Population displacement within and from Zimbabwe has a strong effect on neighbouring SADC countries; South Africa and Zambia are the IOM Members most affected.
This contribution from the 1035 Facility has allowed MRF Pretoria to take the following actions, in partnership with the Government of Zimbabwe, the UN Country Team and other key organizations, to support the SADC goals of population stabilization and provision of regular information updates on population movement:
1. The design and supervision of a project to follow on the Farm Workers’ Study (FWS) carried out during the summer and autumn by IOM in close coordination with the Ministry of Labour of Zimbabwe. This has enabled a continuous flow of information to stakeholders on population movements, including migrant workers, in the wake of government-assisted and other acquisitions of commercial farms, and has feed directly into the UNCT's Humanitarian Assistance and Recovery Programme (HARP) planning efforts, noted below.
2. Following the appeal from the Government of Zimbabwe (Ministry of Finance and Economic Development) in October 2001, the UNCT planned to provide humanitarian and recovery assistance to vulnerable populations, including mobile populations. IOM's proposed role was to design and supervise assistance and recovery projects for the latter, with the overall objective of population stabilization through community-based humanitarian assistance, resettlement or return (for displaced migrant workers).