Women forced to search for grains in anthills in order to survive
Agencies' emergency assistance to nearly 6 million people across the Sahel is less than one third funded - Pix: Oxfam |
A coalition of aid agencies last Monday warned that millions
of people across the Sahel will be left hungry in the coming months unless
multi-million dollar funding shortage for crisis response is addressed.
The April 23 warning came in the wake of a “huge gap in funding” for aid projects aimed at
preventing the deepening food crisis in the Sahel is threatening to leave
millions of people hungry in the coming months.
Countries like Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Chad, Senegal and The Gambia are the hardest hit by the crisis following
poor harvest and high food prices in the region since 2010.
Action Against Hunger, Oxfam, Save the Children and World
Vision are aiming to provide emergency assistance to nearly six million people
across the region but say they have so far been able to secure funding for less
than a third of this essential work.
“Nearly US$250 million is needed by all four agencies, but
only $52 million has been raised so far,” they revealed.
Action Against Hunger plans to reach 1 million but so far
has only managed to raise a third of what it needs. Equally Oxfam has only
raised a third of what it needs to reach 1.2 million people. Save the Children
which has plans to help 2.5 million people has only managed to raise 15 per
cent of its budget and World Vision plans to help 1.1 million people are only
20 per cent funded.
Dangerous period
In a serious tone, Steve Cockburn, Oxfam’s Regional Policy
Manager in West Africa said: “There is no doubt that families across West
Africa are entering a dangerous period, and we have already seen women forced
to search for grains in anthills in order to survive. We are ready to bring
assistance to millions of people, but time is running out to get programs in
place before the crisis hits its peak and funding is urgently needed.”
“We urge the UN to organize a pledging conference as soon as
possible to ensure that 15 million people who risk going hungry are not left
without the assistance they so desperately need,” Oxfam’s Cockburn exhorts.
Serious shortfall
Collectively, this shortfall is equivalent to over 2 million
people being deprived of life-saving assistance and, if it remains, is likely
to result in significant cutbacks in the agencies’ aid programmes.
The Gambia is not covered by the four agencies,
however, the United Nations (UN) agencies helping to provide immediate food
assistance to thousands of Gambians, has also been hit by the funding crisis.
Their parent body, the UN, has so far only managed to raise
less than half of the projected $724 million required to tackle the crisis,
while the funding gap is likely to grow further as the situation deteriorates
and more money is required.
Malnutrition rising
Amid increasing malnutrition levels across the Sahel, the
aid agencies are calling for a donor pledging conference to rally wealthy
governments and donors to generously fund the total aid effort for the food
crisis.
In Niger, Save the Children has only been able to
deliver vital cash support to 1 in 10 of the families they plan to reach. “We
are already seeing the number of malnourished children needing treatment rise,
and unless we can scale up our programmes, it will continue to do so,” said
Jeremy Stoner, Save the Children’s West Africa Director. “If we act early we
can save thousands of lives. We have known that a hunger crisis is brewing in
the Sahel for months, but without funding, there is little we can do to stop
it.” “Addressing malnutrition – including in its most acute form here in West
and Central Africa - should be high on the agenda of G8 leaders when they meet
in the US next month,” Stoner stressed.
Patricia Hoorelbeke, Action Against Hunger’s Regional
Representative for West Africa, says: “In the Chadian Sahel, the global
acute malnutrition rate already exceeds the emergency threshold of 15 per cent
and admissions to our feeding centres have increased dramatically.”
More than 2,000 severely malnourished children were admitted
for therapeutic nutritional care in Kanem last month alone. We have deployed
additional emergency staff and scaled up our programmes but further action is
needed to prevent the situation from deteriorating, Hoorelbeke said.
In Mauritania, Oxfam is aiming to reach at least
70,000 people with desperately needed food and clean water. However, with a
funding gap of over $1.3 million for its work in Mauritania the agency will
only be able to reach half of these people.
In the Gambia, the situation has already forced rural
farmers to resort to just one meal a day, selling off their livestock and
eating seeds and grain originally set aside for planting.
Last month, World Food Prorgamme’s Gambia Country Director,
Vitoria Ginja said: “We need to intervene immediately to avoid a further
deterioration in the nutrition status of the most vulnerable, especially women
and children. We will provide rice and peas as well as fortified foods that
contain important nutrients, such as oil with vitamins A & D, fortified
cereal and iodized salt.”
Out of time
“We’re at a key moment in the fight to protect lives of
children suffering crippling hunger and malnutrition. We’re already seeing
people taking extreme measures to cope with the crisis,” said Chris Palusky,
Response Manager for World Vision, who revealed “Some families are resorting to
eating wild leaves; others are barely able to feed children one meal a day. We
have to act now before the crisis reaches its peak when the most vulnerable
will be among those dying from preventable hunger and malnutrition.”
In Niger the lack of funding has prevented World Vision from
reaching over 15,000 malnourished children with a life-saving nutrition project
and 22,000 people in need of clean water.
“This is a desperate situation," Palusky added.
"We've seen how our relief and rehabilitation projects can help save lives
and protect communities against future crises when funding is available.”
Fund-starved Sahel
Drought and food shortages in the Sahel are threatening
lives, with over 20 million people affected, most of whom farmers who found
themselves in a catch-22 situation.
In February 2012, the UN and international aid agencies warn
of a humanitarian catastrophe at a time when “international donors are starving
Africa’s Sahel region of money” needed to avert a disaster.
By Modou S. Joof
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