04/25/2008

Contact: Joel Charny

Recently the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) issued an extraordinary emergency appeal to international donors. Due to soaring food and fuel prices, WFP is facing a shortfall of some $500 million in its efforts to feed over 70 million people this year, over half of whom are refugees and internally displaced persons. As most displaced people already face severely limited access to food, the global food crisis will have a disproportionate effect on them.

While food prices had been increasing over the last five years, other factors have emerged recently to make the situation especially acute. There is increasing competition for land between bio-fuel crop producers and food producers. Fuel costs are rising for food transportation. Australia, one of the leading grain producers in the world, is in the midst of a ten-year drought. And elevated standards of living around the globe, especially in China and India, have led to greater consumption and reduced food stocks.

Food shortages are starting to trigger violent popular reactions in many countries, which in turn may lead to greater displacement. The protests led by Buddhist monks in Burma last September were a response to deteriorating economic conditions, and the government’s harsh crackdown displaced hundreds of people. Recently, violent protests in response to rising food prices have occurred in Bangladesh, Cameroon, Colombia, Cote d’Ivorie, Egypt, Ethiopian, Haiti, Indonesia, Mauritania, Mexico, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Thailand, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.

An immediate concern is the ability of aid organizations to sustain feeding programs in refugee camps within existing budget constraints. The Thai-Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) has been working to highlight the budgetary impact on their feeding programs for Burmese refugees in Thailand. From mid-February to the end of March this year, the cost of rice purchased locally nearly doubled from $343 to $625 per ton, and more increases are predicted. As of now, TBBC is being asked to absorb these increases, leading to reductions in the overall food ration for the refugees.

Aid agencies working with refugees and internally displaced people in Sudan, Chad, Liberia, and Ghana have also reported reducing daily rations to compensate for the increased food prices. In part, this is due to many donors shifting contributions away from long-term food aid and towards emergency operations only. The resulting funding gaps are significant. In Chad, food programs for refugees and IDPs are 94% underfunded for 2008. In Yemen, the gap is 81%, in Sudan it is 45%, in Uganda it is 67%, and for groups working with displaced Iraqis, the funding gap is 87%.

These food shortages can contribute to insecurity for humanitarian operations. In Sudan, WFP has reported that more than 60 trucks have gone missing since the beginning of the year. UNICEF has warned that such attacks slow humanitarian operations in the region and in the current environment, replacing food supplies is made even more difficult.

The United States has the ability to contribute significantly to WFP’s $500 million shortfall, and Congress will likely be generous to the agency in allocations from the FY2008 supplemental appropriations bill currently being developed. But even for the US, the stress on current budgets is severe. According to the Food for Peace Deputy Director, Jonathan Dworken, the US Agency for International Development has had to cut about $120 million for future aid programs to pay for current commitments due to rising commodity prices.

The vulnerability of the displaced to food shortages underscores the need to give them the opportunity, the security, and the resources to feed themselves. Either through wage employment or through agricultural production, most displaced people would far prefer to care for themselves rather than depend on food rations. But host governments normally restrict the ability of refugees to access the local labor market. And insecurity and economic failure make it difficult for the people displaced within their country to meet their own needs even if they have the right to own land and work. Addressing these problems is essential to lessening the dependence of the displaced on increasingly expensive food handouts.