Zimbabwe‘s humanitarian disaster is far worse than anticipated with only six percent of the population formally employed and more than half in need of emergency food aid, a UN report said Thursday.

Fewer than half a million Zimbabweans have jobs, while nearly seven million need emergency aid, UN agencies said in the latest stark illustration of the once-vibrant economy’s collapse.

The new grim estimate by the World Food Programme means that more than half of Zimbabwe‘s 12 million people do not have enough to eat, WFP regional spokesman Richard Lee told AFP.

The UN food agency had in June estimated that 5.1 million Zimbabweans would need aid by January, but the actual figure has proved to be 35 percent higher.

“The economic situation has worsened more dramatically than we had anticipated,” Lee said.

The crisis has deteriorated so quickly that the agency is being forced to halve the cereal rations given to hungry Zimbabweans so that all the people in need can receive aid, he added.

The WFP now plans to feed 5.1 million people, while other agencies will feed an additional 1.8 million people, Lee said.

“Basically the situation has deteriorated since we did the estimate in May and June 2008.

“Since then the economic situation has worsened more dramatically than we had anticipated,” he said. “On top of that, the government has not imported as much food as anticipated.”

Because of the increase in the number of hungry people, cereal rations will be cut to five kilos (11 pounds) per person per month, he said.

The normal ration is 12 kilos per month, but that was reduced months ago to 10 kilos in a bid to stretch the agency’s resources, he added. Beneficiaries also receive beans and cooking oil.

Food aid is being distributed in every district in the country, Lee said, as the crisis hits both the urban population — which does not have enough money to buy food — and poor farmers who have not been able to grow enough to eat.

In the cities, the crisis is compounded by the dearth of employment prospects and the struggles of living with the world’s highest inflation rate, last estimated in July at 231 million percent but now believed to be far higher.

“At close of 2008, only six percent of the population was formally employed, down from 30 percent in 2003,” the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report.

Out of the country’s 12 million people, only 480,000 have formal jobs, down from 3.6 million in 2003, it said.

OCHA released the data in an appeal for 35 agencies working in the country, seeking 550 million US dollars (420 million euros) to provide food aid and other assistance.

The economy has shrunk by more than 45 percent over the past five years, leaving half of Zimbabwe‘s urban population relying on remittances from friends and family overseas, the report said.

An estimated three million Zimbabweans have fled the country’s economic and political instability, and are now supporting their families with both cash and food.

The local Zimbabwe dollar is now worthless. Even small purchases require a 100,000,000,000,000 dollar bill, and currency itself is in short supply.

The economic collapse has also made it difficult for aid agencies to work in Zimbabwe, OCHA added, citing high prices for supplies, troubles ensuring payment of salaries, spotty access to food for staff and fuel shortages.

Adding to Zimbabwe‘s woes are consecutive years of drought and a land reform programme launched in 2000, in which some mostly 4,000 white-owned commercial farms were seized and redistributed to blacks.

The scheme has punched a gapping hole in agricultural production, which once accounted for 40 percent of the economy, as most of the new beneficiaries lack both farming equipment and expertise.

(Source)