AMBASSADOR HALL SURVEYS EMPTY BREADBASKET

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 001155

SIPDIS

AF/S FOR B. NEULING
SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVILLE
ROME PLEASE PASS TO FODAG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/19/2015
TAGS: EAID ECON PGOV PHUM PREL ZI
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR HALL SURVEYS EMPTY BREADBASKET

REF: HARARE 001019

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i. Eric T Schultz under Section 1.4
b/d

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Summary
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1. (C) During his August 11-13 visit to Zimbabwe, Ambassador
Tony Hall witnessed firsthand the food insecurity caused by
the GOZ,s misguided agricultural policies and recurring
drought, and the destruction caused by Operation Restore
Order. UN representatives told Ambassador Hall a GOZ appeal
for direct aid was unlikely but WFP had included 300,000 MT
for Zimbabwe in its regional appeal for southern Africa. The
WFP told Ambassador Hall that as many as 5 million people
could need food assistance this year. The FAO told
Ambassador Hall that Zimbabwe had been importing enough food
over the past two months to cover the shortfall, but
questioned the sustainability of this trend given the
economy,s marked decline. Ambassador Hall spoke to some
Restore Order victims who told him they were in &survival
mode.8 However, he was denied entry to another set of
victims at Hopely Farm, south of Harare. In a statement
issued before his departure (emailed to AF/S),Ambassador
Hall announced that the United States was donating $51.8
million, or 73,500 MT of food assistance, to the WFP,s
appeal for southern Africa. End Summary.

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UN Agencies Paint Bleak Picture
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2. (C) Ambassador Hall began his three-day visit with a
briefing by UN agencies on their humanitarian response to
Zimbabwe,s on-going food insecurity as well as their efforts
to provide relief to the victims of Operation Restore Order.
UNDP Resrep Agostinho Zacarias noted that the GOZ was
lukewarm about humanitarian activities and was suspicious of
the international community, especially international NGOs,
which it believed had a ®ime change8 agenda. This made
conducting relief efforts very difficult, in particular it
had impeded humanitarian access to Zimbabweans in need.
Nonetheless, the needs in the country were real and the UN
and its sister agencies were committed to working with the
GOZ to address them.


3. (C) Zacharias said that in addition to food assistance
activities, the UN was working with the GOZ on a humanitarian
response to Operation Restore Order. The UN and the GOZ had
created two joint working groups to coordinate the response.
He said he hoped that the experience of working together
would lead to greater cooperation in the future. The UN and
the GOZ were finalizing a joint &flash8 appeal to assist
the victims of Operation Restore Order, which should be
released soon. The appeal would be for USD 30 million
through the end of the year and would address the need for
shelter, food, water, and sanitation. He said the government
had agreed to allocate plots of land with security of tenure
to displaced families and that IOM planned to provide tents
to these families until new homes could be built.


4. (C) WFP Country Director Kevin Farrell repeated earlier
WFP reports to Ambassador Hall that a direct GOZ request for
food assistance was unlikely. Farrell said WFP had
reluctantly accepted this reality and had folded Zimbabwe,s
needs into a reworked regional appeal for southern Africa
that totals 745,000 MT. Of the 300,000 MT envisioned for
Zimbabwe, Farrell reported that WFP had already secured
70,000 MT. However, the pipeline would run dry in October
and more pledges were needed. He told the Ambassador that
the lack of a formal GOZ aid request was not hampering
operations and that WFP and the GOZ were close to an
agreement that would allow WFP,s traditional NGO partners to
distribute food assistance without interference. WFP
Regional Director Michael Sackett reported that Zimbabwe had
the region,s most pressing food situation, but acknowledged
that GOZ stonewalling and chronic food needs in neighboring
Malawi, Zambia, and southern Mozambique could dampen donor
enthusiasm for aiding Zimbabwe.


5. (C) Farrell told Ambassador Hall that the GOZ,s food
security assessment had indicated that 2.9 million people, or
36 percent of the rural population, would need assistance.
However, he said the assessment was based on unrealistically
optimistic assumptions (reftel). WFP had relaxed the
assumptions and produced a higher estimate of 5 million
people needing food, or 62 percent of the rural population.


6. (C) The UN representatives collectively questioned the
GOZ,s ability to finance food imports, given the country,s
economic deterioration and foreign exchange shortages. FAO
Country Director Geoffrey Mrema cited South African data that
show grain exports to Zimbabwe measured 210,121 MT between
May 1 and July 22, in addition to estimated imports of 20,000
MT from Mozambique during the same period. Mrema, however,
questioned whether these imports, which average 19,200 MT per
week, were sustainable.


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Viewing Restore Order,s Devastation
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7. (C) Ambassador Hall visited Hatcliff Farm, a
residential area outside Harare that had been destroyed by
Operation Restore Order, on August 11. During the 1990s, the
area was used to resettle people from one of Harare,s worst
slums. A joint World Bank/USAID program had provided the
area with water and sanitation infrastructure. The GOZ
provided residents valid leases for the land at the time of
resettlement. Despite these legal documents, the houses were
bulldozed and their occupants forcibly removed. Residents
told the Ambassador how police with dogs arrived without
notice to drive them out. After a USAID protest, some people
have been allowed to return. However, residents told
Ambassador Hall they were in &survival mode,8 without
shelter, warm clothing, food, or access to water and
sanitation during the coldest months of Zimbabwe,s winter.


8. (C) On his last day in country, August 13, Ambassador
Hall also attempted to visit Hopely Farm, a holding camp run
by the military for people displaced by Operation Restore
Order. However, he was denied entry, ostensibly because IOM
had failed to secure the necessary permission from the
Ministry of Information for the visit to proceed.
Ironically, while negotiating with the individuals in charge
of the camp, Ambassador Hall watched a truck off-loading U.S.
food assistance. The Ambassador was told in confidence by
someone at the site that conditions were grim and that &old
people8 were dying at the camp.

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NGOs Report Government Obstruction
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9. (C) During a USAID-hosted roundtable, Ambassador Hall
heard from NGOs a laundry list of government obstructionism
that has hampered their relief operations. C-Safe, a
consortium of relief NGOs operating in southern Africa,
reported that it had more than 10,000 MT of food destined for
Zimbabwe sitting in Durban awaiting GOZ clearance. Some NGOs
reported they had failed for the past year to get import
permits. (N.B. USAID plans to relay details of these import
difficulties to Minister Goche, who said he was unaware of
any problems but promised during his meeting with Ambassador
Hall that his staff would look into them.) The NGOs noted
the GOZ also complicated distribution within Zimbabwe; one
group reported that in the past year it had been able to
distribute only half of its 20,000 MT stock.

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Mutare Visit Highlights UN Successes
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10. (SBU) On August 12, Ambassador Hall and his delegation
traveled to eastern Zimbabwe to visit examples of successful
WFP and FAO projects that address the needs of persons living
with or affected by HIV and AIDS. At the first location near
Mutare, the Ambassador saw WFP and American NGO Africare
distribute food to more than 3,000 families, often through
home care givers because the family members were too ill to
travel to the distribution location. Ambassador Hall
accompanied one care-giver who was delivering rations to a
widow and to an orphan who was caring for four younger
siblings. Ambassador Hall then traveled to an FAO project
near Rusape that helped farmers grow vegetables by providing
drip irrigation kits, a technology originally pioneered in
Zimbabwe by USAID.

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Comment
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11. (C) The GOZ,s ability to scrape together enough foreign
exchange to pay for food imports remains the question of the
day, especially as the hunger season of September through
April approaches and local and WFP reserves dwindle. What is
unfortunately clear after the Ambassador,s visit is that
only a major interruption in food imports would cause the GOZ
to ask for aid directly. The Ambassador,s visit did help
demonstrate to the Zimbabwean people U.S. resolve to provide
assistance to them via WFP,s regional appeal and smaller,
but nonetheless important bilateral deliveries, regardless of
their own government,s irresponsible behavior.


12. (U) USUN Rome cleared this message.
SCHULTZ