The COVID-19 pandemic and global knock-on effects could sink or stall Zimbabwe's ambitious reform agenda as well as efforts to revive its flagging economy, with "disastrous" consequences for the landlocked East African country's poor and vulnerable people, according to a new UNDP impact assessment.

COVID-19 also risks overwhelming Zimbabwe's fragile and underfunded health sector--which employs 1.6 physicians and 7.2 nurses for every 10,000 people, well below WHO recommendations--which is frequently disrupted by strikes.

UNDP's recommendations, which will inform programs and policies in response to the pandemic, include:

- Halting the spread of COVID-19 through measures such as curbing people's mobility.

To ensure business continuity under lockdown and related restrictions, UNDP and other UN agencies are providing e-governance support for core functions of the country's executive, judicial, and legislative branches and by key constitutional commissions.

UNDP is also expanding efforts to link victims of gender-based violence to essential services and sustain HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention, as well as working with more than 870,000 small-holder farmers to expand community-based disease surveillance, support isolation centers, and raise awareness of how to avoid contracting or spreading COVID-19.