A team from Refugees International will travel to Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa to assess the extent of the food crisis and whether it is beginning to trigger migration and displacement.

The crisis in Malawi results from a number of factors: chronic poverty, reliance on a single crop, the decision to sell off grain reserves, unfavorable weather conditions, and a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. There is inadequate household food access due to low-income levels and higher than normal prices. This will limit household ability to purchase food even when it is available. For the majority of the rural population, this crisis is as profound as any to be seen in the countries of southern Africa in recent decades.

Current levels of food insecurity in Zimbabwe are the result of a continuing and substantial deterioration in the macro-economy of the country over the 1990s, recent climatic factors, a broad disruption in the patterns of national food production due to “fast track” land reform activities, and more recent events of civil disturbance. The worst-affected by these factors have been vulnerable rural populations in chronically food-deficit areas in the south, west and extreme north of the country, the urban poor, who are entirely dependent on the market to meet their food needs, and commercial farm worker families.