Responding To Drought And Conflict In Mali
Array See the rest here: Responding To Drought And Conflict In Mali
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Array See the rest here: Responding To Drought And Conflict In Mali
By Tom Murphy
The ongoing drought in the Sahel has taken the back seat in the news as of late to the various happenings in Mali. Not that the drought was getting much attention in the first place. On Friday, Iparticipationin a Google+ Hangout with World Food Programme staff who are supporting Malian refugees inMauritania. People from Mali began crossing into Mauritania in late January and the flow of refugees has continued at a steady pace every since. A woman fills containers from a well in Natriguel, in the drought-stricken south
By Tom Murphy
The official announcement of famine was declared in the Horn of Africa last July. A year earlier, theUSAID Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET)warned of low rainfall in the region due to La Nina which historically is associated with a low rainfall in the Horn from October to December. FEWS NET issued another warning in June, but mobilization for support did not pick up until the famine declaration. The warnings succeeded, but the actions were a bit too late. Fortunately, nations like Kenya and Ethiopia learned from the past droughts
In a second post on the impending UN Arms Trade Treaty, Oxfam arms trade policy adviser Martin Butcher discusses the links between Libya’s arms race and hunger in the Sahel The growing food crisis provoked by drought in the Sahel is affecting millions of people. This crisis has been deepened by the conflict in Mali sparked by
“Global food prices again rose in the first quarter [of 2012] on the back of higher oil prices, putting millions of people at risk of not having enough to eat,” according to a report released Wednesday by the World Bank, Agence France-Presse reports (4/25). The index showed the cost of food rose eight percent between December 2011 and March 2012 after four months of decline at the end of last year, Reuters notes, adding, “Even after the latest rise, food prices remain one percent below a year ago and six percent below the February 2011 historical peak, the World Bank said” (4/25). According to the Los Angeles Times, “In Africa, prices are especially steep due to the continent’s dependence on imports as well as trade restrictions between nations, hoarding, civil unrest and bad weather” (Hsu, 4/25). “The World Bank said it was hard to predict whether the surge in prices this year would lead to a new global food crisis since there is no mechanism to identify the onset of a global food crisis,” Reuters writes (4/25).
April 24, 2012 Aid agencies are continuing to sound the alarm about the crisis in the Sahel admitting that they are well short of their funding needs. News24 reports: “A huge gap in funding for aid projects … is threatening to leave millions of people hungry in the coming months,” a coalition of aid agencies said in a statement. Action Against Hunger, Oxfam, Save the Children and World Vision said they have raised only $52m of $250m needed to provide emergency assistance to six million people in the region. The aid agencies have called for a donor pledging conference to rally wealthy governments and donors
A coalition of “[a]id agencies said on Monday they are facing a multi-million dollar funding shortage to deal with a food crisis in the Sahel,” News24 reports. “Action Against Hunger, Oxfam, Save the Children, and World Vision said they have raised only $52 million of $250 million needed to provide emergency assistance to six million people in the region,” the news service writes, adding that the groups “have called for a donor pledging conference to rally wealthy governments and donors” (4/23). They also “are calling on G8 leaders to consider the Sahel crisis at their summit next month,” according to VOA News.
“Higher global food prices are hampering attempts to hit targets for food and nutrition,” and “rates of child and maternal mortality [a]re still ‘unacceptably high’ — partly as a result of surging commodity prices,” according to the Global Monitoring Report 2012, released by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday in Washington, D.C., the Guardian reports (Elliot, 4/20). The report says rising food prices have affected some countries’ ability to reach certain Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a World Bank/IMF press release notes.
In this post in the Center for Global Development’s (CGD) “Global Health Policy” blog, Amanda Glassman, the director of global health policy and a research fellow at the center, examines the connection between smallholder farming, agricultural productivity and nutrition. She writes, “For some time now, the food security movement has been stating that improving the agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers improves nutritional status.” Glassman cites a statement delivered by G8 Foreign Ministers Meeting Chairs after a meeting in Washington, D.C., last week, which states, “Donor and partner government investments in agricultural development have proven to be one of the most effective means to promote broad-based economic growth, especially when they are nutrition-sensitive and target smallholder farmers and women.” She writes, “Are investments in agricultural development directed to small farmers ‘proven’ to improve nutritional status? I don’t think so,” and asks, “What is the G8 talking about?” (4/18).
In the final article of a six-part series titled “Starving in India” in the Wall Street Journal’s “India Real Time” blog, series author Ashwin Parulkar of the Centre for Equity Studies writes that the research conducted for the articles shows “that India needs a new legal framework for dealing with chronic hunger and starvation.” He notes that “[t]he draft version of the National Food Security Bill that is being considered by India’s Parliament would guarantee discounted food-grains to 50 percent of the urban population and 75 percent of the rural population.” While “[m]uch of the debate on the measure has been over its cost and scope, … my biggest problem with the bill is the way it deals with starvation,” leaving it up to state governments to identify starving individuals and provide them with two meals a day for six months, Parulkar writes.
“U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday announced the appointment of 27 world leaders to address the issue of maternal and child nutrition in order to secure a future for nations around the world,” Xinhua/Shanghai Daily reports (4/11). UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake chaired the first meeting of the Lead Group for the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement, which brought together the “leaders of countries, organizations and sectors working to improve nutrition,” the U.N. News Centre reports. “The SUN Movement focuses on the critical 1,000-day window between pregnancy and a child’s second birthday, when proper nutrition can mean the difference between health and sickness, life and death,” according to the news service.
“[A]nti-poverty advocates [are] urg[ing] President Obama to ‘find political will to end global hunger’ during the upcoming G8 Summit at Camp David,” Inter Press Service reports. Members of ActionAid last week held signs in front of the White House “that read ‘Obama: Find the Will to be a Hunger Hero at the G8,’ next to a cutout of the president in a superhero suit,” the news service writes (Panagoda, 4/7). And “[a] new report by ONE Campaign said increased donor support for agricultural investment plans in 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Central America could lift about 50 million people out of extreme poverty,” Reuters notes. “ONE said it would launch its ‘Thrive’ campaign in France, Germany, Britain and the United States to highlight the need to tackle the causes of hunger,” the news service notes.
The Guardian examines child malnutrition in Chad, where “[r]ising therapeutic feeding center admissions highlight the growing urgency of the situation in one of Sahel’s driest, most remote areas.” Chad’s Kanem region “is one of the worst-hit regions in the current food crisis, which UNICEF estimates is affecting approximately 15 million people in the Sahel,” the news service writes. “‘The needs are many and varied in Chad, as we are facing multiple crises,’ said Anthony Lake, executive director of UNICEF, during a visit to Mao,” according to the Guardian. The news service writes, “Chad has a cereal deficit of about 400,000 tons this year, and stocks of only about 40,000 tons” (Hicks, 4/10). “The United Nations has warned that at least one million children under the age of five across Africa’s Sahel region are at risk of dying from severe famine and malnutrition due to drought,” Press TV reports, adding, “UNICEF said it needs $120 million to tackle the looming crisis” (4/10).
For several months, humanitarian agencies have been warning about a looming food crisis in the western Sahel region of Africa. Poor rains, bad harvests and rising food prices (which are linked to rising oil prices) have created an emergency situation in several countries. One of the hardest hit countries is Chad, which was visited by UNICEF Director Anthony Lake (video below). Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Cameroon, Nigeria and Senega are are at risk of severe acute malnutrition. In all, UNICEF says 1 million children are at risk. The good news, such as it is, is that this week international mainstream media started to pay attention to this issue.
