IMPACT OF HUMANITARIAN AID ON FOOD SECURITY IN RURAL COMMUNITIES IN ZIMBABWE: THE CASE OF WARD 14 AND 15 OF BUHERA DISTRICT

Abstract

The study was assessing the impact of humanitarian aid on food security in the rural communities in Zimbabwe. The Case of ward 14 and 15 of Buhera District. The study was conducted to assess how humanitarian aid contribute or address food access, availability and stability in Zimbabwe. Humanitarian aid is being used as a panacea to alleviate hunger to the food insecure communities. It examined whether the humanitarian aid given to the communities is being used for food security purposes or not. The research used a qualitative approach to explore the topic under study. Questionnaires, focus group discussion and interviews were used to gather data from the respondents. On sampling, purposive sampling method was used to obtain data from participants who were humanitarian aid beneficiaries, humanitarian aid workers and key informants from council. The major findings of the study revealed that the use of humanitarian aid in form of food alone to address food insecurity is just a pipedream. No humanitarian aid beneficiary confirms that he/she was food secure. Humanitarian aid is contributing to food access in the short term but in the long or medium term it is not. Though the use of humanitarian aid accompanied with developmental programs and resilient programs, the community and humanitarian aid workers admitted that it has potential in addressing food insecurity. The study also noted that there are challenges associated with using humanitarian aid to address food insecurity in rural communities. The challenges are emanating from the community's perceptions and some from the perceptions of the donors. To mention some of the challenges are dependency syndrome, corruption, social problems like conflicts, and no initiatives in the communities. Major recommendations are that humanitarian organizations should fund irrigation schemes to enhance food availability, they should be involved in capacity building, they should invest in research, monitoring and evaluating their projects so that they will bring the aid which is relevant to the place and time. They should come up with programs which are sustainable so that the humanitarian aid addresses food insecurity in rural communities.