The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) will begin distributing emergency assistance this week to around 100,000 people in food-insecure parts of southern Madagascar following a donation of US$1.4 million from the United States government.
The American contribution follows an urgent appeal from the Malagasy authorities to assist some 465,000 vulnerable people in 33 drought-affected districts.
“WFP is extremely grateful for the rapid and generous response of the American government to the current crisis in southern Madagascar,” said Krystyna Bednarska, WFP Country Director in Madagascar. “WFP now has sufficient resources to start providing food to the most vulnerable families in the hardest-hit parts of the region.”
The American donation will fund the distribution of 2,000 tons of sorghum and 440 tons of pulses – enough to provide 100,000 beneficiaries with a full family ration for two and a half months.
The first shipment of 950 tons of sorghum arrived on 9 January, with the rest expected to reach Madagascar in the coming weeks. Targeted general food aid distributions are scheduled to begin in the next few days with support from the government and WFP’s partners. In addition, WFP will also provide assistance to malnourished children, pregnant and nursing women in nutrition rehabilitation centres.
While this emergency aid operation is necessary, it is clear that a sustained approach to agricultural development is the only way to combat chronic food insecurity in southern Madagascar.
“On top of this emergency response, the American government is committed to improving the long-term food security situation in the south by boosting the agriculture sector,” said James D. McGee, US Ambassador to Madagascar. “We believe that it is vital to increase the production of appropriate seeds in the south and are working with the government and our partners to promote this project.”
But the current priority is to ensure that the most vulnerable people have sufficient food stocks to cope until the next harvest. Unfortunately WFP, by combining this contribution with other available resources, has only enough food to support 200,000 of the most vulnerable people – amounting to just 40 percent of those targeted for assistance. In addition, WFP can only supply them with around half of the recommended daily allowance.
“WFP is already providing 80 percent of the food aid that is currently being distributed to vulnerable communities in the south with the rest being provided by USAID funded NGOs but WFP urgently needs additional donations so that we can assist even more of those in need,” said Bednarska.
WFP requires another US$1.1 million immediately to fund an extra 1,400 tons of food aid commodities so that assistance can be provided to tens of thousands of other vulnerable people.
WFP has been providing special assistance through food-for-work projects to affected communities in the south since September, after the government declared that 22 districts in Toliara province were facing severe food shortages. Between September and the end of December, WFP distributed 2,000 tons of food aid to 66,000 of the most vulnerable people in those areas.
In December, an additional 11 districts were added to the list of food-insecure areas in need of assistance. WFP immediately agreed to scale up its operations in coordination with the government and its international partners (CARE, ADRA, CRS and UNICEF). However, general distributions were not possible until the US donation.
Along with benefiting thousands of vulnerable people, these projects also compliment ongoing WFP food aid operations in different parts of the south, including school feeding (59,000 pupils in 276 schools in 2006), assistance to malnourished people at nutritional rehabilitation centres (10,500 beneficiaries) and food-for-work (72,000 beneficiaries).
These on-going programmes are continuing thanks mainly to a 900,000 Euro donation from the French government.
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WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: each year, we give food to an average of 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs, including 58 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world's poorest countries. WFP -- We Feed People.
