A/HRC/43/44/Add.2 I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Hilal Elver, conducted a visit to Zimbabwe at the invitation of the Government from 18 to 28 November 2019, to assess the situation, challenges and good practices concerning all aspects of the right to food. 2. The Special Rapporteur expresses her sincere appreciation to the Government of Zimbabwe for extending an invitation to visit the country. This invitation is itself an expression of the Government’s willingness to open its doors to international human rights mechanisms and, with it, to improve its own human rights record. The Special Rapporteur wishes to thank the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs for facilitating and organizing the official meetings. Throughout her 10-day visit, the Special Rapporteur met with the Minister of Local Governance and Public Works; the Minister of Health; the Minister of Finance and Economic Development; the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare; and the Director of the Food and Nutrition Council. The Special Rapporteur very much regrets that her repeated requests to meet with the Ministry most relevant to her mandate – that is, the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement – was not honoured. 3. The Special Rapporteur also met with the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission as well as with farmers’ unions and farm workers. She had extensive and fruitful meetings with devoted individuals, peasants, farmers, lawyers, doctors, dieticians, members of nongovernmental organizations and activists. 4. The Special Rapporteur would also like to thank the United Nations Resident Coordinator, the United Nations country team and the United Nations Development Programme in Zimbabwe for effectively supporting her team before and throughout the visit. She benefited greatly from the opportunity to exchange views with the diplomatic community and with United Nations agencies in Harare. 5. Throughout her visit, the Special Rapporteur had the opportunity to undertake several field trips. In Harare, she visited Parirenyatwa Hospital and Hupenya Hutsva Children’s Home; in Epworth, she visited Makomo Primary School. She also had the opportunity to visit Mwenezi in the province of Masvingo, where she met with the provincial authorities and farmers’ communities. In Masvingo, she also visited Shashe Farm and the Agroecology School, an impressive model of ecological farming. In Mwenezi, one of the areas most affected by the food emergency crisis, she met with the beneficiaries of the food distribution efforts of the World Food Programme. 6. The Special Rapporteur wishes to warmly thank the many Zimbabweans who shared their personal stories of hardship, loss and coping mechanisms. From the poorest suburbs of Harare to the drought-affected lands of Masvingo and Mwenezi, their devastating accounts lead to one undeniable conclusion: human rights must be anchored at the very core of the policy agenda of Zimbabwe if the country is to win its fight against hunger and malnutrition. II. General overview 7. The Special Rapporteur found that the economic crisis and the widespread drought in the region, further compounded by Cyclone Idai, had led to an escalating food crisis that was affecting a majority of Zimbabweans. According to the International Monetary Fund, the inflation rate reached 300 per cent in August 2019 in a year-on-year comparison, which was the highest in the world. As a result, approximately 2.5 million people have already reached acute food insecurity classification phase 3 (“crisis”) and 1.1 million phase 4 (“emergency”) on the scale of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification. 1 According to the classification, some regions of the country are now one step away from famine. Furthermore, the Government estimated that about 2.2 million people in urban areas and 2.3 million people in rural Zimbabwe were in crisis emergency mode and needed food aid. 1 reliefweb.int/report/zimbabwe/zimbabwe-food-insecurity-information-bulletin. 3