Contents Recommendations Part One: A. Heat and hunger: October in Matabeleland 1. Donor plans for Feeding of Vulnerable Groups 2011‐12 2. Rainfall predictions – implications for planting 3. Free and subsidized inputs for 2011 – 2012 growing season: Not too little, but too late? 4. Lack of coordination within government B. Matabeleland: socio‐economic context 2011 1. The national economic context 2. Overview of Zimbabwe economy: 1980 – 2010 3. Bulawayo and deindustrialization 4. DIMAF Part Two: A. The GPA and the human rights situation, October 2011 B. Matabeleland South: Findings of food security survey, October 2011 1. Methodology 2. October follow up 3. Summary of findings i. Demographics ii. Food security iii. Available but unaffordable iv. Additional food information v. Water security vi. Livestock vii. Barter trading viii. Harvests, 2011 and 2012 ix. General interviewee perceptions of economic status C. The Diaspora – who is out there and what do they send back? 1. Year of Diasporisation 2. Home visits by family in the Diaspora 3. Remittances 6 7 7 7 9 9 12 13 13 14 15 19 21 21 22 22 22 22 22 23 24 25 26 28 30 31 32 33 34 34 34 Photographs Cover photo: A pregnant woman stands in her empty kitchen, rural Gwanda, October 2011.“No food, no work, no money. If only I could get cattle to help me plough.” 11 Photos 1 /2: Gwanda district, 27 October 2011: this family painstakingly gathers up maize seeds for planting, that have leaked from a passing truck on to the road. Will these be their only timely “free inputs” for 2011/12? Photo 3: Empty silos, abandoned processing plant – “Red Seal” food company 16 in Bulawayo, one of many closed businesses. Photo 4: Once, these train tracks brought raw materials to this factory and carried away finished goods for export. Bulawayo industrial site, October 2011. Photos 5, 6: The only functioning borehole in the target area, with 85% of people 27 4 16