More than 20-million people in the Horn of Africa are at risk of famine, in conditions the head of the World Food Programme (WFP) described recently as the worst in his experience.
James Morris, executive director of the WFP, the United Nations’s food aid organisation, has warned the international community that millions of people in Kenya, Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Tanzania are now at risk because of drought.
The rain cycle in the area has decreased steadily over the past decade and the WFP is running out of food for 3,5-million Kenyans who need emergency aid. Morris warned that the death toll would rise if sufficient funds were not forthcoming. ”These people have run out of food and water,” he said of north-eastern Kenya. ”Unless we reach them all very soon, we will run out of time.”
The recent Kenyan corruption scandals should not affect aid, he added. ”We don’t do our work through governments, we do it through NGOs or do it ourselves … Children have nothing to do with corruption, they’re often the victims of it.”
The director acknowledged that aid often only appears in times of catastrophe. ”The whole world needs to do a better job on early-warning systems,” he said. ”The world never responds as quickly as would perfectly be the case.”
One of the primary challenges, he said, is catching world attention.
The film The Constant Gardener, for which actress Rachel Weisz has just won an Oscar, helped create awareness of the problem and the WFP’s work. ”People pay a heck of a lot more attention to her when she talks than they would to me,” the director said.
Donors also tend to respond swiftly when a crisis is covered by the media. ”Those crises that get the most attention in the media have the best chance of being funded,” Morris said. While an estimated 25 000 people die of hunger every day, ”90% of them will not die in a high-profile situation”.
Half of the countries affected by hunger, he said, belong to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, and one issue to be addressed is the role of these nations, from which there is a shortage of donations. ”We need more support from the Gulf region. They do much of their work on a bilateral basis, government-to-government. My view is that humanitarian support is much more appropriately done through the international, multilateral institutions.” Saudi Arabia has not yet donated in the current crisis, and while the WFP needs to raise 10% of its budget from the Middle East currently less than 1% is forthcoming.
Somalia faces serious logistical problems around food delivery because of the insecurity in the country and in the wake of attacks by pirates on aid vessels.
Morris said nearly 1,5-million Somalians are in need of emergency food aid but their situation is perilous because access is so difficult. ”We urge leaders and rival militia to set aside their differences and guarantee safe passage to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe,” he said. — Â