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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in Zimbabwe in the early years of the 21st Century. Some of
these links may lead to websites that present allegations that are
unsubstantiated, misleading or even false. No attempt has been
made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspects of poverty are of particular interest to
you. You might be interested in
exploring the relationship between distribution of labor and per-capita GDP,
for example. Perhaps your paper could
focus on life expectancy or infant mortality.
Other factors of interest might be unemployment, literacy, access to
basic services, etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include some of the possible outgrowths of poverty
such as Human Trafficking,
Street Children,
or even Prostitution. There is a lot to the subject of
Poverty. Scan other countries as well
as this one. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. *** Extreme Weather *** Despite receiving
average rainfall in late December and early January, Zimbabwe experienced a
catastrophic dry spell lasting more than 30 days in February 2024. An estimated population of 6 million people
is expected to be food insecure during the 2024-2025 lean season
(January to March). The current El
Niño-induced drought is likely to impact food and nutrition security,
reducing food access and diversity. Water Insecurity: The drought exacerbates existing
socio-economic vulnerabilities, especially in rural communities reliant on
rain-fed agriculture. Water shortages are
expected to worsen, exposing 2.6 million people to water insecurity. Even before the drought, 35% of rural
households had inadequate access to water services, and 45% had to travel
more than half a kilometer to fetch water.
Zimbabwe is already
battling a cholera outbreak linked to poor water, hygiene, and sanitation
services. The outbreak originated in
February 2023 and remains active in more than 50 districts. – adapted
from Microsoft BING Copilot World
Bank Climate & Develoment Reports Zimbabwe Country Climate and Development Report, World Bank Group, 29 Feb 2024 [accessed 9 Dec 2024] Zimbabwe
is a lower middle-income country with abundant natural capital and growth
potential, but is highly exposed to climate change, with its immediate
ability to address climate challenges severely constrained. People in
Zimbabwe are increasingly reliant on successive rounds of emergency relief
rather than a formal government safety net. Macroeconomic constraints,
deindustrialization, and land reform have combined to increase dependency on
agricultural livelihoods and push up emissions from land use change. The
macroeconomic constraints pose a double bind in which the inability to
finance development, climate adaptation, and mitigation is leading to
increased land degradation, higher net emissions, and less resilience. This
Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) identifies a path out of this
double bind by linking demand from global green value chains to Zimbabwe’s
significant reserves of energy transition minerals (ETMs), such as lithium
needed for electric vehicles, in a way that: (i)
enables public and private sectors to invest in resilient low-carbon
development; (ii) finances capital accumulation that could be deployed to
support at-scale land restoration and increases agricultural productivity;
and (iii) expands resilience-building social safety nets to protect the most
vulnerable, helping them adapt to the expected increase in cyclical weather
shocks. *** ARCHIVES *** The World Factbook - Zimbabwe U.S. Central Intelligence Agency CIA www.cia.gov/library/publications/resources/the-world-factbook/geos/zi.html World Factbook
website has moved to ---> www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/zimbabwe/ [accessed 11 January 2021] ECONOMIC OVERVIEW - depends heavily
on mining and agriculture; mineral prices, infrastructure, regulatory
deficiencies, poor investment climate, large public and external debt burden,
and extremely high government wage expenses impede economic performance GDP -
per capita (PPP): $2,300 (2017
est.) Labor
force - by occupation: agriculture:
67.5% industry:
7.3% services: 25.2% (2017 est.) Unemployment
rate: 11.3% (2014
est.) Population
below poverty line: 72.3% (2017
est.) Maternal
mortality rate: 458
deaths/100,000 live births (2017 est.) Infant
mortality rate: total: 30.3
deaths/1,000 live births Life expectancy
at birth: total population: 62.3 years Drinking
water source: improved: total: 77.3% of
population Physicians
density: 2.99 physicians/1,000 population (2014) Sanitation
facility access: improved: total: 64.2% of
population Electricity
access: electrification - total population: 34% (2016) The
Borgen Project - Zimbabwe borgenproject.org/category/zimbabwe/ [accessed 15 February 2021] The Borgen Project works with U.S. leaders to utilize the
United States’ platform behind efforts toward improving living conditions for
the world’s poor. It is an innovative,
national campaign that is working to make poverty a focus of U.S. foreign
policy. It believes that leaders of
the most powerful nation on earth should be doing more to address global
poverty. From ending segregation to providing women with the right to vote,
nearly every wrong ever righted in history was achieved through advocacy. The
Borgen Project addresses the big picture, operating
at the political level advancing policies and programs that improve living
conditions for those living on less than $1 per day. ~
3 Ways The Un Is Helping Zimbabwe Provide Better Health Care For All borgenproject.org/zimbabwe-provide-better-health-care-for-all/ ~
Disability And Poverty In Zimbabwe borgenproject.org/disability-and-poverty-in-zimbabwe/ ~
Humanitarian Crisis In Zimbabwe borgenproject.org/humanitarian-crisis-in-zimbabwe/ ~
Covid-19 Affects Zimbabwe And Its Water Supply borgenproject.org/covid-19-affects-zimbabwe/ ~
Innovations In Poverty Eradication In Zimbabwe borgenproject.org/innovations-in-poverty-eradication-in-zimbabwe/ ~
Nespresso Helps Zimbabwean Coffee Production borgenproject.org/zimbabwean-coffee-production/ Zimbabwe committed to ending hunger and poverty – President Harare Bureau, Chronicle, 2 July 2021 www.chronicle.co.zw/zimbabwe-committed-to-ending-hunger-and-poverty-president/ [accessed 4 July 2021] Towards
sustaining agricultural production and productivity, the President said
Zimbabwe has made various key interventions that will increase output and
ensure food security. “This
has led to the prioritisation of climate-proofed
production and productivity, with regards to climate change mitigation and
adaptation. Equally, enhancing sustainable production and productivity in
maize, traditional grains and soya beans, along with the associated value
chains development, remain high on the agenda. Hunger and poverty make young girls sell their bodies Jeffrey Moyo,D+C Development and Cooperation, 15 February 2021 www.dandc.eu/en/article/zimbabwe-seeing-spike-child-prostitution-poverty-and-hunger-spread [accessed 15 February 2021] As Zimbabwe’s
economic crisis deepens, the country is seeing an increase in child
prostitution, sometimes involving girls as young as 12. Hungry
and desperate child prostitutes are appearing on streets all over the
country, not only in mining towns. They ply their trade in in the capital
Harare and in remote border towns frequented by long-distance truckers. Many of
the girls have dropped out of school, as their families cannot pay school
fees. In 2019, about 60% of Zimbabwe’s children in primary school were sent
home for failing to pay fees, according to the Zimbabwe Vulnerability
Assessment Committee. Others, like Tracy and Melisa, have been orphaned. Action
Against Hunger - Zimbabwe www.actionagainsthunger.org/countries/africa/zimbabwe [accessed 21 March 2021] Many
Zimbabweans suffer from malnutrition coupled with HIV/AIDS infections, but
the country’s massively deteriorated public health system is not properly equipped
to handle this double threat. Since Action Against Hunger started in Zimbabwe
in 2002, we have committed to integrating HIV and AIDS education and
treatment in all of the programs that we conduct. Approximately 70% of
patients diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition also have HIV/AIDS, and our
nutrition programs are specifically designed to treat this particularly
vulnerable group. In
Zimbabwe, 3.6% of children children under five are
acutely malnourished and 1.6% suffer from severe
acute malnutrition, the deadliest form of hunger. In 2019, food insecurity
increased sharply following several destructive economic and climatic shocks.
The agricultural sector suffered heavy losses due to Cyclone Idai and droughts caused by the El Nino climate phenomenon.
Because of the current disastrous agricultural and macro-economic situation,
38% of Zimbabweans were in need of urgent humanitarian assistance in Autumn
2019. The
World Bank in Zimbabwe www.worldbank.org/en/country/zimbabwe/overview [accessed 21 April 2021] The
World Bank’s lending program in Zimbabwe is inactive due to arrears and the
role is now limited to technical assistance and analytical work through Trust
Funds. Hunger forces Zim girls into forced marriages [Category – Forced
Marriage] ZimOnline, Mutare, Zimbabwe, May 17 2006 www.mg.co.za/article/2006-05-17-hunger-forces-zim-girls-into-forced-marriages [accessed 17 January
2011] wunrn.com/2006/05/zimbabwe-girls-forced-marriages-hunger-rights/ [accessed 19 January
2020] Faced with
starvation after six years of poor harvests, Zimbabweans are resorting to
centuries-old traditions of "forced marriages", known in the local
Shona language as "kuzvarira", for
survival. Looking back a few years … Advameg, Inc., Encyclopedia of the Nations www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Zimbabwe-ECONOMY.html [accessed 12 January 2021] Problems
abound, with an inflation rate of over 100% and the unemployment rate above
60% in 2001. A small white elite continues to
dominate economic resources, but repatriation of white farms caused the
flight of white capital in 2000, and by 2003, the land reform program had
created chaos and violence. Inflation seriously threatened the gold mining
and tobacco industries. High
budget deficits, inflation, and the HIV/AIDS pandemic prevent economic
stability. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT
COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Prof. Martin
Patt, "Poverty - Zimbabwe", http://gvnet.com/poverty/Zimbabwe.htm,
[accessed <date>] |
