Much needed funds pledged for regional food crisis

Three NGOs working to stave off the southern African food crisis have received a US $114 million emergency aid grant from the US Agency for International Development. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) announced on Thursday the grant would be channeled through itself, CARE and World Vision to provide emergency and supplementary food distributions and agricultural support and development training in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The three countries are among the hardest hit by a regionwide crisis which aid workers warn is at its peak during the current crop growing season. A statement said the three agencies, working as the Consortium for Southern Africa Food Security Emergency (C-SAFE), aim to provide a coordinated response to the food shortages and related complexities like the HIV/AIDS pandemic which had worsened the crisis. The three year grant would provide for 160,000 mt of food in the first year and once fully operational, C-SAFE was expected to assist nearly two million people - mainly women and children - per month. The programme would involve a combination of free general food distributions, food-for-work projects, and supplementary feeding and would complement ongoing activities conducted by the three agencies in those countries. CRS will take the lead in Zambia, CARE in Malawi and World Vision in Zimbabwe. Another boost for the region came from the government of France which announced this week that it would contribute Euro 18 million (US $19.3 million) towards the crisis in Malawi, Zambia, Angola, Lesotho and Zimbabwe. Junior Foreign Minister Renaud Muselier made the announcement in Malawi, which will benefit from the emergency assistance along with Zambia, Lesotho, Angola and Zimbabwe. Press attaché Jean-Marie Lebon told IRIN that Euro 13.1 million would go to the World Food Programme, which has committed itself to supplying 67 percent of the region's emergency food needs, while the rest would be spent on non-food assistance, urgent development and mid to long-term projects. Projects in Angola include Euro 3.2 million (US $3.4 million) to assist people displaced by the war and a demining programme. Figures from a new vulnerability assessment are being finalised but the previous assessment in September 2002 estimated that 14.4 million people would need food aid.