Up to 75 percent of people living in and around Burkina Faso's major cities are at risk of food insecurity as well as having to cut the amount they spend on healthcare, education and other daily expenditures to cope with rising food prices, according to a July government and World Food Programme survey.
Prices of most staple products have been rising steadily in Burkina Faso since October 2007. Oil is 50 percent more expensive than in the same period last year, another staple sorghum is up by a quarter, and local rice by 27 percent, according to WFP.
In the capital Ouagadougou, rice prices are US$0.95 per kg making them some of the highest in the region and on a par with those in Conakry, the capital of Guinea.
High food prices led to food riots in several cities across the country in February and March this year.
The World Food Programme and non-governmental organisations will launch food security operations in Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina's second largest city, while the government says it is focusing on long-term solutions aimed at increasing domestic food production by 13 percent over the next few years.
"With food prices so high in Ouagadougou and Bobo Dioulasso it is clear that we have no choice but to launch an intervention," said Olga Keita, programme director at the World Food Programme.
Poor hardest hit
Three quarters of Ouagadougou's population is classified as 'poor' or' very poor' according to a WFP and government rapid assessment released on 16 July, which showed these groups spend approximately 75 percent of their household income procuring food. This can leave little to nothing left over for other basic necessities like healthcare, transport, water or education fees.
Some families, particularly among the poorest 15 percent of the population have reduced the number of meals they eat to just one a day, are eating fewer foods and smaller quantities at each meal.
Among the very poor, rice, oil, meat, milk and vegetables are already off the menu, and the survey showed some are turning to wild roots and leaves to supplement their diets, leading aid agencies to fear malnutrition, particularly among children and pregnant women.
The survey also notes a rise in banditry, crime and prostitution linked to high food price rises.
Urban response
Launching a large-scale urban response is a new approach for WFP and its partners.
"It is more complicated to launch a programme in a city because targeting the right people is more difficult and lots of agencies lack experience in it," Keita told IRIN.
But she hopes the problems will be balanced out by advantages such as higher population concentrations and shorter transport routes, which should cut costs.
WFP, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the government and NGOs plan to distribute ration tickets and food vouchers to at least 100,000 city residents as well as subsidising their medical prescriptions and in some cases school fees.
Meanwhile the government has imposed emergency measures in 2008 including removing import duties on basic goods such as rice, millet and salt, removing sales tax on wheat and cooking oil, banning cereal exports and attempting to fix the price of some grains.
Over the long term the government is looking to avoid food insecurity from arising in the future by boosting agricultural production as many of its neighbours have done.
"This crisis did not come by surprise, we could have anticipated it… if we want to solve the problem definitively we must invest in agriculture," said Mbaye Yade who coordinates the West African analysis network, a Burkinabe research institute.
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
