Beyond Niger: Food crisis in Africa
1 September 2005Beyond the media attention on Niger, up to a dozen other African countries are facing severe food shortages this year. A complex combination of causes, including weak economies, climate issues and environmental degradation, poor agricultural policies, conflict and population movement have played a part, with one uniting them all – chronic poverty.
Huge and rapid rises in prices for staple foods - in some cases almost tripling - have put food beyond the reach of millions of rural poor. The UN estimates that more than 30 million people in East, West and Southern Africa will need food aid in coming months.
In Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Chad, Niger and parts of Sudan and Somalia the crisis has already reached emergency levels, while food shortages are expected to continue in Eritrea, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Mozambique, Mauritania and Zambia.
Through its long-term development programmes, CARE International has been monitoring and responding to these shortages, providing immediate relief where appropriate and working towards improving and securing the food supply for future years.
In Sudan, CARE has been distributing seeds, training farmers, establishing farmer field schools and constructing hafirs (small reservoirs), as well as creating village committees to manage these resources in the long-term. Working with the State Ministry of Agriculture and Water Department, this assistance has increased farmers’ production by 35 percent.
In Ethiopia, CARE is distributing food, running therapeutic care programmes for children suffering from severe malnutrition, and undertaking emergency agricultural recovery and water and sanitation work on top of its ongoing programmes.
In Southern Africa, including Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe, CARE is drawing on lessons learned from the last major drought in 2002 to help people prevent and recover from food shortages.
In Niger we are carrying out emergency food distributions to over 1 million people. CARE’s long-term response takes a holistic approach to food insecurity, involving amongst other things agricultural production, natural resources management, crisis mitigation, micro-finance, education, nutrition, reproductive health and HIV&AIDS.
CARE's response, however, is affected by a global shortfall of resources to respond to emergencies, particularly food emergencies. In early June, the United Nations reported that it has received less than one-third of what is needed to provide aid to 26 million people. And on 30 August the World Food Program reported concerns that under half of its highly-publicised Niger appeal has been funded.
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