By as early as next month, millions of people in the southern African region will face ”massive food shortages” owing to what could only be described as a ”funding crisis” in the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations agency warned on Friday.
”The situation is incredibly serious,” said James Morris, WFP executive director and special envoy for Southern Africa.
”In Mozambique, rations for hundreds of thousands of people may have to be cut, or they may get nothing at all unless our appeal receives an immediate cash injection. It’s already too late for food aid to arrive from abroad to meet needs in October and November.”
In July, the WFP appealed for US$308-million to fund some 540 000 tons of food — enough to feed 6,5-million people until June of next year in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Swaziland, Lesotho and Malawi.
It received only 24% of that amount. Today the agency has unmet needs amounting to US$235-million.
According to Mike Huggins, WPF spokesperson for southern Africa, the funding crisis was compounded by countries like Zimbabwe, which account for two thirds of the WFP’s appeal for southern Africa.
”The WFP’s appeal for southern Africa is based on an 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,” Huggins said.
He said a memorandum of understanding, which was signed on Thursday by the Zimbabwean government and the WFP’s country director in Harare, was expected to help facilitate the flow of food aid to millions of needy beneficiaries.
However, given the current funding level, the entire region is expected to experience food pipeline breaks by early next year, which will coincide with the lean season when the general food deficit is the greatest.
And compounding all of these food shortage problems is of course southern Africa’s HIV/Aids epidemic.
”HIV/Aids and food shortages go hand in hand in this region,” said Mike Sackett, WFP regional director for Southern Africa.
”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’s an immediate and sustained response from donors.”
The WFP, the world’s largest humanitarian agency, has been carrying out emergency feeding in the region since 2001. It reached its peak of operations last year when 10,2-million people received WFP food aid.
Globally, the WFP fed 72-million people in 82 countries in 2002, including most of the world’s refugees and internally displaced people. – Sapa