Appeal for non-food aid

Ethiopia on Friday appealed for US $40 million to help fight the devastating crisis which has affected 13.2 million people in the impoverished, drought-stricken country. Simon Mechale, who heads the government’s Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC), warned that more than just food aid was needed to avert an unprecedented crisis that has already claimed thousands of lives. The money is aimed at boosting the areas of health and nutrition as well as improving access to clean water and sanitation which are currently massively underfunded. In a joint appeal with the United Nations, Mechale warned that the crisis was far from over. He appealed to donors for an additional 200,000 mt of food as a “contingency plan” for early next year – to meet any crisis that might arise. According to aid agencies, thousands of children have died because of dirty water and poor health facilities which have exacerbated the food emergency. Sam Nyambi, the head of the UN in Ethiopia, praised the “unprecedented” food response to the “multifaceted” emergency, but added that more support for non-food items was essential. “One without the other really does not bring us out of the emergency,” he told international donors and non-governmental organisations who had gathered at the appeal. He also told aid organisations that drugs to fight malaria were essential and that effective targeting of food aid must be improved. Nyambi added that long-term solutions to the chronic food shortages in the Horn of Africa country needed to be addressed in order to avoid repeated crises. He said that the chronic problems in Ethiopia should be seen as a continual emergency and not just sparked by the failure of rains. Humanitarian agencies said that all eyes were now focused on the November harvest, the main harvest in Ethiopia, which will be critical in assessing future food needs. But Veronique Lorenzo, head of rural development at the European Commission, warned that a bumper harvest could result in a price collapse – hitting farmers’ incomes. Donors also warned that issues like HIV/AIDS and the looming malaria epidemic must also be addressed.