Concern rises over slow response to food shortages

Analysts and donors are becoming increasingly concerned about slow responses to Tanzania's food shortages and the anecdotal evidence of the impact that it is having on pockets of the populations most at risk. While the government has been distributing subsidised maize to 58 districts considered most vulnerable, prices are still high in some regions and there are unconfirmed reports of the food not reaching some of those targeted due to the lack of resources. Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) expressed its concern on Friday at the slow reaction to its appeal to donors for US $17 million in food aid to support two million people who face a severe drought between December and March 2004. WFP Country Director Nicole Menage told IRIN that the US government had committed 15,000 mt of maize, but this amounted to just one third of the required 45,000 mt. In addition to the operation due to start on 1 December, Menage said that money was urgently required to enable WFP to buy food regionally, rather than wait for it to be shipped to Tanzania. "There is quite a substantial gap and we are anxious to receive donations, especially cash, in the next week," she said. "Others have indicated interest, but there are no firm commitments." The WFP appeal is one element of a three-pronged approach to Tanzania's food shortages. An appeal was also made for 3,200 mt of emergency seed, which will, in part, be used to address the effects of drought compounded by HIV/AIDS pandemic. In August, the government pledged to release 32,450 mt of maize from its strategic grain reserve to sell at subsidised prices to those most affected. An official of the Famine Early Warning System (FEWS), Gerald Runyoro, told IRIN on Friday that the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), alongside Norway and Ireland, had committed 570 mt of seed, valued at $960,000. However, this is only a sixth of what is needed, he said. Runyoro also said that there were unconfirmed reports that some of the districts were lacking the funds to transport the subsidised food into the villages and that, in some regions, people were resorting to extreme coping mechanisms, such as eating wild fruits. "If that is happening, then we are in a serious situation," he said. A recent FEWS report also highlighted the private sector's slow response to the government's incentives to involve them in alleviating the food situation. "The government also removed import taxes on maize and rice to encourage private traders to import cereals to offset part of the estimated 350,000 mt food deficit during the 2003/04 market year. However, traders' response has remained slow, and less than 10 percent of these commodities have been imported into the country," FEWS said in its report issued last week. The Tanzanian Prime Minister's Office, which is in charge of disaster management, said on Friday that everything was under control and there had not been any complaints yet. But, sources added, the ministry in charge would be undertaking an evaluation mission to assess the effectiveness of the distribution of subsidised food. However, an official in the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, John Mgodo, said that there were concerns over the relatively high price of maize which countrywide is averaging at 18,000 shillings ($18) per 100 kg, but was fetching 25,000 Tanzanian shillings ($25) in the Musoma region near Lake Victoria, and in some remote villages with poor access was 30,000 shillings ($30). In an effort to confirm anecdotal evidence of the impact of the food shortages and establish who were most at risk, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said it was sending teams into the field to monitor key indicators such as HIV prevalence, tuberculosis, migration to urban areas and one-parent households. "We need to get a better picture of what is happening so the food can be better targeted, as the need is more acute in some areas than it is in others," Rob Carr, UNICEF's emergency coordinator in Dar es Salaam, said on Friday. "We learned from southern Africa that it was much more complicated than just where the harvests had failed. If WFP is not going to get everything they ask for, they will have to prioritise," he said.