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Millions
of Southern Africans face acute hunger
Relief
Web
September
12, 2005
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/SODA-6G735M?OpenDocument&rc=1&cc=zwe
About 10 million people
in southern Africa face severe shortages of food in coming months, threatening
a crisis that could dwarf recent events in the west African nation of
Niger. CARE estimates that some 700,000 metric tons of food is needed
immediately to alleviate the crisis.
The situation is especially
difficult in the countries of Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Millions of
southern Africans live with chronic food insecurity, rarely able to obtain
enough food for their families. Southern Africa now is undergoing what
aid agencies describe as an acute phase in its chronic food insecurity
cycles. This is the fourth consecutive year of severe shortages, and many
people have exhausted their typical coping mechanisms of selling off livestock
or farming tools to buy food.
This long-term problem
has worsened over time because of a number of inter-related factors, referred
to as the region's "triple threat:"
- Rainfall has been
unreliable. While there has not actually been a drought, rains in many
areas have started late, finished early, and left gaps during critical
periods that prevented proper development of crops
- AIDS has killed
millions of adults in their most productive years. Others are chronically
ill, and their care consumes their families' time and resources
- National governments
are under-resourced, with service agencies operating with as few as
40 percent of their positions filled
Millions face acute
hunger in coming months as their food stores from this year's harvest
are depleted before the next harvest in April 2006.
This crisis calls
for combining immediate food distributions with strategies for strengthening
agricultural production and non-agricultural incomes over the long term.
CARE calls on institutional
donors to increase amounts of food available now so aid will be in the
region by December, and to help with longer-term solutions.
Immediately, farmers
need seeds, tools, fertilizers and pesticides to be ready for the rainy
season in November and December. Small-scale irrigation, crop and nutrition
diversification, asset creation and protection as well as non-farm income
earning opportunities need long-term support if we are to see any sustainable
change.
Long-term financial
and technical support is needed to improve availability and quality of
basic health services and education systems, so that people can be healthy
and able to address their own needs.
CARE fights root causes
of poverty in the world's poorest communities, including more than 25
countries in sub-Saharan Africa. We place special focus on working alongside
poor women because, equipped with the proper resources, women have the
power to help whole families and entire communities escape poverty.
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