A/HRC/43/44/Add.2 60. The Special Rapporteur visited one of the settlements located in Chiko, in the south of Harare. Approximately 5,000 people were living in inhumane conditions without any infrastructure, jobs, hope or help. One resident told her: “I do not think the Government even knows we exist.” All reported that they were not able to afford more than one meal a day, mostly consisting of sadza. 61. The Special Rapporteur also received disturbing information that public hospitals had been reaching out to humanitarian organizations after their own food stocks were exhausted and medical equipment no longer operational. She observed the failure of the health system when she visited Parirenyatwa Hospital, which was nearly empty, because of a doctors’ strike against their low wages and lack of resources. 62. The most vulnerable segments of society, including the elderly, children and women, are forced to rely upon coping mechanisms such as school dropout, early marriage and the sex trade to obtain food, behavioural patterns that are often accompanied by domestic violence. This kind of struggle for subsistence affects their physical well-being and creates behaviour and conditions that violate their most fundamental human rights. C. Adequacy: acute malnutrition 63. The country’s food production dramatically decreased with consequences on the nutrition and diet of Zimbabweans, which severely lacks diversity and remains largely dependent on maize. Despite the Government’s intentions to diversify agricultural production and encourage the culture of traditional seeds, including millet, groundnuts or round nuts, the Special Rapporteur observed that the vast majority of public expenditure on seeds in 2018 and 2019 had been channelled towards the production and import of maize. Subsidies were also used to encourage the maize sector, instead of traditional food production. Considering the importance of a diversified and nutritious diet to build Zimbabweans’ resilience to the current economic and climate change-related shocks, the Special Rapporteur strongly supports the Government in its strategy to intensify efforts to diversify the agricultural production and to support alternatives to maize. 64. In times of emergency, there is a tendency to think about food quantity, instead of its quality. However, even a short-term poor diet creates severe malnutrition that has a longterm adverse impact on children under 2 years of age. Indeed, the first 1,000 days of life determine a person’s physical and intellectual development (A/71/282).15 It is estimated that children who receive appropriate nutrition during this period are 10 times more likely to survive potentially fatal childhood diseases. Similarly, well-nourished mothers are more likely to have infants with healthy birth weights, and such children are less likely to ever suffer from malnutrition. 65. Chronic malnutrition and stunting is endemic throughout the country, where an alarming 90 per cent of children aged 6 to 24 months do not consume the minimal diet to survive. The vast majority of children the Special Rapporteur met in the rural parts of Masvingo and in Mwenezi, as well as in informal settings in the suburbs of Harare, appeared severely stunted and underweight owing to reduced food availability. Nevertheless, Zimbabweans are more resilient against malnutrition compared with other countries, thanks to the available natural resources, which provide a diverse diet, especially in rural areas. 66. The situation is more serious in urban settings. The dieticians and paediatricians the Special Rapporteur met in Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare explained that the death of children from malnutrition had been on the rise in the last few months. The Special Rapporteur herself witnessed the ravaging effects of malnutrition on infants deprived of breast milk and micronutrient supplementation because of their own mothers’ lack of access to adequate food. Children are often fed only with sadza, which is not sufficiently nutritious. At times, they eat some vegetables, mostly cabbage. 15 Sarah Cusick, PhD and Michael K. Georgieff, MD, “The first 1,000 days of life: the brain’s window of opportunity”, United Nations Children’s Fund. Accessed on 23 March 2020. 11