WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME PRESS CONFERENCE LAUNCHING EMERGENCY APPEAL FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA

WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME PRESS CONFERENCE LAUNCHING EMERGENCY APPEAL

FOR SOUTHERN AFRICA

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today launched a massive appeal to provide emergency food relief to six countries in southern Africa, where some 12.8 million people are threatened with starvation over the next nine months.

Announcing the appeal at a Headquarters press conference this morning, WFP Executive Director James Morris said that some $507 million was urgently needed to avert starvation in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland.  As a result of a drought, southern Africa was experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis in a decade.  The situation was exacerbated by a variety of other factors, ranging from poverty and high prevalence of HIV/AIDS to regional economic decline and political issues.  Some 1.5 million metric tons of food were needed to respond to the crisis.

Mr. Morris said the severity of the situation demanded that everyone rallied together to save lives.  The WFP, which had been providing emergency aid in the region since last year, was committed to address two thirds of the problem.  Other needs would be handled by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and through bilateral arrangements.  Following an assessment of the situation, starting today the WFP had put in place a regional emergency operation, which would be responsible for raising the food needed to avoid disaster in the six afflicted countries.  While food constituted from 85 to 90 per cent of the requirements, other needs in the area included those associated with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, as well as health, water and sanitation needs.  With the WFP already appealing for donor assistance, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was going to launch a consolidated appeal in the near future.

Despite the fact that many donors had already contributed to WFP’s previous appeals, new donations were urgently required, he said.  It was vital to acquire enough supplies before October, when the region’s rainy season would begin and make many rural areas inaccessible.  In responding to the crisis, he urged the donors to be generous.  “We have time”, he said.  “If people respond in the next few weeks, we have time to do our work and save many millions of lives.”

Responding to questions about the situation in Zimbabwe, he said that land reform issues were contributing to the problems there.  The output by commercial farmers in that country (which used to be a breadbasket of the region) was down between 60 and 65 per cent.  It was estimated that the need was 2.2 million tons of grain, and the country was capable of producing only a third of that amount on its own.  The WFP could provide assistance with another third, and the country needed to import the rest. 

Mr. Morris went on to say that during his two meetings with Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, he had made it clear that Zimbabwe needed to resolve its problems and “give comfort to the donors that things will be handled properly”.  The solution would be beyond reach unless the country was opened to the free market, with grain traders allowed to come in.  Mr. Mugabe had agreed to the suggestion that the WFP “monetize” some grain, which would involve selling it to city dwellers at subsidized prices, with proceeds going to feed the hungry.  However, even after those measures, the country would still be short of the

resources that needed to come from the private sector.  Without that contribution, the problem could not be solved.

When pushed on the issue of allowing the grain dealers to operate in Zimbabwe, Mr. Mugabe had not provided the WFP representatives with an answer.  He had also disputed the WFP figures, saying that he was not certain about the magnitude of the problem.  Now he had been asked to review the WFP report on the matter, and Mr. Morris expected to have another meeting with him next week.

Asked if he had touched upon the problem of the white farmers in his talks with President Mugabe, Mr. Morris said that they had talked about the need to have more NGOs in the country, because more implementing partners were needed to distribute food products there.  They had also talked about the need to distribute food without political conditionalities and to cut the bureaucracy in order to allow for a quicker response.  Also discussed was the grain marketing issue.  Mr. Mugabe fully understood the problem of commercial farmers.  In fact, there was more ground under cultivation in Zimbabwe today than there had been a year before.  The problem was that commercial farmers irrigated their land, which then provided huge yields.  Those were not available now. 

Asked about the time-frame for responding to the crisis, Mr. Morris said that the need was expected to build in the future.  Already, from June to September, 7 million people would need food aid, and that number, which would rise to just over 11 million from September to November, would peak at 12.8 million by March 2003.  Currently, the WFP was serving some 4.5 million people in the region.  “We need to get commitments from our donors”, he stressed.  “It cannot take three, four or five months… We need the commitments in the next three or four weeks.”

So far, the WFP had ongoing operations in four of the six countries involved.  When the crisis became apparent, short-term operations had been set up in Swaziland and Zimbabwe as well.  The best way to address the crisis was through a regional approach with a single pipeline managed from the Programme’s office in Johannesburg.  The donors were asked to support the Programme on a country-by-country basis.  Also, some money had been left over from previous programmes in the region, and those funds would be used to support larger efforts in the future.

With many factors contributing to the problem, a correspondent suggested that it might be more helpful to consolidate the appeal for the entire programme in Africa, instead of each agency making separate pleas for help.

Mr. Morris replied that food represented up to 90 per cent of the needs, and it was impossible to wait.  It was important to establish the programme and get food commitments from donors.  If the WFP waited another 30 days to put the food needs in front of the donors, many millions would be put at risk.

To another question, he explained that many countries had already recognized the gravity of the situation, having responded to the previous appeal.  The new donations of $507 million that the WFP was now appealing for represented about 998,000 metric tons of food.  Many NGOs had expressed an interest in helping to resolve the problem.  There were only four such organizations working in Zimbabwe.  In Malawi, the WFP had a compact to manage the relief efforts with NGOs.  Among other implementing partners were such organizations as World Vision, Care, and Save the Children. 

Asked about the projected response to the appeal, he said that although the United States had not provided any precise figures, his sense was that it was going to be very generous.  The United States was one of the Programme’s largest

supporters in various parts of the world.  He also had high hopes for the European Community’s participation.  Everybody needed to contribute.  Charged with feeding 6.5 million people in North Korea, 10 million in Afghanistan, and a growing number of people in the Palestinian territories, Angola and West Africa, the WFP had never had such a challenge on its plate.  It needed to find ways to persuade countries that had surpluses to be very generous.  The Programme was funded exclusively through voluntary contributions from governments, he added.

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