WFP battling to secure funds

The World Food Programme (WFP) has borrowed money to avoid a break in the food pipeline for Southern Africa, it has only secured 22 percent of the amount it needs to avert a disaster in the region. In June WFP said it would need US $507 million to help feed about 13 million people in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia. Angola, which had a separate appeal has only received about 12 percent of the US $241 million it needed, WFP's latest report said. The organisation said it received a contribution of US $500,000 last week but had to secure a US $20 million loan, from the emergency revolving fund of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to buy about 40,000 mt of food to avoid an interruption in deliveries. Without urgent funding, WFP expects a break in the cereal pipeline in Mozambique, where another 20,000 beneficiaries have been added to the list. In Zambia, the cereal pipeline was currently healthy, but pulses and vegetable oil were still needed. To the relief of aid workers, Zimbabwe, one of the worst-affected countries, said it would accept a consignment of 17,500 mt of genetically modified (GM) maize grain, in spite of its ban on GM food. The maize, which arrived in Durban, South Africa, last week, was a gift from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The gravity of Zimbabwe's situation was highlighted by a survey in the Chipinge district of Manicaland province which noted that school dropout rates had risen steeply since January, from less than 1 percent to 10 percent in July. At Zamchiya Primary School, the survey found that 50 percent of children ate only one meal a day and a health centre near the primary school confirmed that pupils often fainted from hunger. In response, WFP has initiated the supply of corn soya blend to schools in especially food insecure wards of Chipinge District and the NGO Plan International is working with parents and school committees to provide labour, firewood and cooking utensils for the programme. Media reports in Zimbabwe indicate that the government's Grain Marketing Board (GMB) had arranged to purchase some 500,000 mt of white maize which would go a long way toward closing foreseen cereal gaps, WFP said. Part of the USAID consignment would go to Lesotho, where food distribution would begin in three districts in August to reach 97,000 vulnerable people. In Malawi, where about 2,8 million people could face food shortages, the cereal pipeline was healthy "for the time being". In the tiny kingdom of Swaziland WFP had transferred one quarter of WFP food currently in the country (320 mt) to extended delivery points, and three NGOs began food distributions last week. In Angola, with the onset of the rainy season, WFP was concerned that precarious road conditions in Bengo province could isolate thousands of people from September. Angola's infrastructure has been devastated by its decades long civil war. WFP, along with organisations like Medecins Sans Frontieres were supplying food to internally displaced persons (IDPs) and supporting supplementary feeding programmes in provinces throughout the country. A slight increase in the rate of infant malnutrition was reported in the province of Namibe due to the high prevalence of malaria and typhoid. In Moxico the number of malnourished children admitted to therapeutic and supplementary feeding centres continued to decrease, probably due to the voluntary return of IDPs to their place of origin, the WFP said. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan last week proposed extending the UN mandate in Angola to ensure the success of the peace process and the humanitarian operations there. Oxfam, which works with about 500,000 people in Angola, echoed recent warnings of the severity of the Angolan situation and said it was vital that emergency repairs and demining of roads and bridges be done before the rainy season in mid-September. "Roads that lead to IDP camps and the quartering areas will be crucial for transportation in the coming months," the organisation said. WFP is also currently conducting an emergency needs assessment in Namibia, at the request of the Namibian government, with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday reiterated previous warnings that food aid must be accompanied by the provision of basic health services to avert "tremendous loss of life". WHO Director General Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland said that weakened by hunger, many people will die of diseases they could have survived if properly nourished. "We fear there could be at least 300,000 'extra' deaths during the next six months because of this crisis," he warned.