Strengthening the Social Protection System to Enhance Resilience for Food and Nutrition Security among Vulnerable Populations

Whilst Zimbabwe has made significant food security and nutrition gains, the year-on-year situation remains highly dependent upon increasingly erratic rainfall patterns that have deteriorated as a result of the El Nino event in the region. Chronic undernutrition remains relatively high and, despite some improvement, 28 percent of children under five years of age are stunted. Dietary diversity is poor and consumption of protein is insufficient. The prevalence of HIV and AIDS has declined but remains high at 13.7 percent – the fifth highest globally.

WFP’s 2016-2020 Country Strategic Plan (CSP) for Zimbabwe aims to address identified food security and nutrition challenges. It maintains WFP’s strong humanitarian assistance capacity while sharpening its focus on supporting longer-term recovery and resiliencebuilding to address the underlying causes of food insecurity and undernutrition.

This Development Project particularly focuses on knowledge management, producing evidence and improving systems and institutions responsible for achieving zero hunger in line with the national social protection and resilience-building agendas. It is nutrition-sensitive, informed by gender and protection analyses, and applies the “do-no-harm” approach.

This Development Project is aligned with the 2013-2018 Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation, the commitments of the Malabo Declaration, the 2016-2020 United Nations Development Assistance Framework for Zimbabwe and WFP’s Strategic Objectives 1, 2, 3 and 4. It is structured upon the framework provided by the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 on ending hunger and also contributes towards SDG5 and SDG

17.