The region is in the midst of a multi-faceted
crisis,
with food insecurity and HIV/AIDS
requiring
different interventions from key
players to
overcome the situation |
According to the Comprehensive Africa
Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), a
component of the New Partnership for Africa's
Development (NEPAD), data for the period 1997 to
1999 show 200 million people, or 28% of the
total population of Africa, are chronically
hungry. About 30 countries, well over
half the
54 on the continent, report that more than 20%
of their population is undernourished. In 18
countries over 35% of the population is
chronically hungry. This is especially troubling
when one considers that Africa is essentially a
rural economy.
Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu, head of the Nepad
Secretariat, attributes the situation to climate
change, poverty, lack of enabling policies,
environmental degradation, conflicts, poor
international market conditions and economic
mismanagement. Estimates indicate that the
region needs 1.2 million tonnes of cereals at a
cost of around US$ 507.2 million by March 2003
to prevent widespread hunger in the six
countries affected by food shortages.
The region also requires non-food items such as
nutritional and health support, water and
sanitation, educational support, inputs for
agriculture (seed and fertiliser), and
infrastructural support, especially road and
market rehabilitation. To remedy the crisis, the
CAADP has come up with four "pillars for
priority investment", they are:
- extending land and water management
- improving rural infrastructure and
trade-related capacities for
improved market
access
- increasing food supply and reducing hunger and
-agricultural research, technology dissemination
and adoption
The plan has three parts: immediate (from now to
2005);
short-term (2006 to 2010); and
medium-term (2010 to 2015).
Speaking at the 2003 African Union (AU) summit,
both the
UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan and
Managing Director of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF), Horst Köhler, highlighted the need
for agricultural reform. The UN Secretary
General stated that agricultural
transformation was needed to break the pattern
of recurring food crises. This would require
addressing the "inextricable link between food
insecurity and the biggest threat facing Africa
today – HIV/AIDS."
In response to the crisis, the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) and its
international cooperating partners,
in
particular the UN agencies, have held a series
of meetings. The SADC is responding strongly to
the humanitarian crisis caused by the famine in
six of its member countries, and is addressing
the logistics of distributing food and non-food
items. At the meeting of the SADC Ministers of
Food Agriculture and Natural Resources, which
took place in Maputo in July, ministers
recommended measures to avert the humanitarian
crisis and increase agriculture productivity
through the following:
- facilitation of commercial food imports and
food aid support
to the UN/SADC Appeal, which
seeks urgent funds from
international
cooperating partners
- implementation of recovery programmes for the
next season
including the distribution of seed
and fertiliser
- commitment to increased resources allocated to
agriculture
- promotion of irrigation development in order
to minimise
over-dependence on rain-fed
agriculture and
- undertaking policy studies to address food
insecurity in
the region.
The Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources
(FANR)
Directorate at the SADC Secretariat has
been given overall responsibility for overseeing
the implementation of these measures. The
situation in Angola warrants special attention
as the country has been facing severe food
shortages for some years due to the internal
security situation. The rehabilitation
of rural
infrastructure including repairing key roads and
bridges is the key to encouraging agricultural
development, according
to the UN Food and
Agricultural Organisation (FAO). Angola's
transport infrastructure has been devastated by
decades of
war and land mines continue to
restrict access to populations
in need.
The WFP has warned that its aid pipeline to two
of the countries most affected by regional food
shortages could be in danger.
In its latest
situation report the WFP stated that it was,
"urgently seeking cash resources for regional
procurement of commodities in order to quickly mobilise stocks and pre-empt looming
distribution shortfalls from September 2003
onwards". While there were considerable
carry-over stocks from the past emergency
operation, "the majority of these commodities is
still at origin or in transit and will not be
available for distribution
in-country until the
latter months of 2003". This would be too late
for most people in need of aid in the region,
the WFP regional public information officer for
southern Africa noted.
"The pipeline situation has very serious
implications for Mozambique and Zimbabwe," the
emergency report emphasised. "We appealed for US
$308 million [for regional food aid], of which
about two thirds will be primarily for
Zimbabwe," the WFP public information officer
further noted.
In Mozambique "the situation has
actually got worse, it is the only country in
the region where the situation has actually
deteriorated to such an extent that we will be
increasing our
food aid assistance and
[distributing] to a larger number of
beneficiaries this year,” he added.
Despite interventions, Madagascar is also
suffering with
drought victims in the south of
the country continuing to live under "extremely
harsh conditions" according to the WFP office in
Madagascar. The WFP stated that the harvest from
the
current season was not sufficient to meet local
needs.
WFP has extended its
emergency appeal for food aid in Madagascar
until the end of 2003 as a result of drought and
the recent cyclones. |
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Time
for change. Martin Lueders |
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