Feature - UN envoy to witness drought-stricken region

As Martti Ahtisaari - the recently-appointed UN special envoy for the humanitarian situation in the Horn - begins an official visit to Ethiopia, the situation in one of the country's worst-hit regions is deteriorating. Ahtisaari, who arrived in Addis Ababa on Wednesday, is due to visit the stricken Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region (SNNPR) - traditionally one of the country's most fertile regions - during his six-day official trip to Ethiopia and neighbouring Eritrea. "GREEN FAMINE" SNNPR is now one of the main epicentres of the food crisis that has hit Ethiopia. To the untrained eye it is one of the most abundant regions of Ethiopia. But now it is an area known for its deadly “green famine”. According to the UN's Emergencies Unit for Ethiopia (EUE), this lush landscape hides a famine which, although widely attributed to last year's drought, is the result of structural deficiencies, scarcity of land, overpopulation and lack of development. While the markets in the regional capital, Awassa, are awash with fresh produce and livestock, segments of the population - mainly in rural areas - still have little access to food other than food aid, the EUE points out. Erratic rains, widespread, deeply engrained poverty, and a massive slump in farmers' incomes - caused by a drop in coffee prices - have had a disastrous, cumulative effect. And as the region enters what is known as the hungry season – the period before the harvest is ready – the situation will only get worse unless more aid arrives. Already some of the highest levels of malnutrition countrywide are being reported in SNNPR. According to aid agencies, thousands of children are believed to have died but no-one really knows how many. FEEDING CENTRES ABOUND Although the targeting of food aid, and also sharing limited supplies, have been blamed for the crisis, other factors have inextricably caused more deaths. In particular, according to some aid agencies, it was the decision by the government, around five years ago, to scrap the region’s early warning system. “They simply thought that it was a food secure area, that they could produce enough food for themselves and didn’t need early warning,” one experienced UN official told IRIN. “They now realise that was a mistake. In simple terms, no-one knew what was happening until it was too late and children started dying." The scale of the crisis is emphasised by the speed with which newly-erected therapeutic feeding centres are springing up in the region. In a matter of weeks, 15 centres have appeared and a further 15 are being constructed – more than in any of the country’s 11 regions. Emergency therapeutic feeding centres are literally the last line of defence before death. The government estimates that 12.6 million people in Ethiopia - roughly one fifth of the nation's population - need food aid. According to the UN’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF), between 60,000 and 80,000 are severely malnourished countrywide – and many of them are in SNNPR. RAPID RESPONSE UNITS Charities such as the Irish non-governmental organisation, GOAL, formed Rapid Response Units to target the weakest in the hard-hit region. The idea of the scheme, which is funded by the US government, is to combat the critical few weeks in which hungry families and children can starve while they wait for aid. “The Rapid Response Unit provides a lifeline for the most vulnerable until further relief arrives,” GOAL country director Lewis Temple told IRIN. “In an emergency situation, this crucial time gap can be measured in terms of human life.” His team was one of the first one the ground in SNNPR and in the last few weeks has screened more than 2,000 children. Training is underway in some of the hardest-hit districts to improve the targeting of food aid distributions, which are controlled by the government’s emergency arm – the Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC). LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS The challenge now is to ensure long-term solutions to the problem, so that people are not dependent on emergency feeding. The federal government is already re-establishing the dismantled early warning system. The UN-EUE has called for malaria medicines and supplementary food to be dispatched to tackle the short-term crisis. But it also urged NGOs to help strengthen and support “weak” government structures and to introduce better monitoring. “The root cause of the current crisis is the chronic problem of poverty due to underdevelopment and overpopulation,” the EUE pointed out. It stressed that development, cultural and policy changes, and most of all family planning, were necessary to avoid a repetition of the crisis.