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WFP warns of funding shortage
27/10/2006 11:36 - (SA)
Johannesburg - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has warned that a massive funding shortfall is forcing food aid cuts to as many as 4.3 million people across southern Africa who remain chronically vulnerable despite this year's reportedly good harvests across the region.
The WFP said on Friday that the $60m funding shortfall came just as the annual "lean season" approached, when people had to wait until next March or April for the next harvest.
Due to a lack of donor support, since September WFP offices across the region had begun to reduce the level of food assistance provided to mother and child nutrition centres, school-feeding projects and patients receiving medication for HIV/Aids or tuberculosis.
People too poor to buy seeds
The WFP said countries such as Malawi, Namibia and Swaziland were facing cuts of between 80 and 100%.
Amir Abdulla, WFP's regional director for southern Africa, said: "After the good harvests were reported, WFP scaled down general food assistance to concentrate on the people with the most chronic needs - such as those with HIV/Aids."
In addition to HIV/Aids, the region suffered from grinding poverty and other diseases like malaria, tuberculosis and pellagra.
Despite some abundant rains this year, millions of people were too poor to buy seeds and fertilisers to grow food or buy grains once they were harvested. He said some areas still had insufficient rain or even floods that washed out crops.
WFP needs $17m
In Zimbabwe alone, a May 2006 vulnerability assessment identified 1.4 million people as being in critical need of food assistance.
Yet in October, WFP was forced to scale down operations in the country to roughly half of the 900 000 people it was originally targeting.
Funding shortages forced cuts in the urban feeding and school-feeding programmes, and a suspension of mobile feeding in rural areas.
Abdulla said: "Further reductions may have to be imposed unless resourcing improves." According to revised figures, WFP needed at least $17m just to get Zimbabwe through the lean season, when it expected to target some 1.9 million people.
Zimbabwe was one of seven countries under a regional WFP operation, which began in January 2005 and was scheduled to continue through December 2007.
The other countries under the operation - and facing similar shortfalls - were Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland and Zambia.
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