WFP hamstrung by lack of formal appeal for aid

The World Food Programme (WFP) hopes to reach up to three million Zimbabweans in need of assistance between October 2005 and April 2006, but the lack of a clear appeal for aid by the government has made it difficult to raise the resources required. WFP spokesman Mike Huggins told IRIN that the aid agency estimated some 4.3 million people would need assistance in the months ahead. Recent figures showed that drought conditions in Zimbabwe had reduced the maize harvest to around 600,000 mt, against a national consumption requirement of 1.8 million mt. The national grain procurer, the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), was planning to import 600,000 mt to build its strategic reserves. But food security analysts have expressed serious concerns, saying the figures did not add up and the government, already strapped for hard currency, was unlikely to follow through on its promises. To date there has been no official appeal for food aid. WFP said this made it harder to gather resources for scaling up its interventions. "The government has said it would welcome contributions from the international community that came without conditions. We could scale up our programmes, but it does make it much harder to go to donors with an appeal for such large-scale assistance without having a clear and unambiguous appeal from the government for assistance," Huggins noted. WFP was currently reaching 1.1 million people through its vulnerable-group feeding programmes, which targeted children in schools, people suffering the effects of HIV/AIDS, pregnant and lactating mothers, and the elderly. The agency wants to expand its programmes to reach more people in need, which will require 220,000mt of food, firstly "for 1.3 million people, from July 2005 to June 2006, through expanded support for orphans and vulnerable children, school feeding programmes, home-based care for the chronically ill, and other vulnerable-group feeding". Huggins added that the agency then hoped to broaden its programmes to reach another three million people at the peak of the food crisis, in the traditional lean season when the previous harvest has been exhausted. Bringing the total number of people it aims to reach with food aid to 4.3 million. "The bulk of the food is needed from October 2005 to April 2006, and we need to receive significant donations from the international community now in order to assure there's food on the tables of the people who need it during that critical time," he said. The challenge would be to raise resources from the international community and move the food to where it was needed. WFP's regional appeal has requested US $266 million for several countries currently facing food shortages in Southern Africa, including Zimbabwe, but so far the agency has received just $75 million. "It's critical to get the money now, as it takes so long to procure and move food to the countries that will require it, come the lean season," Huggins said.