ActionAid International Southern Africa Partnership Programme (SAPP-Zimbabwe) 4. CONCLUSIONS The foregoing sections clearly demonstrate the overall negative effect of Operation Murambatsvina has had on residents of the six areas surveyed, mainly in the high density suburbs. The destruction of accommodation building has resulted in both increased pressure on houses that exist as well as the disintegration of families. The disruptive nature of the Operation has resulted in a large number of children missing school. Furthermore, rentals have also increased substantially in the last 3 months. Informal livelihoods were the main source of income for the majority of respondents. The actions taken by the GoZ towards the destruction of the informal sector so as to legitimise it, has crippled many households. This has resulted in many households claiming that they had become food insecure, have limited income, lost shelter, property, increased vulnerability to children, deterioration of health, orphans and women, physical safety of the household being compromised. Evidence from the value projected lost as a result of the Operation are flightily high, and as such remedial channels need to be explored to restore normalcy. On HIV and AIDS, it is clear that a large number of households had been affected by the Operation. Loss of access to health facilities, treatment (ARVs) and community based care had also been affected. The net effect is continued suffering for HIV and AIDS patients. Furthermore, the precarious food security situation of HIV positive individuals further drives them into a desperate situation, and ultimately a reduction in the years they will probably live. Assistance being received by affected communities remains sub-optimal and at times inappropriate to say the least. Social and safety networks have been shown to be exhausted and require urgent complementation. Areas of need have been identified by the communities and the most vulnerable by sector have also been discussed. 5. EMERGING ISSUES Emerging issues The aforementioned statistics suggests that each category needs to be look at from a needs position remedial action as soon as possible to ameliorate continued suffering of the sample households. National impact of Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order It is important that all stakeholders and the GoZ recognise the large number of people affected by the operation that still reside in urban areas. Estimates of over a million individuals detail the scale of need, this represent almost a tenth of Zimbabwe’s population. Assistance towards Harare should be prioritised as Harare accounted for more than 70% of those affected by the operation. Traditionally emergency support has targeted the rural areas. The urban emergency relief programming required in this instance is urgent and critical. Vulnerability categories and proportions documented in this report closely mimic those found in rural areas. Therefore, urban dwellers are equally susceptible to livelihood and food security failure as a result of the Operation. The displacement of affected communities has raised some critical questions around the effectiveness of the national response to the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Prevention efforts have been compromised by the destruction of tuck-shops and other informal sales points, which were a major sales and access point for condoms. The VCT component has also been highly compromised as people are not likely to opt for testing Zimbabwe Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order National Survey Report 30