SOUTHERN AFRICA: Aid to a Region Plagued by Hunger

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 31 2005 (IPS) - Aid agencies have welcomed an announcement by the European Commission (EC) that it will donate an additional 5.4 million dollars to help meet food requirements in Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland.

According to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), more than ten million inhabitants of Southern Africa are currently in need of emergency aid. The agency launched an appeal for the region in January.

The EC donation brings to about 53 million dollars the total contributions for hunger relief in Southern Africa made by the commission and individual member states of the European Union. (The EC is the policy-making and executive arm of the union.)

“The EC donation will help us buy urgently needed food supplies for thousands of people,” Michael Huggins, WFP spokesman in Southern Africa, told IPS from the Mozambican capital of Maputo, Tuesday.

But, “We still need 187 million dollars (for) the next lean season which finishes between March and April 2006, depending on where you are in the region,” he said. The lean season refers to the period between harvests when food supplies in rural communities may be scarce.

Of the three nations set to benefit from the EC pledge, Zimbabwe is the most severely affected by food shortages.

Agricultural production in the country has fallen as a result of drought and a controversial round of farm seizures that got underway in 2000. The food that is available is beyond the reach of many, with economic decline having resulted in widespread unemployment and triple-digit inflation.

According to the WFP, preliminary research by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) shows that about 2.9 million of the country’s 13 million citizens will require food aid this year. ZimVAC includes representatives from Zimbabwe’s administration, non-governmental organisations and the WFP.

However, the U.N. agency notes that this estimate are based on a government commitment to import 1.2 million tonnes of food – as well as assumptions that maize prices will be subsidised, and that salaries can keep pace with inflation. If these assumptions are not met, the number of people needing food aid could increase.

The WFP plans to distribute 300,000 tonnes of food to Zimbabweans in need, and is already assisting about a million people in the country through school feeding schemes and AIDS programmes.

“Thanks to the generous support from donors, including the European Commission and EU member states, at the moment we have commitments for about 50 percent of our needs through to December,” said Kevin Farrell, WFP country director for Zimbabwe, in a statement issued Monday.

“However, the most critical time of the year is the lean season which starts in December and runs through to April. So the worst is yet to come and we urgently need pledges for this period as well,” he added.

Concerns about hunger in Zimbabwe have deepened with the destruction of informal homes and businesses in the country’s cities. The demolitions began in May under the auspices of “Operation Murambatsvina” (a Shona word meaning “drive out trash”) – ostensibly aimed at ending crime and clearing urban areas of illegal settlements.

The executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Anna Tibaijuka, has condemned the campaign – this after international outrage about the demolitions prompted U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to send her on a fact-finding mission to Zimbabwe. In a report released in July, she estimated that the campaign had left 700,000 people homeless, without the means to earn a living – or both.

South African churches have mounted a relief drive for Zimbabweans affected by Murambatsvina, sending 37 tonnes of food and nearly 5,000 blankets to the country this month. Additional supplies of beans, oil and maize are now awaiting clearance from Zimbabwean authorities.

“We have been asked to get a certificate to show that the beans we are sending to Zimbabwe are GMO-free (free of genetically modified organisms),” Eddie Makue, deputy secretary general of the South African Council of Churches, told IPS.

“In fact, we have just sent a certificate to show that the maize we are supplying is not genetically modified. Now the Zimbabwean authorities need another certificate for beans.”

In a supplementary budget presented Aug. 16, Zimbabwean Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa scrapped duties on maize and wheat imports. He also announced a temporary measure, subject to review, which stripped the government-controlled Grain Marketing Board of the monopoly for importing and selling grain.

Private importers would now be allowed to import maize, the country’s staple crop, said Murerwa.

Authorities have previously been accused of preventing food supplies from being distributed to opposition supporters, and others perceived to be critical of government.