Short-term fixes won’t end food shortages in Sahel nations

This year’s food crisis in Niger - which prompted a media blitz of images of skeletal babies - was a mere symptom revealing chronic problems that grip the region, leaving its people teetering on the brink of disaster most years, UN and Sahel government officials say. Representatives of the United Nations, governments, NGOs and donors met in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, last week in talks marking the first time development and humanitarian aid experts joined to discuss how to tackle the root causes of recurring food shortages in sub-Saharan Africa’s arid region. “This year’s food emergency [in Niger] revealed a longstanding nutritional crisis,” Seidou Bakari, head of Niger’s food crisis unit, told reporters at the close of the conference. “We live a nutritional crisis every day, and this we must attack with development.” The 15-16 November consultations are seen as a first step toward minimising killer food shortages by reducing poverty in the region through development strategies. The UN estimates that of the 68 million people in the nine Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Chad, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal, some 32 million suffer malnutrition. Since 1972 the countries have seen severe food shortages nearly every 10 years. “The fight against poverty and for development is the only sustainable solution [to these] chronic crises,” Margareta Wahlstrom, UN deputy emergency relief coordinator, said. Among 19 draft recommendations emerging from the talks is one that calls on humanitarian and development agencies to contribute to bolstering local populations’ capacity for self-sufficiency. Mali’s head of food security Lansry Nana Yaya Haidara said at the close of the talks, “Investment must be in development - with an emphasis on the know-how and the capabilities of local populations.” The preliminary recommendations - which are currently under review by participants of the meeting - also include: acknowledging the “central” role of women and community support networks in reducing mother and child malnutrition, expanding access to health care for the most at-risk populations, putting in place national food security plans, and creating a coordination and information network for food security surveillance in the sub-region. The recommendations also call for replenishing national food stocks - which Niger’s Bakari says must be an immediate priority in the wake of this year’s shortages - and helping households rebuild their production capacity through assistance such as seeds, fertiliser and livestock. Participants agreed that communication and national early warning systems must be improved. The recommendations point out which sector or sectors would be responsible – from government, UN, NGOs and other institutions. Wahlstrom told reporters last week, “This requires an engagement by multiple actors.” The UN will form a multi-sector committee to monitor the implementation of the proposals, which are expected to be finalised next week. Sahel government officials and humanitarian experts acknowledge that attacking the root causes of malnutrition will be difficult, but say there is no alternative if the world is to avoid deepening crises in the region. “I don’t claim this is easy. I claim this is necessary,” Wahlstrom said. Aid workers say that while this year’s crushing malnutrition in Niger and in other countries was triggered by 2004’s locusts and drought that destroyed crops and pasture, the deeper roots of the problem existed long before the natural disasters hit. And those causes will exist long after aid groups leave unless some longer-term approaches are taken. The UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Niger in a recent report pointed to a number of “structural” causes of the country’s chronic food shortages: unequal land distribution in some areas, soil erosion, lack of knowledge of sound agricultural practices, animal diseases and lack of expertise, low education levels and insufficient basic services like transport, school and health care. “The real problem here is poverty,” said Nigel Tricks, Niger country director for Concern Worldwide, who has been in the country for over a year. “Quick fixes will never work. For one thing there is a need for a far better understanding of what causes malnutrition here.” In the debate over aid, he said, he is hearing a slight shift lately from a focus on emergency fixes to longer-term solutions. UN officials say another issue seen as key to heading off crises like that in Niger this year is the flexibility and accessibility of funds. The recommendations propose a sub-regional emergency response fund and mechanisms to more quickly mobilise funds, materials and workers to respond to disasters. Participants at the talks included officials of Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal; representatives of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, World Food Programme, UN Children’s Fund, Food and Agriculture Organisation, World Health Organisation; NGOs including the International Red Cross, Oxfam, World Vision, and Action Against Hunger; the International Monetary Fund and European Commission; and CILSS. Niger’s Bakari said Sahel countries must call the world’s attention to the region’s sweeping malnutrition and make that a basis for aiding development. “All countries in the region have acute malnutrition rates that are far too high,” he said. “It is inadmissible.” The UN’s Wahlstrom added, “High malnutrition levels are undercutting the future of these countries.”