- Zimbabwe was the 18th largest recipient of official humanitarian assistance in 2011 (GlobalHumanitarianAssistance)
The US government was the highest donor of humanitarian aid for Zimbabwe in 2011, with a donation of 69.7 million USD. The country is vulnerable to food crisis and drought, and with a government that under-invests in health care, disease and illness are still very high.
The United Nations World Food Program is working to provide relief to "food-insecure" households in Zimbabwe, ensuring that undernourished people in Zimbabwe have access to food. Their highest assistance to Zimbabwe occurred in early 2009, when hyper-inflation and a crumbling economy left many people unable to access adequate food.
More than just feeding hungry people, the program is now focusing upon helping Zimbabwe to develop, including " Food for Assets programme where community members receive food while they work on projects (such as irrigation schemes or water harvesting) that improve their ability to cope with recurrent drought and other shocks."
Because the economic crisis has lessened since its peak in 2009, the organization is "moving from a ‘Hunger Response’ to a ‘Hunger Solutions’-based approach". This not only provides relief to people in the country, but also offers a more sustainable solution to the many problems Zimbabwe faces with regards to hunger, and gives them the chance to increase development.
The program aids the people of Zimbabwe by helping them to access food when they are unable to or cannot afford to; however, by itself it has only a very small impact on growth and development. While it makes some attempt to account for a sustainable effect on Zimbabwe's development, it doesn't have enough currently set up to really impact Zimbabwe's development in an impactful way. Despite this, the program is still supplying a lot of food and relief to people in need, so regardless of its long term impact, it is astill a valuable and worthwhile program. If it continues down the route of looking for more sustainable solutions, it could begin to have a larger impact.