenge especially in children under five. The challenge of food insecurity is exacerbated by the continued poor storage of crops, and hence there is a continued need for promotion of improved food storage. While the immediate needs of these households is food assistance, ZRCS proposes that any food assistance provided should be complemented by livelihoods recovery interventions such as seed support, training in climate-smart agriculture practices, and water and sanitation activities.
Who?
Beneficiary selection will be informed by a community based selection approach which will be participatory in nature and community-led. ZRCS will ensure that the selection of beneficiaries will be consistent with IFRC’s commitment to strive for gender equality and diversity, and to ensure non-discrimination in provision of services to the most vulnerable. The Ministries of Social Services and Agriculture, supported by District Civil Protection Units and drought relief committees will be involved in informing the development of the selection criteria. The ZRCS selection criteria will emphasize the needs of vulnerable groups (women headedhouseholds, pregnant and lactating women, the disabled, the elderly and orphans or vulnerable children).