Report urges changes in food aid policies in north

A report by Save the Children UK (SCUK) has called for more discussion with camp elders on how food should be distributed in camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in northern Uganda. In a 43-page report, it outlined areas where food distribution could be improved, particularly in the long-term planning of food aid in the north where a 16-year rebellion by the Lord's Resistance Army has displaced hundreds of thousands of people. “In particular, we are concerned about the one-size-fits all approach that seems to be used regardless of family size,” SCUK spokesman Hussein Murson told IRIN. Murson also said that administrative problems were derailing the distribution process. “On many occasions, we have been told by families in the camps that they registered with their Christian names and then went to get food under their family names and were refused because the names didn’t match,” he said. The report raises the issue of the extremely poor within the camps, who have nothing to offer in exchange for having their food milled, prepared or cooked. “The poorest people in this camp are having to sell their food at extortionate prices to get it milled or for a bit of cooking oil. This issue of relative poverty amongst those on less than a dollar a day needs to be addressed,” Murson said. The report ends with a recommendation that the distributors of food aid talk to the elders in the camps before planning distribution. “We want to see the persons in the camps participate in the planning process. The elders complain to us that the food given out bears no relation to the needs of the community as they see them,” said Murson. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said it agreed with some aspects of the report, but stressed that it raised issues of which the food agency was already aware. "We did an internal review in May in which many of these issues were brought up," said Jakob Mikolson, coordinator for WFP's programme in northern Uganda. "We share Save the Children's concerns which is why we undertook the review. We issued targets for implementing 55 recommendations based on it. We are still doing that." He claimed the SCUK report was "five months late". "Some of these issues they raise go far beyond what we can reasonably be expected to address," he told IRIN. "IDPs are not just WFP's problem - they are also Uganda's problem." But SCUK stressed that the report was not meant to agitate officials on the programme who had been given a first draft. “Of course we recognise that WFP is a lifeline to these people. Without them there would be no food aid to these areas”, said Murson.