Model for grassroots humanitarian participation - WFP

The small Southern African kingdom of Swaziland, hit by three consecutive years of food shortages, has emerged as something of a model for grassroots participation in tackling emergencies. "Swaziland, despite its size, can teach the world lessons about addressing problems through community solutions," World Food Programme (WFP) Deputy Executive Director Sheila Sisulu told IRIN in an interview. Visiting the country last week on an inspection tour of food security projects, Sisulu, a former South African diplomat, said some of the innovations she witnessed - the integration of traditional values with 21st century management and technology - might find their way into WFP policy. During the ongoing food security emergency in Swaziland, the major relief groups such as WFP will continue to be the primary food providers. Sisulu's organisation last week pledged US $12 million in immediate food aid for 132,000 Swazis in need. By early 2004, the number of Swazis without food is expected to double. Grassroots involvement in food relief efforts have ensured that all those in need have been accounted for. It also gives communities a sense of ownership in emergency operations, which can lessen the theft of relief supplies. Sisulu, who attended high school in Swaziland, said her visit was a reminder of what rural African societies can offer. "I was particularly impressed by community garden schemes, where the people volunteer their labour on communal plots. One hundred percent of the vegetables grown are given to orphanages. Such projects are essential because of AIDS, which is bringing in its wake parentless children in great numbers," she said. The United Nation's Children's Fund, which is involved in child food aid programmes with WFP, estimates that by the end of the decade 110,000 orphans, comprising perhaps one-eighth of the projected population of Swaziland in 2010, will need assistance. "My trip here is to draw attention to not only the food crisis in the country, but to what the communities are doing about it with the assistance of aid organisations," said Sisulu. "This is not some distant foreign giver imposing on the people how things must be done. Local input informs us how best to reach people." WFP went to Swazi chiefs for their views on aid distribution and received permission to use local women as food distribution managers, in spite of sceptics who felt Swazi men would not accept women in charge of operations. But WFP's Swaziland office recognised the traditional role of women as custodians of the farm granary and the cooking hut pantry. WFP is taking a holistic approach to Swaziland's food shortage, accepting that drought is not the only factor contributing to diminished harvests. AIDS, gender inequality and poverty have negatively affected food supplies as much as poor rainfall. "When I came to Swaziland in the sixties as a student, there was food self-sufficiency here. There wasn't a great surplus, but people managed, and at school we always got vegetables from the neighbours. That is why it pains me so to return and find food shortages, which are in some ways attributable to AIDS," Sisulu said. The days are over when food aid organisations began and ended their work by dropping off large sacks of grain. Education campaigns that seek to change attitudes as well as impart information are now part of relief work. AIDS is devastating the agricultural workforce, exacerbating food shortages. To combat AIDS, unhelpful attitudes towards sex and women have to be challenged, using traditional structures, Sisulu believes. "These structures are there, and they can be utilised. Young men in many African countries go through initiation rites. In the media, all you read about are bad things like mutilations. The real meaning and value of the rituals is not mentioned. These are passages, rites to manhood," she said. "Even today, when a boy goes to his fiancée's parents to ask for her hand in marriage, they will want to know if he underwent initiation. If he didn't, they would refuse permission. 'You are not a man, you are a boy. How can we give our daughter to a boy?' The rituals involve more than circumcision. They are instruction. The young men are told that if you respect women, you respect yourself. This is the message we need to instil with AIDS and abuse: men must take responsibility for themselves. There is no better way to pass on this message than through traditional rites of initiation into manhood," Sisulu said. Sisulu's views are not based on nostalgia for traditional African ways, but recognise the results achieved when culture and grassroots involvement are brought into policy decisions. "It is a matter of what works. If traditional structures can be utilised for education, for more efficient operations, this is worthwhile. In many places, if we can tackle poverty and AIDS through grassroots initiatives, there is a greater chance of achieving food security," Sisulu said.