The Zimbabwe economy is in a state of prolonged crisis provoked by massive mismanagement and corruption as well as the devastating impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic: 25 percent of adults aged 15-49 are HIV positive.8 The country’s main macroeconomic problems include an annual inflation rate of 258.4 percent,9 declining GDP, high domestic debt, an unemployment rate of 80 percent, an overvalued exchange rate, persistent foreign currency shortages and weak investor confidence.10 The economic crisis has led to increasing poverty and food insecurity.11 In 2000, the government of Zimbabwe embarked on a controversial land reform program which led to the forced displacement of thousands of farm owners and farm workers, and according to economic analysts, worsened the economy and helped create acute food shortages.12 In the months after the March 2005 elections, there were a number of peaceful protests by men and women in some urban and rural areas around the country against economic conditions and food shortages. In the process, police arrested scores of people and charged them with violating the Public Order and Security Act.13 Urbanization and the housing crisis The failure of the government to introduce effective policies that would benefit the poor has led to disillusionment in both the rural and urban areas.14 Harsh economic policies in recent years have led to an increase in informal urban settlements as people have been unable to access much needed but expensive housing in the formal sector.15 Increasing unemployment in the rural and urban areas in the past five years—as the economy has 8 UNAIDS datasheet, http://www.unaids.org/en/geographical+area/by+country/zimbabwe.asp accessed August 31, 2005. 9 The Herald Online, “Record inflation rise,” August 18, 2005. 10 IMF Country Report No: 04/297, September 2004. 11 World Development Indicators database, April 2005. 12 Human Rights Watch report, “Fast track land reform in Zimbabwe,” March 2002; United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator, “An overview of vulnerability within the newly resettled commercial farming areas,” November 2003. 13 The Daily Mirror, “Food protests at Chief’s homestead,” May 23, 2005; Human Rights telephone interview with Police Officer, Insiza, May 22, 2005; The Daily Mirror, “Residents demonstrate over water shortages,” May 13, 2005. 14 Human Rights Watch interview with Thomas Deve, economic analyst, Harare June 25, 2005. See also Dashwood, H.S. “Zimbabwe: The Political Economy of Transformation, 2000.” 15 Ibid. 7