20 years of WFP in Zimbabwe (part 1)
As the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) marks its 20th anniversary in Zimbabwe, we embark on a journey across time with the country directors that have served in the Southern African nation.
Since 2002, WFP has helped Zimbabweans withstand droughts, tropical storms and macroeconomic challenges, through a mix of emergency food assistance and livelihood support. In 2009, when hyperinflation plunged the country into widespread poverty and food shortages, WFP’s assistance peaked to reach more than one third of the population (around 5.3 million people). To expand food production and help vulnerable Zimbabweans lift themselves out of poverty, WFP’s infrastructure and assets- which include irrigation systems, dams and boreholes — have benefitted two million people.
As the largest purchaser of staple crops in Africa, WFP opened a procurement office in Harare in 1982, to source lifesaving food aid for neighboring countries like Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia. In the early 2000s, a combination of drought, high prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS and a free-falling economy fueled a severe food crisis. Once known as ‘the breadbasket of Southern Africa’, producing sufficient food for the population and exporting it, Zimbabwe became reliant on imports.
Upon a formal request from the Government for humanitarian assistance, Kevin Farrell arrived in Harare in 2002 to gear up the WFP operation. “The foundation had to be strong and establishing relations with stakeholders was key. I had to make sure that whoever came after me had an easier job. I was in charge of opening an office in the capital and sub-offices around the country,” explains Kevin. “A number of WFP operations around the world are initiated following conflict, but we didn’t have that in Zimbabwe. There really wasn’t a full-blown crisis, so we didn’t have to worry about staff security in any real sense. This was a big positive,” he adds.
Having started the WFP operation in Zimbabwe, Kevin’s wish is for it to close: “I don’t want Zimbabwe to depend on external support, which is short-term by nature and very unpredictable. I’d love to hear in 10 years that WFP is no longer needed there.”
The country has made great strides in the fight against HIV/AIDS: prevalence is down to 13 percent today, from almost one third of the population living with the virus in the early 2000s. WFP helped manage the disease as treatment gradually became available, underscoring the critical role of food security in the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. During Feliz Bamezon’s tenure as WFP’s country director in Zimbabwe, innovative e-voucher and food-by-prescription programmes were introduced to address the nutritional needs of people living with HIV/AIDS.
By the end of the first decade into the new millennium, Felix and his team started looking at ways of reducing risks, protecting livelihoods, and harnessing development gains from recurring shocks. WFP introduced resilience-building and rural infrastructure development activities and procured from smallholder farmers.
Sory Ouane landed in Zimbabwe in 2013 and led this transition, so that WFP would not feed the same people again and again, year in and year out. “When you respond to an emergency, you need to plant the seed of longer-term recovery,” he says.
“It was hard to validate our role, because we were known as the large-scale distributor of emergency food assistance in the country. To be seen as a development-oriented partner-of-choice in a context that was changing rapidly was a challenge. It was difficult to convince donors and funding drastically reduced to a record low,” he recalls.
Sory is confident that the country will eventually be able to handle food security and nutrition challenges by itself: “When the battle against hunger and poverty is finally won in Zimbabwe, I am sure that WFP will be part of the list of institutions that helped reach this objective. Because frankly, the list would be incomplete without WFP”.
About Zimbabwe: In June 2022, Zimbabwe was added to the list of Hunger Hotspots due to an erratic rainfall season and consequent drop in expected crop production (which declined by nearly 50 percent for smallholder farmers as compared to last year), combined with the effects of persistently high inflation that is the highest in the world.
