Against the idyllic palm-fringed backdrop of Tanzania's tropical island of Pemba, almost 9,000 children from fishing communities are facing food shortages following sharp price increases, according to officials.
"Children are always the most affected by food shortages," Caroline Naune, a programme manager with Save the Children, told IRIN on 9 June.
Pemba, part of the Zanzibar archipelago, lies roughly 50 km off mainland Tanzania in the Indian Ocean. On the Micheweni peninsula, market failures following Kenya's post-election crisis in early 2008, the global food crisis, a disastrous harvest and exorbitant rice import tariffs mean that at least 1,000 households currently require emergency food aid.
As an island, Pemba - with a population of about half a million - relies heavily on imports and hence is particularly vulnerable to increases in the price of commodities on the world market. This problem has been exacerbated by the 75 percent import duty imposed by the East Africa Community (EAC) Customs Union on the island's staple, rice.
With food prices rising between 35 to 170 percent from November 2007 to March 2008, Pemba's food security has gradually deteriorated, mostly due to a combination of environmental, economic and political factors.
Fishing is the most important source of food and income for the majority of Pemba residents, with the main fishing season falling in December and January. Normally, fishermen would sell much of their catch in Kenya and use the money to buy rice. However, this year, the market shut down in the middle of the peak fishing season during Kenya's post-election violence in which over 1,200 died and a further 300,000 were forced to flee their homes.
During the usually lean April-June period, Pemba households rely on cassava and sorghum planted in October and November but the harvest failed this year following poor rains.
Rice import tariff
In May, in the wake of high food prices, the Zanzibari government called for the rice import tariff to be reduced to 25 percent although this was turned down by the Tanzanian authorities because they said any adjustment to the common external tariff must be agreed on by all members of the EAC Customs Union.
"The change of tariffs would be temporary and then we will watch closely how the global price of rice behaves; not only price but also the supply side on the global market," said Hamis Mussa, the principle secretary for the Ministry of Finance in Zanzibar's semi-autonomous government.
Mussa said: "At the moment we have a global food crisis. The islands in the Zanzibar archipelago are net importers of food. We have a small economy. We have two issues: one is the availability of food and the second issue would be at what cost is this available?"
Initially, poor households reacted by changing their diets, eating fewer meals per day and borrowing food from friends and neighbours. However, these responses proved insufficient. A rapid vulnerability assessment by the Zanzibar government found that 8,922 children were suffering from chronic malnutrition.
 Photo: Hez Holland/IRIN  |
| A fisherman plies the Zanzibar coast in a traditional dhow sailing boat |
The Zanzibar authorities delivered 10,000 metric tonnes of rice to the district in April; each of the 1,131 households received roughly 100 kg of the foodstuff. In addition, Save the Children distributed specially formulated nutritional supplements to 1,011 children under the age of two with some success.
"There was a woman who had twins who were under a month old and she couldn't breastfeed them. She and the twins were very malnourished," said Naune. "We gave her the food supplement and she produced milk and it was a great success but we haven't got the overall picture yet."
Direct cash transfer
As a solution to the crisis, Save the Children is pioneering a direct-cash-transfer scheme on the Micheweni peninsula. Previously, cash-transfer schemes in emergency situations involved coupons and some level of conditionality but the new strategy allows donors to give local currency straight to the families in need.
"It's about giving the households the dignity and trust to make the decision on how they spend their money," Naune said. "Whether they need food or clothing or whatever it is. We're giving them the autonomy and the dignity to actually make the decision themselves what they spend their money on."
Significantly, even though men are traditionally the head of the household budgets, the money will be given almost exclusively to women because Save the Children say that they are more likely to prioritise the needs of the children.
"It's a very patriarchal society so we'll have to see how successful it is," said Naune.
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This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
