A/HRC/43/44/Add.2 households are higher than among male-headed households, and adverse health conditions disproportionately affect women. Low-productivity agricultural practices and lack of access to markets also affected rural women whose livelihoods depended on their own production. 114. With most of the men gone to work in neighbouring countries for employment, women bear the primary responsibility of caring for their children, as well as for the sick and elderly. They are only marginally able to meet minimum food needs by depleting essential assets or employing emergency coping strategies. While acknowledging the crucial importance of external assistance, many interlocutors expressed their frustration at being dependent on food assistance and told the Special Rapporteur that they would rather receive the necessary resources and tools to realize their own potential. For instance, in Mwenezi, the Special Rapporteur was impressed to see how, with the assistance of international development aid, the World Food Programme and the local government, a group of women came together to build a small dam, cultivated a vegetable garden for their own consumption and started selling surplus production in the local market. 115. The Special Rapporteur considers that children and women bear the disproportionate burden of the ongoing food crisis. In a desperate effort to find alternative means of livelihood, women and children resort to negative coping strategies that violate their most fundamental rights and freedoms. As a result, domestic violence, school dropouts, early marriage, prostitution and sexual exploitation are on the rise throughout Zimbabwe. VII. Conclusions and recommendations 116. While acknowledging the strong commitment to a zero-hunger policy expressed by all her interlocutors in the Government, the Special Rapporteur is worried that the situation in Zimbabwe is slowly getting to a point of man-made starvation. 117. Political polarization, the economic and financial crisis, and erratic climatic conditions all contribute to the storm of food insecurity currently facing the country. Despite being at peace, Zimbabwe is counted among the four highest food-insecure places, alongside conflict-ravaged countries. With its large reserves of gold, platinum, diamonds, and other metals and minerals, as well as fertile agricultural lands, the country still has an enormous economic potential, which could lift the entire region. 118. The Government should adopt the necessary measures to reduce the country’s dependence on food importation, mostly maize, especially given the volatility of foreign exchange rates. Relying on maize as the main staple food hinders the fight against malnutrition. It is vitally important for the country to create the conditions for the production of its own food and the protection of traditional seeds, in order to ensure the country’s self-sufficiency, food sovereignty and preparedness for the climate shocks that already hit the country. The Government should initiate a master plan for a sustainable and nutrition-sensitive food production system that takes into account the country’s natural resources and climatic conditions with a view to diversifying the diet of its people. 119. Good fiscal and economic governance could change the course of the economic and social conditions of Zimbabweans, particularly their right to food. It is the primary responsibility of the Government of Zimbabwe to ensure that the right to food of its citizens is respected, protected and fulfilled, as provided by its Constitution. 120. The Government should fulfil the obligation of the right to food by providing food assistance throughout this emergency period, and ensure that social safety nets are established for the most-deprived segments of its population, without any form of discrimination and with respect to the principles of transparency, accountability and participation in decision-making. The right to food cannot be effectively implemented without a democratic order respecting all sets of rights, including civil and political rights. 121. The international community, the Government and opposition parties must urgently scale up their humanitarian assistance and provide for most of the resources needed to eliminate hunger and malnutrition with a view to putting an end to this 18