50% of Zim population lived in extreme poverty in 2020: ZIMSTAT

By Trevor Makonyonga

The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT) has revealed that in 2020 almost half of the Zimbabwean population in Zimbabwe lived in extreme poverty.


This was due to the increase in prices rice of basic necessities, economic contraction caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and poor harvests.


These findings were from the 2020 Rapid Poverty Income Consumption and Expenditure Survey (PICES) Telephonic Survey conducted by Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT), in partnership with the World Bank and UNICEF.

In a statement, the Director General of ZIMSTAT, Taguma Mahone, said that a high frequency survey was made to assess the impact of Covid-19 on sampled households.


He said, “ZIMSTAT together with the World Bank and UNICEF, designed a high-frequency telephone survey of households to measure the socio-economic impact of COVID-19 on households in Zimbabwe. A sample of 1 800 households was drawn from the 2019 Mini PICES. The Rapid PICES Monitoring Telephone Survey is jointly funded by the Zimbabwe Reconstruction Fund (ZIMREF) and UNICEF, and implemented by ZIMSTAT with technical support from the World Bank and UNICEF.”


According to ZIMSTAT, data from 1774 households in the first round, 1664 in the second round and 1235 households in the third round.

The ongoing survey is using computer assisted personal interviews (CAPI) method of data collection. ZIMSTAT completed round four in May 2021 and round 5 in June 2021. In each round the survey is adapted to collect data on specific topics.

World Bank Country Manager in Zimbabwe, Mukami Kariuki, said that the Rapid-PICES exercise captures policy-relevant information that is useful in drawing strategy to mitigate impact of the pandemic.


“The pandemic’s socio-economic effects continue to cause suffering in communities. The Rapid-PICES exercise captures policy-relevant information that can be used to design strategies to assist communities and mitigate the impact of the pandemic. From this round, the findings reveal that while employment has increased from 51% in July 2020 to 57% in early 2021, the recovery has only been partial as employment level has not reached the pre-pandemic level thereby contributing to increasing poverty in the country,” she said.


Of the households that needed medical treatment, a slightly lower fraction was able to access treatment (84 percent) in the third-round survey compared to 86 percent in the second round. Poverty was the primary reason for not being able to access medical treatment. In the third-round survey, 91 percent of school-age children were attending school.


ZIMSTAT also shared that Covid-19 pandemic continued to play a negative role in keeping children out of school to which UNICEF Representative, Dr Tajudeen Oyewale, concurred.


“Children have continued to bear the brunt of the pandemic. As results of this round of the survey show, only 40 percent of children were engaged in some form of remote learning, while access to essential health interventions have reduced. Social protection coverage has also been impacted, and I call upon all stakeholders to come together to support the country’s protection programmes,” said Dr Oyewale.


The Rapid PICES project, which was first embarked on in June 2020, will be completed in November 2021. The second round Rapid PICES was conducted from August to September 2020, whilst the third round was conducted from mid-December to mid-March 2021.