Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) with the support of UN Women and other partners recently hosted a Data User-Producer Symposium. A Symposium, which is conducted once every five years, provides a vital platform for discussing the latest statistical developments and trends. Attended by users and producers of statistics, research and training institutions, and development partners, the symposium aims to modernize the National Statistical System (NSS) using technology and alternative data sources. 

ZimStat uses this platform to extract valuable insights and inputs that shape the National Development Strategies. The goal being to produce statistics that meet international standards while being relevant to the Zimbabwean context. The symposium also plays a crucial role in the design of the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS), which is a five-year plan which provides a vision for where the National Statistical System NSS should be in five to ten years and sets milestones for getting there.

Addressing the Symposium Zim Stat’s acting Director General, Mr. Aluwisio Mukavhi, emphasized the importance of modernizing the National Statistical System (NSS). He stated,”Modernization of the National Statistical System (NSS) through the use of technology and alternative data sources is key to national development. We have a clear mandate to collect, compile, evaluate, analyse and disseminate statistical information. In this regard, Zim Statendeavors to produce statistics that meet international standards, while being relevant to the Zimbabwean context”. 

In her solidarity remarks Ms. Fatou Lo, UN Women Country Representative said, “Data and statistics are indispensable tools for devising evidence-based policies and programmes on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Data is vital for assessing impact and promotes accountability of our work. However, with only 5 years left until 2030, yet still we have less than half of the gender data we need to monitor SDG 5 globally. If no significant change or deliberate actions are made to accelerate gender data financing and action, we estimate that it will likely take us 22 years to close SDG gender data gaps”. 

The recent symposium is a major step forward for data production and use in Zimbabwe, with many data users and producers collaborating for the advancement of the national statistics. The symposium was able to bring together over 100 data producers and users from across sectors, Government, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Civil Society Organizations, Academic Institutions, Media&UN agencies, to share experiences and best practices in data production and analysis, promote open dialogue between users and producers of statistics, discuss the challenges and opportunities in data utilization, and recommend strategies for efficient delivery of statistical information. The symposium highlighted the importance of investing in gender data and the role it plays in accelerating social and economic progress and sustainable development for all.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UN Women – Africa.

Today, Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman announced that the United States, through USAID, intends to provide $66.8 million to Zambia to address the current drought, strengthen food security, and build resilience in the country across a variety of sectors.  

Zambia’s crippling drought has caused crop losses between 60 and 95 percent across vast swathes of the country, triggering an 83 percent surge in maize prices. USAID will provide $20 million in urgent humanitarian assistance through implementing partners as an immediate response to the severe drought afflicting Zambia, complementing USAID’s existing $9.5 million food security assistance in the country to drive inclusive, long term agricultural-led economic growth. Working with Congress, USAID also plans to invest an additional $5 million to increase the long term food security of Zambia to strengthen its agricultural productivity, improve nutrition, and help producers manage future shocks. 

Despite these immense challenges, smallholder farmers are demonstrating incredible resilience, continuing to produce food for their families and communities. This assistance will help them, providing food, market-based assistance, and agricultural assistance to over 460,000 people in Zambia affected by the drought. 

For over a decade, Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global food security initiative, has been a champion in the fight against hunger, poverty, and malnutrition, working to build sustainable and resilient food systems. USAID is leading an effort called Feed the Future Accelerator to areas of both high need and tremendous opportunity. Zambia, with its committed government, dynamic private sector, and high potential for agriculture-led growth, is at the forefront of this effort. In collaboration with partner countries, Feed the Future Accelerator will drive inclusive agricultural transformation while also contributing to regional trade and market linkages, supporting the development of a regional breadbasket.

In support of these efforts to fight hunger, today USAID and the Zambian government unveiled their collaborative Global Food Security Strategy, which recognizes the undeniable link between food security and external shocks like conflicts, trade disruptions, or extreme weather events. The strategy focuses on investments in drought-tolerant seeds, improved water management practices, and advanced weather forecasting. Incorporating such global best practices will expand market-led solutions to strengthen food systems and drive private agricultural sector growth, putting financial, digital, and productive tools into the hands of Zambian entrepreneurs. These measures aim to mitigate future risks and reduce the need for emergency assistance in the future, fostering long-term progress.

In addition to the funding to support Zambia as it responds to the current drought, USAID intends to provide $32.3 million to continue to build resilience across various sectors in Zambia. $11 million will go towards ongoing activities that support resilience, and $9.3 million will support new and ongoing water, sanitation, and hygiene programming. Macroeconomic stability also builds resilience, and $8.5 million was announced to help create the policy space to respond to and recover from shocks, and to support a policy environment that fuels job and income-generating business, trade, and investment. Finally, recognizing the role that good governance plays in a resilient society, USAID intends to provide $3.5 million to support public financial management reform priorities and domestic revenue mobilization. 

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

According to the latest UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) initiative, over half the population in Sudan – 25.6 million people – face “crisis or worse” conditions between now September 2024, coinciding with the lean season. Learn more about famine and the IPC’s five levels of food security in our explainer here.

Even worse, 755,000 people face phase five “catastrophic” conditions in 10 states, including in Greater Darfur as well as South and North Kordofan, Blue Nile, Al Jazira and Khartoum.

At the same time, 8.5 million people – 18 per cent of the population – now suffer from phase four “emergency” levels of food insecurity.

Warring generals

In the more than 14 months since rival militaries – the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces – unleashed their heavy weapons arsenals on one another amid rising tensions over a transition to civilian rule, the UN has repeatedly called for a ceasefire as the country’s capital, Khartoum, became a battleground and amid fears of atrocities in the Darfurs.

Despite multiple calls for a ceasefire to Generals Abdel-Fattah Burhan, head of the Sudanese military, and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, who heads the Rapid Support Forces, senior UN humanitarians have warned that the situation is only getting worse.

Conflict leaves country reeling

“We have received news of people eating leaves from trees; one mother cooked up dirt just to put something in her children’s stomach,” said Justin Brady, head of the UN emergency relief agency (OCHA) in Sudan, in an interview with UN News.

The risk of famine threatens residents, people uprooted by the war and refugees in no less than 14 areas covering Greater Darfur, Greater Kordofan, Al Jazira states and hotspots in Khartoum “if the conflict escalates further, including through increased mobilisation of local militias that further disrupt mobility, humanitarian assistance, market and livelihood activities”, the IPC assessment warned.

Responding to the IPC findings, three UN agency heads warned that the looming hunger catastrophe was “on a scale not seen since the Darfur crisis in the early 2000s”, a reference to years of brutal fighting and increasing atrocities there that left some 300,000 people dead and millions of others displaced.

Unlike the Darfur crisis then, today’s emergency spans the whole country, with catastrophic levels of hunger even reaching Khartoum and Gezira state, once Sudan’s breadbasket.

Daily struggle to eat

In an alert, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that “for half of Sudan’s war-battered population, every single day is a struggle to feed themselves and their families.”

The agency chiefs highlighted that this is the first time that catastrophic phase five conditions have been confirmed in Sudan since the IPC’s inception in 2004, while children bear the brunt of the “rapid deterioration” in food security that has been “torn apart” by 14 months of war between rival militaries.

The three agencies have repeatedly warned about the crisis and already mobilised a large-scale humanitarian response inside Sudan and in neighbouring countries, where more than two million refugees have sought safety.

End the fighting

“An immediate ceasefire and renewed international efforts, both diplomatic and financial, as well as unhindered and sustained humanitarian access are urgently needed to enable the humanitarian response to be further expanded and to allow the agencies to deliver at the speed needed,” they insisted.

This new data shows a stark deterioration in food security in Sudan compared with the last IPC report in December 2023, which showed 17.7 million people facing acute hunger, indicated by IPC phase three and higher.

This included nearly five million people in emergency levels of hunger (IPC phase four) whereas today’s assessment indicates that number to have risen to 8.5 million.

“The new IPC analysis revealed a deepening and rapid deterioration of the food security situation in Sudan with millions of people’s lives at risk,” said FAO Director-General QU Dongyu. “We are now delivering lifesaving seeds for the main planting season. The clock is ticking for Sudan’s farmers.”

FAO urgently requires $60 million to meet unfunded parts of its famine prevention plan to ensure that people, especially those in inaccessible areas, are able to produce food locally and avert food shortages in the next six months.

“We must act collectively, at scale, with unimpeded access, for the sake of millions of innocent lives hanging in the balance,” he said.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UN News.

Briefing ambassadors at the Security Council on the situation in the country, head of the UN mission Valentine Rugwabiza stated that the additional deployment also facilitated the delivery of humanitarian aid in the restive and hard-to-access Haut Mbomou region.

Bordering South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the region – which is larger than Switzerland – has been a hotspot of conflict due to its strategic importance and limited accessibility.

“Within a very short time, working closely with national and local authorities, local communities, and humanitarian partners, the mission is making tangible and transformative progress on the security, humanitarian and peacebuilding fronts in Haut Mbomou,” she said.

The expansion MINUSCA’s footprint there also paved the way for the extension of civilian authorities and CAR security forces through the ongoing rehabilitation of the Bangassou-Obo-Bambouti axis.

Mission background

The UN mission was established in September 2014, following a deadly flare up of inter-communal violence between the mainly Muslim Séléka groups and the mainly Christian anti-Balaka movement.

Its mandate includes protection of civilians as the “utmost priority”, alongside supporting humanitarian operations; protecting and promoting human rights; and the disarmament, demobilization, reintegration and repatriation of fighters from neighbouring countries.

A joint MINUSCA-CAR armed forces patrol in the Haut Mbomou prefecture. (file)© MINUSCA A joint MINUSCA-CAR armed forces patrol in the Haut Mbomou prefecture. (file)

Farmer-herder conflict

Recurrent political and security crises in the Central African Republic have made transhumance (seasonal changes in grazing patterns for animal herding communities) a trigger for violence.  

Ms. Rugwabiza referred to the recent killing of 16 civilians in Limé village, in the west of the country, due to conflict over land between local farmers and cattle owners.

The incident, she stressed, was a “stark reminder” of the urgent need to reverse the dynamics of violence and to reposition livestock farming and transhumance to help forge peaceful coexistence, stabilization and economic development.

Upcoming elections

Special Representative Rugwabiza further updated ambassadors on preparations for local elections, scheduled to take place in October for the first time in over 36 years.

She emphasized that MINUSCA will continue to provide multifaceted support to election preparations – a key provision of the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation in the CAR.

This includes through awareness-raising to mobilize broad and safe participation, particularly of women, she stated.

Fighting misinformation

In her briefing, Ms. Rugwabiza voiced deep concern over the “continuous campaign” of mis and dis-information which are a threat to MINUSCA personnel and the mission’s objectives.

This, she said, “further complicates” an already challenging environment for peacekeepers.

“I call on the Government to hold accountable identified individuals, including public servants, channelling and echoing such campaigns which … constrain the mission’s ability to implement tasks mandated by the [Security] Council and requested by CAR national authorities,” she added.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of UN News.