From Africa Recovery, Vol.17 #1 (May 2003), page 27

Don't lose sight of Africa's food crisis -- WFP

As the international community gears up to provide humanitarian assistance to Iraq, it should not divert its attention from the larger crisis affecting Africa, World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director James Morris told the UN Security Council in April.

The WFP's recently launched humanitarian operation in Iraq will cost an estimated $1.3 bn over six months -- the agency's single largest humanitarian operation ever -- targeting many of the country's 27 million people. Meanwhile, nearly 40 million Africans are struggling against starvation due a combination of recurring drought, war, failed economic policies and the growing impact of HIV/AIDS on agricultural production. For Africa, the WFP needs $1.8 bn this year, an amount equal to the agency's entire project budget last year. So far, it is $1 bn short.

"How is it that we routinely accept a level of suffering and hopelessness in Africa we would never accept in any other part of the world?" Mr. Morris asked. "As much as I don't like it, I cannot escape the thought that we have a double standard."

The response so far has been limited. In Southern Africa, gripped by a prolonged drought and an AIDS epidemic that is killing off the most productive people, more than 620,000 tonnes of food have been distributed to 10 million people. However, in Zimbabwe, 4.7 million people -- nearly half the country's population -- need food aid. In Angola, where 1.8 million people require assistance, much of the country is littered with landmines, making movement difficult and cultivation unsafe.

In the Horn of Africa, 11 million Ethiopians require humanitarian relief and in neighbouring Eritrea 1.4 million people -- two out of every three people -- are short of food. There have been pledges totalling 70 per cent of requirements in Ethiopia, noted Mr. Morris. But, "in Eritrea, the funding situation is grim."

Food security is also deteriorating in the Western Sahel, the WFP notes. In Mauritania, Cape Verde, Gambia, Senegal and Mali, where 500,000 people are suffering from the effects of severe drought, emergency operations have raised only 40 per cent of their cash requirements. Elsewhere in West Africa, conflicts in Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire have disrupted agricultural production and produced large numbers of displaced people, both in those countries and in neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone. The WFP reports that emergency operations to feed displaced people in these four countries are still 40 per cent short of their funding needs.

Shortages of funds for other food emergencies around the world, such as Afghanistan and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, seem to further darken the outlook for Africa, said Mr. Morris. "Commitments to humanitarian aid are political choices. We must never again witness a famine of the proportions seen in Ethiopia in 1984/85," when about 1 million people died.

Water forum pledges support for Africa

Ministers attending the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan, in March issued a declaration pledging their "full support" for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). They vowed to back African regional and subregional initiatives to cope with the continent's difficult water situation.

Africa has the highest number of people in the world (in proportion to population) who do not have ready access to clean water or sanitation. Only 43 per cent of the African urban population has a house or yard water connection, and only 18 per cent is connected to a sewer. In rural areas, only 39 per cent of the population has access to safe drinking water, and only 35 per cent to sanitation.

During the Kyoto forum, a Day of Africa highlighted plans for improving water resources management and access to adequate sanitation. It also addressed regional issues of water, poverty, health, food security, financing, shared water basins and NEPAD. At the end of the conference, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced the creation of a new Water Cooperation Facility. Based at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, the facility will help finance efforts to prevent and resolve disputes over freshwater access and use. According to the UN organization, there are 17 river or lake basins in the world with a "potential" for serious conflict during the next 5-10 years. Eight of them are in Africa, not counting the Nile basin, where disputes are already taking place.

Debt relief progressing, but still some snags

Since its inception in 1996, the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative (HIPC) has reduced the outstanding debt stock of 26 countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, by two-thirds, the World Bank announced in its annual Global Development Finance report released in April. The reduction amounts to $40 bn in net present value (representing the market value of the original debt, discounted as if it were paid now, in a lump sum).

Despite the debt reduction achieved so far, the report warns, "the deterioration in the global economic environment and the related decline in commodity prices have raised concerns about the ability of several HIPCs to reduce their debt burdens to sustainable levels." The World Bank considers a country's debt to be sustainable if the ratio between its total debt and its export earnings is less than 150 per cent, implying that it has enough export revenue to service its debt. Most African countries earn foreign currency through the sale of agricultural commodities, which, over the years, have been fetching lower and lower prices on the international market.

The report notes that challenges remain in terms of creditor participation in the HIPC initiative. Debt relief committed to 26 countries that have reached the debt forgiveness stage of the programme is 12 per cent below the total required. At least 24 creditor countries have not expressed an intention to provide debt relief, the report observes, and many commercial creditors "remain unwilling to participate in the initiative."

Despite HIPC, sub-Saharan Africa's total debt stood at $204 bn last year, according to the report. This was down from a peak of $231 bn in 1996, but still significantly above the $177 bn registered at the start of the 1990s. Moreover, the steady decline in the region's debt since 1996 appears to have at least temporarily stalled, with the 2002 level almost the same as the $203 bn recorded the year before.

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