UN HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS OFFICE CALLS FOR URGENT INCREASE IN SUPPORT FOR MALAWI FLASH APPEAL AS PLANTING SEASON APPROACHES

UN HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS OFFICE CALLS FOR URGENT INCREASE IN SUPPORT

FOR MALAWI FLASH APPEAL AS PLANTING SEASON APPROACHES

NEW YORK, 14 September (OCHA) -- With the next planting season fast approaching, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned today of the need to urgently increase support for the $88 million Flash Appeal for Malawi.

In Malawi alone, 4.2 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance over the next six months.  The United Nations launched its Appeal just over two weeks ago, calling for $51 million for food and nutritional assistance and
$37 million for emergency agricultural assistance to reinforce the Government’s two-track approach to relieve the chronic food insecurity that plagues the nation. 

Against this appeal, some $13 million in cash and 30,000 tonnes of food have been pledged by the United Kingdom, United States, Sweden, Luxembourg, and Ireland.  While welcoming these pledges, the United Nations yet underscores the need for additional assistance to be immediately forthcoming. 

“I am very glad to see some of the humanitarian community’s most consistent donors have responded to the Appeal so promptly”, said Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.  “But there is still a long way to go.  We need more contributions, especially from donors among the Asian, Latin American and Gulf states, in order to avert hunger and to promote sustainable recovery of livelihoods throughout the region.  Otherwise we will find ourselves facing repeated emergencies in years to come.” 

Malawi’s farmers will begin planting next year’s crops in mid-October, meaning that the window for providing emergency agricultural support -- and thereby preventing a recurrence of the same crisis next year -- will soon close.  With just over $7 million pledged for agricultural support specifically, an additional $29 million is needed to ensure that each of the one million small farming families targeted in the Appeal has access to the maize seed and fertilizer intended to ensure they can produce enough food to feed their families in 2006.

Moreover, Malawi is not the only country now facing a crisis.  Throughout southern Africa, many countries are confronting critical phases in their chronic food insecurity situation, including Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.   Regionally, as many as 10 million people are likely to require food assistance in the coming months. 

For further information, please call: Stephanie Bunker, OCHA-New York,
917 367 5126, mobile 917 892 1679; Kristen Knutson, OCHA-New York, 917 367 9262; Elizabeth Byrs, OCHA-Geneva, +41 22 917 2653, mobile +41 79 473 4570.

For information media • not an official record