Press Conference by Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs

 

A major food crisis was averted in Niger, thanks to good donor support, massive humanitarian intervention, good collaboration between the Government and humanitarian partners, and better than expected rains in the country, the top United Nations humanitarian affairs official said today. 

Briefing correspondents at Headquarters today on her 14 to 16 October trip to that country, Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said the situation there remained fragile, with high rates of chronic malnutrition and many vulnerable communities across the impoverished West African country.

Ms. Amos said while there she met Government, Member State and donor representatives, United Nations agencies and international non-governmental organizations.  She toured the site of the flooding in the capital, Niamey, and spoke to people about their experiences. She also travelled to Zinda and Diffa, two areas heavily affected by the food crisis, and while there, Ms. Amos visited feeding centres and spoke to local authorities and residents who shared their concerns.

Giving a breakdown of the efforts currently under way to help alleviate the situation, she said an assessment of the 2010 agricultural situation was ongoing, while a total of 5 million people had benefited from food assistance programmes this year.  At the same time, the nutrition situation, which remained a concern, appeared to be stabilizing progressively.  Some 250,492 malnourished children had been admitted to the various nutrition centres since the beginning of the year, and health remained a concern across the country as a cholera epidemic was hitting Niger with 1,164 cases, including 71 deaths.

Meanwhile, the rainy season had triggered a peak in malaria rates with over 2 million cases recorded so far this year, compared with just over a million for the same period the previous year, she continued.  In the immediate and medium terms, there was need to continue responding to existing acute vulnerabilities, particularly in the areas of food, nutrition and health.  Additionally, it was critical to support recovery activities.  Moreover, she believed addressing structural causes like population growth, limited progress towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals — including on education and gender equality and adaptation to climate change — was essential to prevent the recurrence of the crisis in Niger.

To a correspondent’s question, Ms. Amos, describing Niger as “one of the poorest, if not the poorest country in the world”, said the reality was that the country suffered high levels of illiteracy; malnutrition rates remained high, and despite what had been an improvement in the rainfall this year, there would still be issues next year with respect to food shortages.  Until those longer-term development needs were addressed, the country, and the wider Sahel, would continue to experience food insecurity.

In response to a correspondent who wanted to know the current status of the funding appeal for Pakistan, Ms. Amos said the appeal was currently about 35 per cent funded and her office had been engaged in a consultation process between United Nations agencies and the Pakistani Government on the totality of the projects within that appeal.  As for the next phase — reconstruction — there was a damage needs assessment being carried out by the World Bank.

Continuing, she said that there was a recent meeting in Brussels of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan and a further meeting was planned for November in Islamabad with the aim of looking at the longer-term reconstruction needs.  At present, she was most concerned with ensuring that the immediate needs were not forgotten as the process moved towards early recovery and on to reconstruction, she stressed.  She acknowledged the 35 per cent funding was “way short” of the United Nations appeal, and that was the reason it was necessary to continue to keep the pressure up in terms of the immediate humanitarian situation.  “We have to continue to try to mobilize the resources for the revised appeal,” she said.

To another correspondent’s questions on Benin and Nigeria and what her office was doing about the floods and the reported lead poisoning that had affected thousands of people in both countries, Ms. Amos confirmed that the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was preparing to launch an emergency humanitarian action plan and projects were currently being reviewed in which she was seeking to mobilize approximately $47 million for a total of 21 projects to respond to that crisis that had affected 680,000 people, and 55 of the 77 municipalities in the country.

Additionally, she was also ready to approve some money from the Central Emergency Response Fund for the highest-priority projects.  With regard to the Nigerian poisoning incident, she said her office had dispatched a team to assist in that matter and she planned to visit the country at a later date herself.  She was not aware of any new cases since her team’s visit.

Asked who should be held accountable for allowing the cholera epidemic in Haiti to begin, she said it should be remembered that the outbreak did not occur in the place where the earthquake had struck; it occurred as a result of one of the rivers becoming polluted.  In terms of response, she noted that the World Health Organization had emphasized that the Haitian Government’s announcement about the epidemic just three days after the first case had been reported was extremely quick.  Already, some 40 per cent of those living along the river that was the source of the outbreak had been reached with water purification materials and the intention was to reach the entire population in the coming days, she explained.

To a question on Sudan and the lack of information coming out of the country with regard to the humanitarian situation on the ground, Ms. Amos confirmed there were indeed issues of capacity.  In an effort to address that, she had asked someone from her offices to go to Sudan to look at how reporting on issues there might be improved.  She further explained that the vastness of Sudan could not be overlooked, and issues of access often came into play, as well as the fact that access had been granted in some areas and was not granted in other areas.  “We will do all we can to confirm these reports,” she said.

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For information media • not an official record