Rural poor rocked by wobbly dollar

Fluctuations in the US dollar during 2008 have had devastating results for people in rural parts of the Horn of Africa as the value of remittances fell at the same time as the cost of living went up, according to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).



"The decline, by more than 35 percent in some cases, affected many people," said Roger Bracke during the launch in Geneva of a US$95 million appeal to help 2.2 million needy people in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia over the next five years.



Bracke, who headed a two-month study into the food crisis in the Horn of Africa, said families who were dependent on relatives working abroad, mainly in the Gulf, found themselves receiving less money or none at all.



This was also true for rural families who sent members to cities to work, but then received no remittances, as the cost of living shot up, forcing labourers to keep all the money for their own needs.



"The average family [in the Horn of Africa] spends 80 percent or more of their income on food, in a normal time. So the increase has made it impossible," Bracke told reporters. "There is no money for healthcare, less for education."



Droughts have wreaked havoc in countries such as Kenya and Djibouti, where, respectively, three and four rainy seasons were deemed "failures”.



"In rural Djibouti it is almost impossible to survive. Key water sources have dried up," said the Red Cross official, warning that the current humanitarian crisis was "more than just the drought".



Famine risk



According to the IFRC, some 20 million people in the Horn of Africa are at risk of famine.



The president of the Ethiopian Red Cross, Shimelis Adugna, said the first promises to end hunger in Africa made during the 1970s have gone unfulfilled, and worse.



"Not only are children still going to bed hungry, more are going hungry and more are dying," he said.



The situation has destroyed the livelihoods of many farmers, and the IFRC said its five-year plan would include a recovery aspect, to help them get back on their feet. This would include creating new and alternative jobs for former pastoralists.



It also warned that a dying out of traditional lifestyles would also lead to rapid urbanisation, which would need to be handled correctly to avoid a health crisis in the cities.



shg/am/cb