Zimbabwe is a landlocked country sharing borders with Zambia to the north, Mozambique to the east, South Africa to the south, Botswana to the west and the tip of Namibia in the northeast.

The name Zimbabwe derives from 'dzimba dzemabwe' meaning 'houses of stone' in the Shona language - a tribute to Great Zimbabwe, site of the capital of the 11th-century Munhumutapa empire. In 1834 the Shona in the south of the country were defeated by Matabele people fleeing across the Limpopo River from the expanding power of the Zulu king, Shaka, in present-day South Africa.

British imperialist Cecil Rhodes claimed the territory, later called Southern Rhodesia, to exploit mineral deposits in 1888. The Shona staged an unsuccessful revolt, known as the First Chimurenga (‘struggle’), in 1896-1897. After formal annexation by Britain in 1923, European settler demands for more land led to a series of laws that stripped local people of rights and forced them into reserves - a history that has profoundly affected post-independence Zimbabwe.

African demands for political participation were resisted by white politicians, culminating in Prime Minister Ian Smith's declaration of unilateral independence from Britain in 1965. Banned black nationalist parties turned to armed struggle, eventually forcing a negotiated settlement in 1979. Democratic elections in 1980 were won by President Robert Mugabe and his Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU).

Mugabe adopted a policy of reconciliation. A national unity government included members of the rival Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU), led by veteran leader Joshua Nkomo, and Smith's Rhodesian Front. But ZAPU resisted merging with ZANU, and tension between the two parties deepened. In 1982, government troops were sent to ZAPU's Matabeleland heartland in the south to stamp out a dissident movement. Thousands of Ndebele civilians died in the five-year campaign. A unity accord in 1987 ended the violence and brought Nkomo back into government, with the two parties merged as the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF).

Mugabe's government extended education, health and infrastructure services to the previously ignored black majority. But by the late 1990s the economy was in trouble; painful cost-cutting reforms were introduced, which led to growing labour militancy. In 1999 the union-linked Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was launched - the first serious political challenge to the ruling ZANU-PF party. Violence around the government's controversial fast-track land redistribution programme and legislative elections in 2000 led to sanctions by the European Union and United States. Zimbabwe's economy has been in freefall due to the impact of land reform, an IMF freeze on economic support, and extremely low investment levels.

Peace and security

The ZANU and ZAPU guerilla armies, plus the Rhodesian armed forces, were successfully integrated at independence. But the dissident campaign in Matabeleland and sabotage attacks by South African apartheid agents strained cohesion. In 1982 Zimbabwean troops were stationed in Mozambique to protect the Beira oil corridor and help the Mozambican government against South Africa-backed RENAMO rebels. Mugabe played a key role in mediating the 1992 ceasefire between the two sides.

In 1997 Zimbabwe intervened in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to defend the government against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda, with Zimbabwean forces representing the largest contingent in a mission sanctioned by the Southern African Development Community. The cost of the mission to the fiscus was condemned by the International Monetary Fund and civil society groups. The government presented DRC as an investment opportunity for Zimbabwean firms, which had failed to benefit from post-war Mozambique, but a United Nations report in 2001 accused senior Zimbabwean officials of exploiting the DRC's resources.

Mugabe has increasingly relied on the security forces to contain domestic political dissent. Protests by the MDC and the labour movement, demanding democratic reforms and improved living standards, have repeatedly been broken up by the police, and the army has been used to intimidate demonstrators. The government has come to depend on military officers to run strategic civilian institutions.

Refugees

In 2005 more than 700,000 people were internally displaced by Operation Murambatsvina (Drive Out Trash), a three-month campaign to rid the country of slums and illegal informal businesses. The MDC accused the government of deliberately trying to weaken its urban powerbase. A report by Anna Tibaijuka, the special envoy of the UN Secretary-General, was highly critical of the campaign. A corrective Operation Garikai (Live Well) was supposed to rehouse the displaced, but little progress has been made in building accommodation. The fast-track land resettlement programme has also displaced hundreds of thousands of farm workers.

Democracy and governance

Mugabe and his ZANU-PF party have won every election since independence in 1980. However, political opponents and western poll observers were highly critical of the 2000 legislative ballot and 2003 presidential poll. In 2005 the MDC split over whether to participate in 2005 elections for a revived Senate. The largest faction, led by party leader Morgan Tsvangirai, called for a boycott; ZANU-PF won by a landslide.

Zimbabwe's constitution vests considerable power in the office of the president. Bowing to pressure for reform, the government appointed a commission to draft a new constitution, which was put to a referendum in 2000. The MDC and civil society opposed the draft on the grounds that it did not reflect their concerns. The voters also rejected it, despite Mugabe's call for a 'Yes' vote.

At independence, Zimbabwean whites made up less than 1 percent of the population but owned more than 70 percent of the best arable land. The political settlement negotiated at Lancaster House in London in 1979 stipulated a willing-buyer, willing-seller arrangement, which limited the scale of land reform - a key plank of the nationalist struggle. Rural people remained overwhelmingly in poor communal areas on holdings of less than a hectare. In 1997, Mugabe announced the pace of reform would be accelerated - a move critics said was an attempt to revive the ruling party's waning popularity. Donors were urged to pay for the redistribution programme, but there were questions over its transparency and impact on poverty alleviation. Major donors participated in a land conference in 1998, and agreed to the need for reform on condition there would be a two-year inception phase, during which various resettlement schemes would be tried.

However, the process was scuppered when the government backed illegal farm occupations in the run-up to the 2000 parliamentary elections. The Land Acquisition Act was amended in November 2001, allowing the government to allocate land without giving owners the right to contest the seizure. The law contravened an agreement reached earlier at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, which called for a halt to further land appropriations. A UN Development Programme report in 2002 concluded that the fast-track programme was chaotic and unsustainable. New small-scale farmers received little support and the new owners of commercial farms have largely failed to invest in production.

Media

The Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) describes the Zimbabwean media as "under siege". The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) was used in 2003 to close down the privately owned Daily News, which had the largest circulation, and the Tribune in 2004. The printing presses of the Daily News had previously been bombed. Only two independent private weekly newspapers remain, while the sole daily, The Herald, is a government mouthpiece. According to the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ), reporters practise self-censorship.

There is only one national broadcaster, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Holdings, which has four radio stations and one television station. Even though parliament passed legislation to make the field more accessible and end the state's monopoly, no independent broadcasters have been issued with licences.

Economy

The economy has been in an accelerating decline since late 1997, when the Zimbabwe dollar started weakening against major currencies. Unbudgeted gratuities by the government to veterans of the war of liberation, and its military intervention in the DRC, deepened the crisis. The IMF froze aid in 2001, and major donors have limited their support solely to humanitarian programmes.

The fast-track land reform programme that began in 2000 coincided with a serious drought, wrecking agricultural production - the country's main hard-currency earner. Industry is estimated to have shrunk by more than 60 percent since 2000, unemployment tops 70 percent, inflation is at a world high of 1,200 percent, and average salaries are worth far less than the cost of a basic monthly household food basket. An estimated three million people have left the country, making remittances from relatives and friends working abroad a key aspect of household survival.

Population

Zimbabwe has approximately 12.9 million people, of whom 98 percent are African, with two main ethnic groups, Shona (82 percent) and Ndebele (14 percent), mixed and Asian (1 percent), and white (less than 1 percent).

The Shona are further divided into sub-groups: the Karanga, who mostly live in the Midlands and Masvingo provinces; the Manyika and Ndau, in Manicaland Province bordering Mozambique; the Zezuru, in the provinces of West and East Mashonaland; and the Korekore, mainly in Mashonaland Central Province. The Ndebele are mainly found in Matabeleland North and South provinces.

Development indicators

All Zimbabwe's development indicators are in reverse as a result of the shrinking economy and high rate of inflation.

An estimated 80 percent of the population live on less than US$2 a day; real GDP has declined by 30 percent in the last five years. The inflation rate affects access to education, health and basic household needs; up to half the population have experienced food shortages, and the World Food Programme has been distributing targeted food aid since 2002.

Zimbabwe has one of the world's worst HIV prevalence rates. Since 2000, the government has imposed a controversial AIDS levy on everyone who earns an income, but despite this, only 40,000 people receive treatment out of an estimated 600,000 people who need it. However, Zimbabwe is the first country in southern Africa to have reduced HIV prevalence, and is on track to achieve its Millennium Development Goal for HIV/AIDS by 2015 by reducing infection rates.

Education

Zimbabwe has a literacy rate of more than 90 percent owing to an aggressive education drive at independence, but the lack of investment in education and the exodus of qualified teachers has put those gains under pressure.

Children

The under-five mortality rate has risen 50 percent since 1990, and a child dies from HIV/AIDS every 15 minutes, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) One in five Zimbabwean children (an estimated 1.3 million) are orphans; many are out of school because their guardians or parents cannot afford school fees and uniforms, while others have been affected by the death of one or both parents. UNICEF has made the rising levels of child abuse a major advocacy issue.

Health

The healthcare system is in crisis due to shortages of foreign exchange to pay for drugs and equipment, lack of investment in infrastructure, and qualified health workers leaving for greener pastures.

According to the Traditional Medical Practitioners Council, 80 percent of the population visits their members because of soaring medical costs at western medical facilities.

The government has failed to convince the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria to release US$300m. International isolation has led donors to scale down funding, worsening healthcare delivery.

HIV/AIDS

About two million Zimbabweans live with HIV/AIDS. Barriers to expanding effective treatment include severe foreign currency shortages, deteriorating health infrastructure and considerable loss of skills and capacity as a result of migration and AIDS mortality. According to UNICEF, Zimbabwe receives the lowest donor support in southern Africa for people living with HIV - only $4 per person per year. In comparison, neighbouring Zambia gets $184 per person per year.

Nevertheless, Zimbabwe has managed to cut infection rates. According to a UNAIDS study, HIV prevalence among people aged between 15 and 49 dropped from 24.6 percent in 2004 to 20.1 percent in 2005. A substantial increase in condom use with non-regular partners is believed to have had an impact. Local research in the eastern province of Manicaland showed that young Zimbabweans were delaying becoming sexually active, and promiscuity was declining.

Concern has grown, however, over the impact of the government's 2005 Operation Murambatsvina, which disrupted HIV/AIDS prevention programmes and left more than 700,000 people homeless.

Food security

Until the 1990s, Zimbabwe was a net exporter of food. The land reform exercise was launched ostensibly to correct a historical imbalance in ownership, but the newly resettled farmers lacked the capital to maintain output, and were further undermined by drought. The foreign currency shortage has hit imports of fertilizer and agricultural equipment.

Domestic cereal demand is about 1.4 million mega tonnes per year, but independent assessments show the country has been producing less than half that in recent years. Tobacco, beef, dairy and poultry production have also declined.

Gender issues

A Domestic Violence Bill, hailed as a milestone, seeks to protect members of a family from various forms of abuse and is set to be passed into law.

Politics is still dominated by men, but a landmark appointment was made in 2004 when the country got its first female co-vice-president. However, her appointment has not been translated into greater participation of women in politics.

Human rights

According to Human Rights Watch, critics of the government have been arrested, arbitrarily detained, assaulted and tortured. Under the Public Order and Security Act (POSA) it is difficult for civil society organisations and opposition political parties to gather and express their views. All public meetings need police approval.

Humanitarian needs

Zimbabwe faces tremendous challenges, including a rapid decline in public institutional capacity for social services delivery, food insecurity and HIV/AIDS. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has noted that additional challenges emanate from the country's policy choices, which have brought about widening and deepening vulnerabilities. These specifically include the impact of land reform on food security and livelihoods, the fallout from Operation Murambatsvina, and the country's sustained economic decline. The combined effect of these interrelated factors has led to a significant reduction in the quality of life for the population.

CREDIT : IRIN - United Nations Office – Humanitarian Country Profile