Africa, Development & Aid, Economy & Trade, Europe, Headlines, Human Rights, Poverty & SDGs

NIGER: Aid Delivery Proves a Challenge

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Jul 27 2005 (IPS) - The European Union says one of the biggest challenges facing donors pledging aid to the drought-hit African country of Niger is the lack of aid agencies in the country.

The European Commission, the European Union (EU) executive, says that added to the problems of food shortages, drought and the infestation of locusts in the west African country, donors are also faced with “aggravating issues” such as poor infrastructure in the country and a lack of partners on the ground.

“One of the biggest problems is that Niger is not a common playground for non-governmental organisations for a number of reasons – it is the second poorest country in the world, it is a huge country with a very nasty climate, and there also many administrative problems. This means that it is very poor conditions for non-governmental organisation staff,” Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, Commission spokesperson for development, told IPS Tuesday (Jul. 26).

Tardio says that although money may be available to feed the millions of people dying of starvation in the country, it is not easy to ensure that such funds get through to those who need them most.

“Sometimes we have the ways and means but it has been very difficult for us to get financing proposals even though there are budget lines which would allow us to take action. We have been trying to mobilise these lines and we are trying to highlight how difficult it is to implement humanitarian aid,” he said.

“The problem is that many NGOs are not geared for emergency situations as most of them work on long-term development issues,” Steffen Stenberg from the EU’s humanitarian office (ECHO) told media representatives Tuesday. “This means that it is not easy for them to go into emergency mode.”

Landlocked Niger with a population close to 12 million is now suffering one of its worst famines in recent times, which is threatening some 3.6 million people in west Africa. The country borders Algeria and Libya to the north, Chad to the east, Nigeria and Benin in the south and Burkina Faso and Mali to the west.

Jan Egeland, the UN humanitarian chief warned last week that the African nation is suffering “an acute humanitarian crisis in which children are dying because the world community has ignored appeals for urgent aid.”

Egland says 2.5 million people in Niger are in desperate need of food, including 800,000 children who are malnourished.

The United Nations first appealed for assistance for Niger last November and got almost no response. Another appeal for 13.2million euros (16 million dollars) in March brought approximately 0.83 million euros (1 million dollars).

The latest appeal on May 25 for 25 million euros (30 million dollars) has received about 8.3 million euros (10 million dollars), but Egland says “it’s still too little.” The famine was predicted more than six months ago.

The EU executive insisted Tuesday that the bloc had already set off the alarm about this approaching crisis at the beginning of the year, and that it was among the first international organisations to respond to a United Nations appeal in May by donating 4.6 million euros (5.5 million dollars). Commission officials say more money is likely to follow for Niger later this month.

“We also have a pipeline of new funding applications for aid to the country which have been signed by EU development commissioner Louis Michel and we expect a final decision by the Commission in a week or two to donate a further 1.7 million euros to Niger in the near future,” Stenberg said.

But Stenberg expressed concern how such donor pledges may be spent.

“We seem to be all right for funding at this time, so we should concentrate on looking at long term financing. There is also a question of how to implement such funding. If you don’t have the means of implementation you can throw all the money at a crisis but you don’t get anywhere, so we will have to look at the UN’s capacities to implement donations.”

Tardio also warns that while emergency aid for the starving people is important, a long-term solution for the food crisis must be found.

“We are stressing that direct aid is essential but food security is more important. We are trying to support operations that will allow food to be stored in various regions so people can have easy access to food in the long-term,” he said.

The combination of locust damage and drought is also affecting Mauritania, Mali and Burkina Faso.

The UN warns that in neighbouring Mali, some 1.1 million people will need food aid this year, while in northern Burkina Faso some 500,000 people are in need of food aid, and people are leaving their homes in search of food.

Further crises are said to be looming in other parts of Africa, including Ethiopia, Kenya and Eritrea.

The EU also provided 8.5 million euros (10.3 million dollars) in aid to Ethiopia and Eritrea Tuesday to fight the threat of famine. The aid will go towards medicine, water supplies, nutritional assistance and livestock support.