The change in deprivation trends from 2009 to 2010 corroborates the survey indications that Zimbabweans’ lives have been improving over a broad front. However, life remains far from rosy. 50% in 2010 report that in the preceding year (December 2009 to December 2010) they or someone in their families had at times gone without enough food to eat, 43% did not always have enough clean water for home use, and 48% lacked good access to cooking fuel. On all three these fronts, however, there were substantial improvements compared with their reports of September 2009. When respondents were asked [Q5A; Q5B] in open-ended questions to identify the first and second most important problems facing Zimbabwe ‘today’, unemployment emerged as the most serious, by far. Thereafter came the shortage of foreign currency, food shortages, bad governance and political instability, and shortages of agricultural implements and production. Additional issues, emerging from the listing of second most important problems, were the expensive nature and poor quality of education and health care. 28