03 | THE RESULTS – DELIVERY BY SECTORS
NOURISHING ZIMBABWE
Agriculture has always been vulnerable to flooding and drought, but such disasters are now increas- ing in frequency and intensity as a direct result of climate change. In 2023, the OPEC Fund provided US$59 million to the agriculture and fisheries sectors in partner countries worldwide.
Zimbabwe, a landlocked country in southern Africa between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers, has been home to humanity for at least 500,000 years. Once known as the “bread basket of Africa”, with its farms produc- ing around 10 percent of African wheat and maize in the 1970s and 1980s, the country has since fallen on troubled times. Driven by years of hyperinflation, hunger and poverty go hand in hand: Between 2017 and 2019 the number of extreme poor rose from 4.5 to 6 million people — well over a third of the population. By 2020, 7 million people needed humanitarian support, according to the UN-sponsored Zimbabwe Humanitarian Response Plan. Several recent disasters linked to extreme variations in rainfall have deepened the problems of the poorest, particularly for women, youth, children and people with disabilities living in the countryside. Fewer than 30 percent of rural households are food secure, compared to around 60 percent of urban households, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). To address this shortfall, in October 2023 the OPEC Fund signed a US$15 million loan to support the Horticulture Enterprise Enhancement Project (HEEP). Co-financed for a total value of US$66.5 million with the govern- ment, private sector and the International Fund for Agriculture Develop- ment (IFAD), the project is helping to cut poverty across the national and local economies by ramping up horticulture production, creating jobs and climate-proofing public infrastructure. The HEEP project will benefit more than 70,000 smallholder farmer house- holds, including around 2,000 persons with disabilities (identified through local community organizations), as well as a further 50,000 households living in the vicinity of HEEP activities. These vulnerable people will soon enjoy improved road access to district centers, marketplaces and health and education services.
KHALED AL-ZAYER OPEC Fund Director for East and Southern Africa
Through the financing of HEEP, the OPEC Fund will significantly contrib- ute to improving the livelihoods of 71,000 smallholder farmer house- holds in Zimbabwe while further strengthening our cooperation with the country.
Zimbabwe was once known as the “bread basket of Africa”
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