Donors slow to respond to famine, NGO

Funding to fight famine in Malawi has begun to trickle in, but it is still nowhere near what is required to prevent a humanitarian disaster, said aid agency CARE International. Sarah Glyde, CARE International UK programme officer for Southern and West Africa, told IRIN on Tuesday that donors appeared reluctant to assist Malawi. This was despite it being the country hardest hit by drought and famine in Southern Africa. She said: "The response from donors has been very, very slow. Whereas in Zimbabwe the European Commission delegation sent out an e-mail to NGO's requesting them to send in proposals for food aid distribution, nothing like that has happened in Malawi. "We don't know why, it's puzzling. Perhaps it may have something to do with the fact that major donors suspended aid to Malawi, just before Christmas last year, because of allegations of corruption." On 27 February President Bakili Muluzi declared a national disaster. He also made an urgent appeal for food aid as officials warned that 70 percent of the country's 10 million people were at risk of starvation. It is Malawi's worst food shortage in 50 years. The Pan African News Agency (PANA) reported that the Malawian government had on Monday renewed its call for urgent food aid following a lukewarm donor response. Malawi's Vice President Justin Malewezi said the country needed at least US $21.6 million to avert a humanitarian catastrophe but less than US $5 million had so far been forthcoming, PANA reported. Among the recent contribution was that of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which had Monday donated US $500,000 to the cause. This was enough to provide emergency food aid to two million people - many of them children - who were going hungry in Malawi, CARE said in a statement. The money was part of a US $1 million grant being shared equally between CARE and the international aid organisation Save the Children. CARE has been charged with heading a consortium of NGO's that will distribute food aid in Malawi. The Church World Service (CWS) aid organisation meanwhile has also made an appeal for urgent food relief. "Large numbers of people are threatened with starvation from drought-related food shortages in six countries in Southern Africa - Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and - worst hit - Malawi. "Massive amounts of food aid are needed soon to avert starvation. CWS is urgently seeking support for hunger relief efforts in Malawi," the organisation said. CWS and other aid partners were already helping to provide maize for food and next-season planting to 37,500 farming families, "as well as a highly nutritious cereal mix to 17,000 severely malnourished children". Nutrition education was also being provided to mothers. CARE said that among the factors contributing to the scarcity of food were: a lack of rain, a depleted supply of strategic grain reserves, low production levels and higher local prices for maize and fertiliser. "The high incidence of HIV/AIDS in most of the region and an outbreak of cholera in Malawi have contributed to the crisis. Meteorologists forecast the region will face a drought again next year," the CARE statement said. CARE Malawi country director Nick Osborne believes the crisis could worsen. "Hunger is setting in early and people are dying. June and July are usually the best time of the year, when people have food. They plant again in November. With hunger setting in early, people are weaker and will be less prepared to start working in the fields for next year's harvest. Over the long term, this is going to become an even bigger crisis," he said in the statement.