Zimbabwe February 2006 |
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| Food shortages are main concern, (Sunday Times, 2006-02-22):-More than two-thirds of Zimbabweans consider food shortages as one of the most important problems they are facing, according to findings of a private survey. A total of 46% of Zimbabweans surveyed said they had gone without food often in the past year, according to the poll from the Afrobarometer public opinion institute. "Food insecurity is by far the most troublesome problem for Zimbabweans and has in between mid-2004 and late 2005...dethroned economic management as the number one problem," according to the findings. The survey was conducted from October 9 to 26, covering both urban and rural areas with a sampling of 1,112 respondents carried out by the Mass Public Opinion Institute, a Zimbabwean non-governmental research organisation. United Nations aid agencies estimate that four million Zimbabweans out of a population of 11 million are in need of food aid following years of poor agricultural yields. Asked to list their top three worst problems, some 45% of respondents listed management of the economy at the top while 39 percent chose transportation and 35% unemployment. Health, Aids and education came in at the lower end of the list of the 10 top problems, with 8% of respondents choosing those areas as their worst headache. Some 79% of respondents said they knew someone who had died of Aids. The survey also revealed widespread pessimism about the economy, with 82% of Zimbabweans saying that they expect living conditions to be "much worse" in the year ahead. | |
South African Migration Project (SAMP) - Queen's University - http://www.queensu.ca/samp |