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Zimbabwe Humanitarian Situation Report 7 Apr 2004
The UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator’s Bi-Monthly Report
April 07, 2004

UN launches Consolidated Appeal for Zimbabwe
The Consolidated Appeal for Zimbabwe, prepared in close consultation with the Government of Zimbabwe as well as other humanitarian stakeholders, has been presented in Geneva and New York simultaneously. The new appeal, which covers activities until the end of 2004, has been presented to donors and other key stakeholders in Zimbabwe. "The generosity of the international community in response to the first six months of the Appeal has already contributed to mitigating the humanitarian consequences of this crisis," said Victor Angelo, the Humanitarian Coordinator in Zimbabwe. "But a lot more must be done to prevent the further erosion of basic services," he continued. The appeal focuses heavily on humanitarian needs particularly in health care, safe water, sanitation, education, and recovery at household and community levels. Funding requirements total US$95.4 million, including US$31.1 million requested by local and international NGOs.

Safe Water and Good Sanitation Crucial for Health
As the nation commemorated World Water Day on 22 March, for many Zimbabweans access to safe water and adequate sanitation remain out of reach. Women and girls spend hours walking to fetch water, often at the expense of time with their children and time for schooling. The water they get is often not safe and may in turn cause diseases and increase the threat of epidemics.

In Zimbabwe, since independence in 1980, commendable progress was made, as access to safe water in rural areas increased from 30% to 78% in 2002 and access to sanitation increased from 5% to 39% in 2002. Now these gains are being quickly eroded and require urgent intervention.

The combination of insufficient access to clean water, environmental disasters, caused by frequent droughts, cyclones and the internal migration of people as a result of the land reform, has left communities vulnerable to epidemics like cholera, diarrhoeal diseases, and skin and eye infections. An estimated 50% of rural water pumps and sanitation facilities, often old and over used, are broken down. In urban areas, the shortage of chemicals to treat water and the expense of providing water to growing urban populations put about 4,6 million people at risk of disease. The AIDS pandemic further increases the need for safe water and sanitation, especially in rural areas.

"Evidence illustrates that access to safe water and good sanitation is one of the best investments in improving a child's health", said Dr. Festo Kavishe, UNICEF Representative, "We know that children are less likely to die from diahorea or the many other water related disease that threaten a child's survival, especially those under five when safe water is available and sanitation is good."

Current efforts to improve safe water and sanitation need to be expanded. The National Action Committee on Rural Water Supply and Sanitation, made up of Government Ministries, Rural District Councils, UNICEF and NGO partners, are promoting a community based management model, which seeks to empower communities with skills, and materials to better manage their own water facilities. They are also promoting the principles of participatory hygiene and health education, which along with the provision of sanitation facilities, has helped communities better understand the importance of good hygiene for their health.

In addition, through the emergency water and sanitation support, UNICEF with funding from the European Commission Aid Office (ECHO) and through the Mvumanzi Trust, child headed households are being assisted in the construction of latrines, deep wells and nutrition gardens to help improve their health. Schools and health clinics are being provided with boreholes to ensure that these important community sites have access to much-needed facilities. Last year with support from ECHO and other donors, especially the Government of Norway and Ireland, 267 boreholes were rehabilitated, 25 boreholes drilled and 780 latrines constructed.

UN RRU Information Section Offers Training in GPS
The United Nations Humanitarian Co-ordinator Relief and Recovery Unit Geographical Information System (GIS) section recently organised a half-day training session on Global Positioning System (GPS) for NGOs involved in water and sanitation. The purpose of the training was to equip participants from local and international NGOs with skills in the proper use of GPS equipment for mapping water points.

The training is part of the UN RRU capacity building and information-sharing program for NGOs, government departments and other humanitarian organisations in effective programming for humanitarian work.

The GIS unit also provides mapping of spatial data on humanitarian and development activities as a free service to NGOs, Government sectors and donor organisations.

UNICEF Strengthens Coverage of Expanded Program on Immunisation at District Level
Zimbabwe's Health delivery system has been facing numerous challenges, which among others include; shortage of drugs, inadequate transport for outreach programs and high staff turnover. One of the areas negatively affected is the Expanded Program on Immunisation that is meant to reduce morbidity and mortality for immunisable diseases such as polio, measles and tetanus.

The country achieved Universal Child Immunisation by 1991. This resulted in a marked decline of morbidity and mortality from immunisable diseases. Diseases such as polio and neonatal tetanus were almost eliminated in the early 90s. However, due to the current challenges, it is becoming difficult to procure adequate equipment necessary to maintain EPI at its previous levels.

This has led to declining trends on immunisation coverage, vaccine stocks and human resource capacity at various levels of the health sector. The February 2003 nutrition and EPI survey showed about 54% of districts having coverage below the desired immunisation target and only 76% of all children fully immunised.

During the last year, UNICEF with support from a number of donors that include DFID, CIDA, SIDA and Rotary provided support to the MHCW for cold chain, logistics and vaccines. Last week, as part of this support UNICEF delivered 8 vehicles to the MHCW for EPI that will be used to support outreach services at district level.

Receiving the vehicles for the MHCW, Dr Elizabeth Xaba, Secretary for Health and Child Welfare acknowledged that EPI vaccination coverage has declined partly due to shortage of transport to undertake scheduled routine EPI outreach activities.

Food Security Network Strategic Planning Workshop for Local NGOs
Food Security Network (FOSENET) is a network of Local Non Governmental Organisations (LNGOs) which was formally constituted in February 2002. It was formed when LNGOs met to identify possible areas of contribution to food security as well as to agree on ethical standards to be adhered to by those carrying out humanitarian assistance.

The grouping of LNGOs met in Kadoma from the 11th to the 12th of March 2004 with the objective of not only reviewing the current situation, LNGO capacity, efforts and experiences but also to plan strategically as a strengthened network for more focused interventions on food security issues for the next 5 years.

Local NGOs felt that they have a comparative advantage when carrying out humanitarian assistance because they are widely distributed, cover many districts including those identified as 'high risk' in terms of food insecurity, and operate through a mix of field staff and local committees. However the major challenge being faced by local NGOs is that of inadequate financial and material resources to scale up activities and coverage to service the growing needs in the communities.

FOSENET and member NGOs thus charted out an action plan that centred on 5 strategic areas including livelihood (recovery and sustainability) programmes to address food security issues (operational and organizational) while at the same time mainstreaming HIV/AIDS.

Agriculture Up-date
A fortnightly crop and livestock situation report released by Agricultural Research and Extension (AREX) indicates that harvesting of the early planted maize crop has commenced in most southern provinces while the late planted crop which forms the bulk of the crop is at reproductive stage in Mashonaland Central Province. Compared to last year, there are better harvests expected in a number of districts in Matebeleland South, though some early planted crop in Kezi, Gwanda and Insiza Districts wilted because of the dry spell that was experienced at the beginning of the rain season.

Water supplies and grazing for livestock is adequate and livestock condition is reportedly fair to good in all provinces. They are reported cases of cattle diseases that include black leg, red water and heart water in Muzarabani and Mount Darwin Districts of Mashonaland Central Province.

Health Brief
Malaria cases as reported in week 11 are still high particularly in Matebeleland North and Mashonaland East.

There has been an increase of 28% in reported cases from a total of 14,919 reported in week 10 to 23,367 for week 11. A total of 40 deaths were reported for week 11. Hwange District in Matebeleland North had the highest number of deaths with a total of 12 for the week. Cumulative figures now stand at 158,345 cases and 228 deaths.

There are sporadic cases of cholera reported in Kariba. There is also an increase in dog bites with 72 cases reported for week 11. Manicaland had the highest number of dog bites.

TV Show Gives Youth Voice and Advice
"Who's Next?" is the provocative title of an award-winning TV talk show aimed at promoting safer sex and sexual health among Zimbabwe's urban youth. "'Who's Next?' basically centres around issues that affect young people generally and personally, including peer pressure, counselling, HIV and the issue of communication between parents and young people," explained Priscilla Mujuru, programme officer for Adolescent Reproductive Health at UNAIDS, which funds the show through the National AIDS Council.

Launched three years ago, the programme now has 700,000 loyal viewers each week, eclipsing by far other youth-orientated shows, according to Susan Makore, head of programming at the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. Mujuru believes the programme has gone a long way towards teaching responsible sexual behaviour to adolescents, and is now tackling the other side of the equation - sensitising adults, be they politicians, community leaders or parents - who have an impact.

Call for abstracts
Abstracts are being called for the HIV and AIDS conference to be held from 15-18 June 2004. Zimbabwe's first National HIV and AIDS conference will provide a forum to share program successes, lessons learned, and current model activities in order to point a way forward to national expansion on these successes. Main themes include Prevention, Care and Treatment, Mitigation, and working together for multi-sectoral response to HIV and AIDS. For further information, contact the AIDS and TB unit - telephone 263-04-726803 and 263-04-702981.

CARE Zimbabwe Reach the Most Vulnerable in Chitungwiza Peri-Urban Settlement
The recent Urban Vulnerability Assessment conducted by ZIMVAC shows that 72% of the urban population (51% are very poor and 21% are poor) are in immediate need of food assistance.

To address the issue of food insecurity of some urban population, CARE Zimbabwe developed a project proposal to assist 1,500 most vulnerable beneficiaries of Chitungwiza area for five months beginning January 2004. The graph below shows vulnerable household groups reached during the month of February 2004.

AusAid and WFP fund the project. To implement the project, CARE Zimbabwe has been working in close collaboration with St. Andrew's Methodist Church.

The Church authority provides free storage facility to store the commodities and assigned five volunteers to assist CARE in selection of beneficiaries, keeping inventory of commodities and managing the distribution.
UN Humanitarian Co-ordinator / RRU

Information Reference of Humanitarian Assistance Meetings April 2004
NB: Meetings are by invitation only. Please contact the focal point person if you would like to receive information about any of these meetings

7 April '04
Education Working Group
Contact: Cecilia Baldeh; UNICEF

15 April '04
Child Protection Working Group
Contact: Ron Pouwels; UNICEF

29 April '04
Agriculture Co-ordination Working Group
Contact: Morris Mudiwa; FAO

30 April '04
Water and Sanitation Working Group
Contact: Maxwell Jonga; UNICEF

30 April '04
Matebeleland NGO Forum Coordination
Contact: Norbet Dube; Oxfam Canada

Articles for publication in the next Situation Report should be submitted by 16 April 2004 to our office at the email address: Zimrelief.info@undp.org

Contributions from GoZ, NGOs, International Organizations, or private sector groups are welcome.

For additional information or comments, please contact the United Nations Relief and Recovery Unit, Harare Tel: +263 4 792681, ext. 207 or e-mail: Zimrelief.info@undp..org

This Situation Report can be accessed on the Web at: www.reliefweb.int then click on "by country", then click on "Zimbabwe"

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