Since then poverty levels have increased, annual inflation officially
estimated at 231million percent for August 2008; the highest in the
world, unemployment estimated to be above 80 percent, the Zimbabwean
dollar continuing to lose value against major currencies, continuing
shortages of basic food stuffs and other household goods, and continued
deterioration of water and sanitation infrastructure.
This continued unabated deterioration of water and sanitation
infrastructure has increased the risk of major disease outbreaks,
especially in urban areas. It was therefore not surprising that, in
August 2008, an unprecedented cholera out break occurred in Chitungwiza
and it quickly spread to many parts of the country a few months later.
The Ministry Health and Child Welfare and the World Health Organisation
cholera surveillance report for December 2008 revealed that the disease
had been reported in all the country’s ten provinces by that period. It
had attacked more than 37,000 people and killed close to 2,000 people.
Chief amongst the factors that fuelled the pandemic were the poor water
and sanitation prevailing in most urban areas as well as the seriously
compromised public health delivery system.
Given the foregoing, establishing the food security situation in urban
areas and how the urban poor are coping with the attendant food
security challenges is not only urgent but indispensable information
for the formulation of appropriate interventions to address the food
insecurity problem.
It is in this light that ZimVac formulated and implemented the 2009
urban food security assessment with the following objectives;
– To determine the prevalence of food insecurity and its severity
amongst households in the high density and peri-urban areas of Zimbabwe.
– To identify and describe food insecure households in the high density and peri urban areas of Zimbabwe.
– To describe the ways and means households in high density and peri
urban settlements are employing to earn a living and how they are
coping with the food insecurity they are experiencing
– To identify and describe the socio-economic factors that determines the food security situation of food insecure households.
– To provide recommendations on immediate, medium and long term
interventions to address the food insecurity in urban areas of Zimbabwe.