FOOD security initiative, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (Fews Net), has projected urban household purchasing power to remain constrained between October to May 2025, owing to shrinking incomes.
According to Fews Net, this year’s drought, poor macro-economic and market conditions continue to drive acute food insecurity concerns in Zimbabwe.
The macro-economic conditions are driven by the Zimbabwe Gold’s (ZiG) volatility and devaluation, which has seen significant increases in the prices of goods and services.
In its new outlook for the October 2024 to May 2025 period, Fews Net said these challenges had significantly impacted urban areas.
Further, it noted that prices in United States dollars were also rising over the last few months, owing to reported shortages of foreign currency in formal markets.
These dynamics have led to high and above-normal food, fuel and transportation costs.
“Similar to rural areas, no meaningful improvements in food security outcomes are expected in urban areas throughout the lean season as poor households’ purchasing power will likely remain constrained throughout the outlook period as a result of…,” Fews Net said.
“. . . below-normal household incomes, below-normal in-kind remittances from rural families and friends, below-normal own-produced food stocks, and above-normal prices of goods and services in both the local currency and USD/ZAR.
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“Poor households are likely to continue to engage in coping strategies (for example, skipping meals, reducing portion sizes, eating less preferred foods, borrowing to buy food, or purchasing by credit, labour migration, selling of productive assets) indicative of Crisis (IPC Phase 3).”
The initiative showed that poor households are now buying small quantities of repackaged food commodities for one or a few meals at a time.
Meanwhile, households are borrowing money to buy food with limited ability to pay them back or resorting to selling productive assets.
Fews Net, however, expects that as near to normal 2024/25 harvests were anticipated beginning in April, this would avail own-produced urban and peri-urban food stocks.
“All urban areas are currently experiencing Crisis (IPC Phase 3) outcomes. Many urban and peri-urban households have access to small plots of land, where they typically produce some food crops. However, due to the drought, own-produced food stocks are not available this year, and neither are food crop remittances sent from rural relatives to urban areas,” it said.
“Incomes for most poor households are below normal, constraining access to markets amid above-average, increasing prices. Petty trade/vending and other self-employment activities are prevalent, but incomes earned from these activities are limited by high competition and low demand.”
Fews Net added high costs of housing rentals (exclusively in USD/ZAR), transportation, and other utility costs that were putting additional pressure on food access for poor households.
“Most poor households are relying on informal markets to meet their food needs, where goods, though cheaper than in formal retail shops, are sold exclusively in foreign currency (USD/ZAR),” Fews Net said.
“This disadvantages households earning in local currency, who must convert their ZiG earnings at premium rates to be able to buy using USD/ZAR, reducing their potential purchasing power.”
Fews Net said despite the use of these coping strategies, food consumption remained inadequate among poor households.
