VAC Zimbabwe Urban Areas VAC Food Security and Vulnerability ZIMBABWE Vulnerability SADC FANR Assessment – September 2003 Ass essment Com mittee Vulnerability Assessment Committee Zimbabwe National Vulnerability Assessment Committee in collaboration with the SADC FANR Vulnerability Assessment Committee ZIMBABWE Some 7.5 million people (2.5 in urban areas and 5.01 million in rural areas) of the population is food insecure in 2003/04 marketing year. Urban Report No. 1 February 2004 Harare Prepared in collaboration with SIRDC – Food and Nutrition Programme, Ministry of Agriculture- National Early Warning Unit, Civil Protection Unit, CSO, MOHCW, Ministry of Public Service Labour and Social Welfare, Ministry of Education, WFP, Unicef, FEWS NET, GOAL, MEDAIR and ACF. With financial support from Government of Zimbabwe, UNDP,DFID and SADC FANR VAC For Full Report Contact: Joyce Chanetsa at [email protected]; Tel: 263 4 860320-9 or 263 11 865640, Fax 263 4860340 Elliot Vhurumuku at [email protected]; Tel: 263 4 729196 or 263 11 430397 , Fax 263 4 729196 Isaac Tarakidzwa at [email protected]; Tel 263 4 252471/3 or 263 11 412548, Fax 263 4 799214 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................... 2 LIST OF FIGURES.............................................................................................................................. 3 LIST OF APPENDICES....................................................................................................................... 4 PREFACE............................................................................................................................................ 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...................................................................................................................... 6 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .................................................................................................................... 7 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................ 9 1.1 Country Context -.................................................................................................................... 9 1.2. Purpose of the Assessment .................................................................................................. 14 1.3. Overall Objectives of Urban Assessment:............................................................................ 15 2. METHODS USED IN THE ASSESSMENT ................................................................................... 16 2.1. Survey design........................................................................................................................ 16 2.2. Data Collection................................................................................................................. 17 2.3. Data Management……………………………………………………………………… 18 2.4. Management of the survey .............................................................................................. 19 2.5. Demographic Characteristics of the Sample ........................................................................ 19 3. ZIMBABWE HOUSEHOLD POVERTY AND FOOD SECURITY ................................................... 21 3.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 21 3.2. Poverty in Zimbabwe urban areas........................................................................................ 21 3.3. Food Security Vulnerability in urban areas.......................................................................... 26 3.4. Factors affecting household poverty and food security ...................................................... 29 3.5. Characterization of food security ......................................................................................... 31 3.6. Education, health, water and sanitation and linkages to Food Security.............................. 33 3.8. Household Coping Strategies................................................................................................ 38 4. HOUSESEHOLD LIVELIHOODS AND VULNERABILITY ......................................................... 40 4.1. Household Poverty and Vulnerability.................................................................................. 40 4.2. Household Food Security...................................................................................................... 42 4.3. Household Food Access........................................................................................................ 47 4.4. Household Consumption Patterns......................................................................................... 48 4.5. Household Income Patterns and Food Access ..................................................................... 50 4.6. Household Expenditure Patterns.......................................................................................... 56 5. URBAN FOOD SECURITY, POVERTY VULNERABILITY AND LINKAGES ............................... 60 5.1. Urban institutions capacity ................................................................................................... 60 5.2. General Household Housing, Water and Sanitation conditions in urban areas by urban type, suburb and socio economic conditions............................................................................... 64 5.3. Linkage food Security/Accommodation................................................................................ 65 5.4. Health .................................................................................................................................... 65 5.5. Linkage Food security/orphans ............................................................................................ 66 5.6. Educational Issues................................................................................................................. 67 5.7. Other Linkages...................................................................................................................... 71 6. RECOMMENDATIONS ............................................................................................................. 74 6.1. General Recommendations.................................................................................................... 74 6.2. Food Security........................................................................................................................ 74 6.3. Social safety nets.................................................................................................................. 74 6.4. Health and HIV and AIDS...................................................................................................... 75 6.5. Water and Sanitation............................................................................................................. 75 1 LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Urban Areas and Number of Households Sampled per Province…… …16 Table 2.2: Dependency Ratio by Province…………………………………………… 19 Table 2.3: Household selected demographic characteristics by income, gender, marital status……………………………………………………………………………… 20 Table 3.1: Poverty Levels by Socio Economic Groups using CCZ and CSO based CPI thresholds as in September 2003…………………………………………………… 22 Table 3.2: Poverty Level by Suburb Type………………………………………………. 26 Table 3.3: Food Security Status in Urban Areas September 2003……...………………. 27 Table 3.4: Population Food Insecure by Province………………………………………. 28 Table 3.5: Food security by suburb type………………………………………………… 28 Table 3.6: Shocks and hazards that affected households in the last six months and their rank by income group………………………………………………………………… 30 Table 3.7: Food security by sex of head of household………………………………….. 32 Table 3.8: Housing status by income group…………………………………….……….. 34 Table 3.9: The most common coping strategies practiced by the very poor and poor socio-economic groups………………………………………………………………….. 39 Table 4.1: Poverty and Vulnerability matrix: assessing potential signs /indicators of increasing and decreasing vulnerability among urban households………………… 41 Table 4.2: Source of cereal focus group perceptions……………………………………. 43 Table 4.3:Source of food aid…………………………………………………………….. 45 Table 4.4: Cereal availability, community perceptions…………………………………. 45 Table 4.5: Quantities of cereal in kgs available per household by income group………46 Table 4.6: Quantities of sweet potatoes in kgs available per household by income group………………………………………………………………………………………………46 Table 4.7: Household rural-urban linkages…………………………………………………….47 Table 4.8: Maize meal and prices by province………………………………………………...48 Table 4.9: Available mean monthly food quantities per capita by income group……….49 Table 4.10: Number of times item was eaten over the last 7 days, entire Population…..............................................................................................................50 Table 4.11: Number of meals eaten per day by socio economic group………………….50 Table 4.12: Community perceptions of livelihood activities………………………………..55 Table 4.13: Household expenditure shares composition by income socio-economic groups……………………………………………………………………………………………589 Table 5.1: Sample size by institution Type……………………………………………………60 Table 5.2: Institutional constraints………………………………………………………………61 Table 5.3: Source of financial support………………………………………………………….61