PRESS BRIEFING ON UNITED NATIONS APPEAL FOR HORN OF AFRICA

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING ON UNITED NATIONS APPEAL FOR HORN OF AFRICA

A consolidated emergency United Nations appeal for $378 million to help 13.4 million people affected by drought in the Horn of Africa was launched at a Headquarters press briefing today.

Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), said that if relief aid was received quickly “hundreds of thousands of lives” could be saved, but if the assistance was late or inadequate, it could be "disastrous". Ms. Bertini, who was the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Drought in the Horn of Africa, said the relief effort would go to mostly women and children –- those who were at great risk.

Also participating in the briefing were Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and Carolyn McAskie, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, a.i.

Ms. Bertini said the appeal was largely for food, as it had been in the past, but the absolute critical shortfalls were for water and sanitation, medicines and medical care and livestock support. The inputs that could help in those areas were less expensive than food, but as important, if not more so. The appeal was absolutely critical, she stressed.

Ms. Bertini said she had found during her tour of the region that unclean water was a major cause of diarrheal diseases. Medicines and medical professionals in the villages were in some cases non-existent. Distribution systems were also non-existent in some areas, but certainly extremely weak at best. Livestock preservation programmes required immediate attention.

She added that of the 13.4 million affected people 10 million were in Ethiopia; 2.2 million in Kenya; 750,000 in Somalia; 334,613 in Eritrea and 150,000 in Djibouti. Originally, the mission was intended to look at the situation in more countries in the region, but it had been determined that their needs were less severe and could be handled through United Nations operations in those areas. It was extremely important that the need for non-food items, such as medicine and water, was highlighted. The basic relief effort was to help the people and to sustain their lives and their livelihoods.

Ms. Bellamy told the press that anti-malarial drugs, antibiotics generally and vaccines for immunization were needed. A vaccination campaign was about to be undertaken in Ethiopia by a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Jerrycans were also needed.

During questions, a correspondent observed that representatives of NGOs had recently told correspondents that the drought in Ethiopia was very serious. They had also said that there was adequate ground water available, which could be brought to the surface were drilling to be undertaken. The correspondent asked whether the money being sought included a provision for drilling purposes.

Horn of Africa Briefing - 2 - 7 June 2000

Ms.Bellamy replied that it would not be for all the affected areas, but certainly it would include bore holes and drilling equipment. But in the interim before the drilling was done the key issues were the immediate need for jerrycans, water bladders and water in general, both for human beings and livestock.

Following up on the drilling question, another correspondent commented that the United Nations experience with those projects had not been entirely successful. In the Sahel, he said the United Nations was responsible for massive desertification, while in Bangladesh it had been responsible for massive arsenic poisoning. “What kind of environmental impact study do you carry out before you initiate any kind of drilling”? he asked.

Ms. Bellamy said that, at minimum, the project in Bangladesh was responsible for millions receiving good drinking water. Clearly, some people were affected by arsenic, but the water had not been tested at that time. Tests were carried out now, she said. Different agencies were involved in such projects and tests were carried out. There was no question that the agencies had to move forward and try to assure people that there were better water supplies. There was greater sophistication now, she said, and tests could be carried out quickly.

Noting that the correspondent had raised a useful question, Ms. McAskie said that when the Secretary-General announced the appointment of Ms. Bertini as the Special Envoy for Drought in the Horn of Africa, he also announced the appointment of a task force to look into some of the longer term structural issues. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) was covering that task force and key United Nations agencies were members –- such as UNICEF, the WFP, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Mr. McAskie said what the task force wanted to ask was why drought equalled famine. Drought and famine were two very different things. There had been droughts in the Sahel and in the Southern African Development Community area, but no famine. There was drought in the Horn of Africa and famine there, as well. It was very true that rain failures had been worse and more consistent in that part of Africa, but there were also structural issues that had to be looked at, including the issue of whether the water table was sustainable. That was linked to the effects of modernization on nomadic peoples, and the fact that the herds were larger now, and so the demand on water was greater.

A whole range of issues existed, she added. That was why the Secretary- General had asked the FAO and the other agencies to make recommendations on those structural issues. Ms. Bertini’s mission had focused very much on the immediate question of how suffering and deaths could be prevented. Getting water to where it was needed was one of them.

Ms McAskie told correspondents that, following her appointment on 31 March as the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General, Ms. Bertini traveled from 11 to 19 April to Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eritrea and Kenya. The findings of her mission were shared with the press and were released immediately after her visit. Since then there had been United Nations teams in all the affected countries working to put together the details that formed the basis of the Appeal. In addition, she said a senior official of the WFP had been appointed the regional coordinator for the response to the drought, with Addis Ababa as his base.

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