UN Authority Figures

UN World Food Programme Executive Board: Zimbabwe

"The silent cries of the little ones: Zimbabwe's under-fives cry out for justice".
Sokwanele-This is Zimbabwe, April 10, 2006

Mission of the World Food Programme: "WFP will play its part as an active member of the United Nations system to bring the issue of hunger to the centre of the international agenda. In its dialogue with recipient governments and the aid cornmunity, WFP will advocate policies. strategies and operations that directly benefit the poor and hungry." ( World Food Programme web-site, "Mission statement")

Zimbabwe's Term of office: 2006-2008

Zimbabwe's Record on the Right to Food:
"ZANU-PF used government food stocks as a political weapon, denying supplies to some MDC [Movement for Democratic Change] supporters and promising it to other citizens in exchange for votes...In December 2005, the government agreed to allow the UN World Food Program to distribute food aid to over three million people through June 2006, and in March 2006, Zimbabwe's Millers Association warned that the country-once one of Africa's major sources of agricultural exports-had only two weeks' worth of wheat remaining. In April, the government banned international agencies from carrying out crop estimates in the country." (Freedom House Country Report on Zimbabwe 2007) "[T]he government's partisan disbursement of food and other material assistance...perpetuate[d] public dependence on the ruling party...In some areas a ZANU PF card was required to obtain food and agricultural inputs." (Freedom House Country Report on Zimbabwe 2007)