Zimbabwe

Working environment

• The political situation in Zimbabwe remained relatively calm throughout 2015. The country continued to face economic challenges and experienced low levels of rainfall, resulting in food insecurity for 1.5 million people (16% of the total population).
• The Government continued to show its commitment to adhere to international norms and standards regarding refugees. The Government maintained an open-door policy towards humanitarian organizations.

Population trends

• Zimbabwe hosted over 10,000 refugees, the majority of them in Tongogara refugee camp located in the north-eastern province of Manica, with the remainder residing in Harare and other urban centres.
• In 2015, 528 individuals were recognized as refugees through the Government-led refugee status determination (RSD) process. An additional 45 people were granted mandate refugee status. 
• It is estimated that there are some 300,000 stateless people in Zimbabwe.

Achievements and impact    

• RSD continued to improve in 2015. The recognition rate during the year stood at 84%.
• UNHCR’s partnership with Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) to address statelessness was initiated and strengthened. ZLHR worked to enforce constitutional provisions relating to citizenship and encourage accession to the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.
• UNHCR successfully advocated the Zimbabwe Statistics Agency to start systematic inclusion of refugees and asylum-seeker numbers in the statistics for national development.

Unmet needs

• The inability to construct more classrooms for both primary and secondary students to cope with the growing refugee population in the camp means that UNHCR was not able to assure every refugee child in the camp the right to basic education. 
• The need to explore and install alternative sources of energy in Tongogara camp remains a major challenge. Generators remain the only source of electricity and are a costly and unsustainable solution.