As Zimbabwe has been faced with emergencies in the past, mostly drought related, there are well established structures in place to respond. In response to past emergencies, the goz has mobilised components of the civil protection strategy and generally requested NGOs and international organistions to lend support. With UN support, the Government developed a National Policy on Drought Management (NPDM) that outlines government responsibilities in responding to natural disasters and reviews government capacities and structures to deal with drought preparedness, mitigation and response.

National and sub national inter-ministerial and multi-sectoral committees have been established to help coordinate and manage a national level response. The Department of Civil Protection within the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing is responsible for Government's response in the case of a declared 'natural disaster'. Distribution of relief aid is coordinated at the local level by the Civil Protection Committees whose membership comprises all relevant government sectors, local authorities and non-governmental organisations.

The Department of Social Welfare in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare is responsible for drought management and chairs the Inter-ministerial Committee on Drought Management and Response as described in the National Policy on Drought Management. In response to the current humanitarian situation, since February 2001, they have been implementing the Government's Public Works Programme, including a food for work programme in drought affected districts, through the Rural District Councils using the following structure:

The diagram above illustrates the local government structure that has been used to deliver humanitarian assistance in the past. At the district level there is the Rural District Development Committee (RDDC), which is a technical arm of the Rural District Council (RDC). The RDDC is a multi-sectoral team under which it is possible to conduct joint planning, implementation and monitoring of humanitarian assistance. It can take on UN agency representatives, NGOs, and other community leaders for specific development activities. Procurement of supplies for the district can be done centrally at national level and support given directly to both the Rural District Council and key implementing partners for administration and monitoring of the project. The coordination between these local level government bodies, the UN and key implementing partners will be critical to the success of the HARP programmes.