Region's children at risk

Children account for more than half of the 12.8 million people in Southern Africa threatened by starvation, and related diseases such as measles, cholera and HIV/AIDS. This emerged on Wednesday when the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) launched an inter-agency consolidated appeal for the drought hit region. The agencies have appealed for US $614 million to respond to the humanitarian crisis in six countries, where nearly 13 million people have been identified as being "on the very edge of survival as the region struggles with shortages of food not seen since the drought of 1992". The six countries in need of assistance are Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) has underlined the need for a speedy donor response to the appeal. UNICEF said more than six million children are at immediate risk in the region, "due to a crippling combination of natural and man-made crises". The aid agency wants to keep children in school by expanding school-lunch programmes in conjunction with the World Food Programme (WFP). It also aims to "protect children from harsh labour or sexual exploitation by supporting community coping mechanisms, thus minimising the pressure on families to put children to work," a UNICEF statement said. "We cannot overstate what's at stake here," Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF was quoted as saying. "Without major and immediate funding from around the world, we just won't get the job done. These children need our help, and they need it now." UNICEF had already begun establishing therapeutic feeding centres for severely malnourished children in all six countries. The organisation has also launched measles immunisation and vitamin A campaigns. The UN consolidated appeal said special consideration would be given to the most vulnerable groups, including children, the elderly, female-headed households and people living with HIV/AIDS. "High levels of chronic malnutrition among children under five characterised the nutritional situation in the region. As a result, in Malawi for example, 49 percent of children are stunted," the report said. Chronic malnutrition, impairing physical and intellectual development, "once it sets in" was largely irreversible. Food commodities needed to be fortified to negate vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Access to clean water was also flagged as crucial, as poor sanitary practices could lead to outbreaks of diarrhoeal diseases such as cholera, the UN appeal said. UNICEF's Bellamy pointed out that about 2.4 million of the six million children affected are under the age of five, meaning they are especially vulnerable to malnutrition and disease. "This is much larger than just a food crisis," Bellamy said. "It's also a water crisis, a health crisis, an education crisis. All of this is taking place in an environment ravaged by AIDS, and the various crises are feeding each other." The UN appeal was based on crop and food supply assessments of all six countries by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and WFP in April and May this year. Angola was not included in the assessments nor in the appeal. "Since the humanitarian requirements of millions of Angolans are of such a dimension, they are addressed separately through a forthcoming revision of the 2002 Consolidated Appeal," OCHA said. The assessments revealed a cereal food deficit of four million mt in the six countries. "Taking estimated commercial imports and government programmes into account, the corresponding cereals requirement for the region until March 2003 is 1.2 million mt, for an estimated 12.8 million people," the appeal said. Given that it accounts for almost half the people in need, Zimbabwe's US $285 million allocation took the lion's share of the appeal. Malawi followed with US $144 million, then Zambia with US $71 million, Lesotho with US $44 million, Mozambique with US $43 million and finally Swaziland with US $19 million.