The World Food Programme has renewed its appeal for funding and highlighted the impact HIV/AIDS is having on the food crisis. It is appealing to donors to recognise the crisis in southern Africa

In July 2003 the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) appealed for US$308 million to fund some
540 000 metric tons of food, enough to feed
6.5 million people in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland, Lesotho and Malawi until June 2004. Despite repeated appeals the WFP has received only 24% of
what is required, and has unmet needs amounting to
US$235 million. The WFP has now renewed its July appeal for another $308 million and warns that millions of people
in southern Africa will face massive food shortages as early as next month due to the significant funding shortfalls. The shortages will be most acute in Zimbabwe and Mozambique where food needs are greatest.

WFP executive director and special envoy for southern Africa says that in Mozambique, for example, rations for hundreds of thousands of people may have to be cut, or they may get nothing at all, unless their appeal receives an immediate cash injection. The WFP also notes that its appeal for southern Africa, with Zimbabwe accounting for about
two thirds, is based on the assumption that governments
will meet commercial import targets. "However, in Zimbabwe's case, a severe lack of foreign exchange is clearly affecting the country's ability to import food. This means that food aid needs may further increase between now and the harvest in April 2004," the WFP stated. "Currently Zimbabwe is experiencing an inflation rate of over 400% and infant mortality rates have doubled in the country since 1998," it continued. A memorandum of understanding, signed by the government of Zimbabwe and the WFP's country director in Harare, is expected to help facilitate the flow of food aid distributed through the WFP's 13 non-governmental organisation (NGO) implementing partners to millions of needy beneficiaries. “However, given the current funding level the entire region is expected to experience food pipeline breaks by early 2004, which will coincide with the lean season when the number of beneficiaries will be highest and the general food deficit greatest," the
WFP cautioned.

WFP's deputy executive director, also explained that the HIV/AIDS virus is compounding the current food shortages in southern Africa. The region has the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world and there has been an alarming increase in the number of households headed by children, the chronically ill and grandparents. She stated that some aid agencies failed to see the link between AIDS and hunger, which was an emergency not just a development issue.
Save the Children's southern Africa regional director added that with 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa infected with HIV, or living with full-blown AIDS, communities had fewer workers who now had to feed more people.

A WFP regional spokesman emphasised that the HIV/AIDS pandemic eroded the ability of poor states to maintain agricultural infrastructure and cope with drought. "AIDS is having a fundamental effect on the agricultural sector and donors will have to continue to step up and support the region," he commented. Because productivity in the agricultural sector is especially hard hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, food shortages and chronic poverty are likely to persist. “HIV/AIDS and food shortages go hand in hand in this region," Mike Sackett, WFP regional director for
southern Africa said. "The best way of supporting people affected by the virus is to ensure they are well nourished, but clearly this will not be the case for many people over the coming months unless there is an immediate and sustained response from donors,” he emphasised.

“Hunger and poverty, aggravated by HIV/AIDS, create a vicious cycle where farmers and their families fall sick, cultivate less and shift to less labour-intensive crops,” Sackett said. Save the Children's southern Africa regional director stated that pleas for food and finance would become increasingly regular. "We are in a downward spiral. The region as a whole is much more vulnerable to minor shocks than it ever has been before," he told Reuters. The UN
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) director general stated that, “the potential for real growth and development in Africa is dependent upon successfully addressing key challenges – hunger and poverty, agriculture production and HIV/AIDS." He added that the United States government's $15 billion for HIV/AIDS activities is greatly appreciated and very much needed by millions of people in Africa.

"Just because the world's attention moves on to the next crisis doesn't mean the need for humanitarian assistance fades," Sackett stated. "In fact, it's at exactly this time that donors need to stand by people to ensure there's full recovery, so they can resume their normal lives. Otherwise,
it doesn't take long for situations to unravel and then donors have to step in again, but usually at a much higher human and financial cost." WFP has been carrying out emergency feeding in the region since 2001 with operations reaching a peak last year when 10.2 million people received food aid from the organisation.