Africa： Trading Food Aid for Food Security

Africa: Trading Food Aid for Food SecurityNAIROBI, Kenya, Aug. 24 (IPS) In a visit to the Horn of Africa this week, the head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) expressed frustration with the world bodys efforts to eliminate hunger. Today, in an age of stunning technological achievements, it is socially, economically and politically unacceptable that 790 million people in developing countries suffer from chronic hunger, said FAO chief Jacques Diouf. The world produces enough food to feed all the people who inhabit it and it could produce even more. Diouf stressed that while universal food security will not happen overnight, it is an eminently achievable goal. In a report presented in May at the Millennium Forum, Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the organizations members to share in a renewed sense of mission to identify and face the challenges of the 21st century, ahead of the Millennium Summit planned for Sept. 6-8 in New York. He proposed reshaping the United Nations into a body that makes a real and measurable difference to peoples lives in the new century. Extreme poverty and recurrent famine in Africa are pressing issues that will be given special consideration at the summit. Annan has emphasized the need for new agricultural strategies to replace the regions dependence on yearly food aid from abroad. We decided to go beyond emergency aid and look at long-term food security, Diouf told journalists here. We need to address the basic root causes of the problems in these parts of the world. This is the message of hope that Diouf, whose organization coordinates agricultural initiatives around the world, brought with him to the Horn of Africa when he toured the region this week, as part of a U.N. multi-agency task force appointed to develop a new strategy for food security in the region. Some 180 million people, a quarter of the worlds hungry, live in Africa. However, future prospects for food security in the region remain fairly bleak due to factors ranging from recurring droughts to intractable armed conflicts. About 80 percent of the continents population depends on agriculture for their livelihood, and a combination of frequent drought, poor farming techniques, ailing national economies and political instability have conspired to confine the majority to extreme poverty. This year alone, according to the latest FAO report on food prospects in the region, Food Supply Situation and Crop Prospects in Sub-Saharan Africa, 16 countries in the region face exceptional food shortages and will need emergency assistance. In addition, the countries have a poor resource base, as a result of a decline in official development assistance (ODA) to the region by 40 percent in the last decade. Now ODA stands at less than $15 per capita, according to FAO. In the Horn of Africa, 70 million people suffer chronic food insecurity and depend regularly on international food assistance. Drought is all too familiar in the region. It can last up to several seasons and the recovery process is too long, says a new FAO assessment report called Eliminating Food Insecurity in the Horn of Africa. The Great Lakes region, grouping Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, also faces serious food supply difficulties as a result of the continued tense military situation. In Burundi, a large number of civilians are in regroupment camps, unable to grow crops due to the ongoing conflict between the military government and Hutu rebels. Southern African countries like Angola, Mozambique, and Madagascar have not been spared either. The food situation in the entire Horn region is critical as a result of a severe drought, which prompted Annan to establish a special task force in April to investigate the root causes of the crisis and to develop a framework (of) action for solving them. The countries in the region include Kenya, Uganda, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan. In recent years, we are seeing more and more natural catastrophes and we see their tendencies in extreme proportions. What is a matter of even greater concern is the recurrence of these catastrophes, said Diouf. Kenya is experiencing its worst drought since independence from Britain in 1963. The lack of rain is causing untold suffering in rural communities, which mainly rely on cattle for survival. In the arid northeast, thousands of cattle have died, and many peasants have committed suicide in despair. Some 3.3 million people face starvation in the East African country. In Somalia, Ethiopia and Djibouti, chronic malnutrition is rampant. Our countries have been devastated, says Kenyan Agriculture Minister Chris Obure. They have not only lost their means of livelihood, but also animal diseases have spread due to the rapid movement of livestock in search of pasture. To curb this trend, members of the task force in June endorsed a strategy and framework for action, proposing a portfolio of specific programs and projects addressing food security problems which are to be incorporated into detailed, country-specific plans of action. The key proposals to strengthen the agricultural infrastructure of the region are mainly rural-based and involve small-scale irrigation, sustainable natural resource management, road construction, water and healthcare delivery systems, and vocational training. The key to solving Africas drought problem, according to Diouf, lies in the control and management of water, which is an elusive commodity in many parts of the continent. Less than 1 percent of the arable land in Africa is under irrigation, compared to 37 percent in Asia. The basic problem of drought is lack of water. Only when we have exhausted possibilities of water control, then we should require much longer programs, he said. Special emphasis should also be placed on preserving fragile ecosystems, boosting productivity, building up infrastructure and widening peoples employment options, he said. In addressing political and economic issues, the project will enlist the support of the Nairobi-based Inter-Governmental Authority on Drought, a body initially established to address hunger but