WFP targets urban areas

LETTICIA MAGOMBO

The World Food Programme (WFP) has shifted focus to urban areas to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the urban population.

A Zimbabwean urban population vulnerability assessment conducted in December of 2020 revealed that 2.4m people in urban areas had been left food insecure due to the collapse of the informal sector which accounts for 80% of urban dwellers income.

Francesca Eldermann, WFP Zimbabwe country director and representative told a WFP National Stakeholders Validation Workshop this week they were forced to shift attention to urban areas from rural due to the increase in vulnerability of the urban population.

“There is a huge increase in the number of people that live in cities. Most people in cities make a living from the informal sector. The informal sector has been heavily affected by Covid-19. We know from the last ZimVAC report for urban areas that a very large number of people were food insecure, so, all in all, a very fragile situation,” Eldermann said.

She said rising food inflation has also worked against the population.

Eldermann however, said that focusing on urban areas would require WFP to change its tactics in order to provide the best solutions for the challenges that are facing these populations.

Arianna Francioni, regional project coordinator for the WFP said there was an immediate need to think of rural and urban areas as one entity whose problems can be resolved simultaneously.

“I think that we should think about the rural-urban more as a continuum than a dichotomy. So, it’s not two separate things. It’s two things that relate to each other. So overall what we can see in the region is that urban growth is higher than rural growth, so there are more people that are reaching cities to look for job opportunities,” Francioni said.

Farai Hokonya deputy director department of the Civil Protection Unit said the disaster management sector in Zimbabwe is in line with President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s call that we should not leave “any area behind any women, any men, or any child behind.”

“So as we approach the sector we have taken on board both the rural and urban and local authorities into Disaster Risk Management planning and this will then assist in terms of preparedness in terms of recovery projects and in terms of response to hazards or emergencies that we foresee in urban areas,” Hokonya said.