PRESS BRIEFING ON HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

The crisis in southern Africa had begun to accelerate at a much faster pace than anticipated, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the humanitarian situation in the region told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

At present, said James Morris, 14.4 million people were at risk, up from the 12.8 million recently identified as vulnerable.  He described his trip to the six most affected southern African States -- Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia -– as an “extraordinary experience”.  He headed a team comprising representatives from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).  In each country they visited, they had coordinated their work with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office there.

Apart from the unfavourable weather conditions that had caused drought and sometimes floods, he said, there was the problem of HIV/AIDS, which he described as "a crisis within the crisis" and one that had been made worse by governance and other political difficulties.

At least half of the 4.2 million “orphans of the crisis” had been so categorized because HIV/AIDS had taken both parents.  The AIDS crisis had changed lifestyles in the affected countries.  As a result, many children had been left in the care of grandparents, and many had become heads of households.  Others had dropped out of school.  Productive levels of communal agricultural societies had been wiped out by HIV/AIDS.  The situation, he noted, had also had a severe emotional and cultural impact in the region.  "It's a staggering combination of issues," he said.

Even in the face of substantial support from the international community, the Special Envoy still appealed for donor countries to be as generous as they could.  The United Nations needed some $611 million to deal with the crisis, of which $507 million would be used for food aid.  Already about 40 per cent of the money for food had been committed, another 35 per cent was in the final stages of negotiations, but the remaining 25 per cent had to be firmed up.  And with the planting season imminent, resources were also needed for seeds, fertilizers and agricultural implements.

“We're trying to get an awful lot done quickly,” he explained.  Consequently, an office with 80 staff members had been set up in Johannesburg, South Africa, to deal with logistical and other problems.  He anticipated that by the end of March 2003, when the current harvest had been more or less consumed and needs were at their greatest, the 14.4 million people would be at clear risk.  Another trip had therefore been planned for January. 

Questioned about what solutions he would propose when he met with the Secretary-General tomorrow, Mr Morris said he would give a full account of the situation, especially the AIDS crisis, and advise the Secretary-General that there was no commercial agricultural production coming out of Zimbabwe –

traditionally the breadbasket of the region -- that could be purchased and distributed for the benefit of victims.  Their diets would have to be strengthened with proteins and calories. 

In response to another question about Zimbabwe's unwillingness to accept and use genetically modified (GM) grain, he said Zimbabwe had never rejected such grain.  In the first instance, it had not been properly prepared bureaucratically to receive deliveries, and it had also imported more grain than it had been thought possible.

“We've essentially resolved the 'GM' issue in five of the six countries,” he stated.  Initially, all six countries had expressed concerns about the “GM” content of the grain.  Such grain originally intended for Zimbabwe, had been sent elsewhere.  He added that Zimbabwe had put together a scientific team to research and carefully analyse the issue.

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