01/20/2006

Contact: Keegan Kautzky
ri@refugeesinternational.org or 202.828.0110

As the hungry season peaks in Southern Africa, nearly 12 million people face acute food shortages if relief efforts are not rapidly scaled up. An unexpected and severe drought and limited access to fertilizer during the previous planting season has resulted in a food crisis that afflicts millions of households throughout Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland. Compounded by the chronic burden of HIV/AIDS and the endemic poverty of the region, the food crisis threatens to evolve into widespread famine without immediate action.

Traditionally extending from December through March, the hungry season in Southern Africa is the time when food stocks from the previous season’s harvest have been consumed and the next season’s crop has not yet been reaped. An annually occurring food shortage among poor households, this year’s hungry season is one of the worst in recent decades as insufficient commercial grain imports and slow national and international response efforts have resulted in rapid price hikes of basic commodities, multiplying the number of houses unable to afford food in the marketplace.

Throughout Southern Africa, many families have already depleted their household food stocks and grain reserves due to the poor harvest and are now dependent on buying grain in the market. Owing to the extent of the grain shortages throughout the region, the market price of maize has soared, pricing the staple food out of range for most families. As a result, many households are reportedly employing short-term, and often unsustainable, strategies to survive. In particularly vulnerable households, children are being pulled out of school, productive assets are being sold to purchase food and household consumption is often limited to one meal a day. In some households, children have only drought-resistant cassava to eat – a diet limited in nutritional value that may lead to micronutrient malnutrition if sustained.

Without access to staple grains, many families are attempting to supplement meals with scavenged leaves, tubers, tree pods, wild fruit, water lilies and tree roots. The danger of consuming wild plants and tubers has been highlighted in recent months with several deaths throughout the region. In a desperate effort to feed her family, a mother in Malawi served an improperly cooked wild yam, inadvertently poisoning her six children. Similar circumstances resulted in the deaths of a mother and her five-year-old daughter in Zimbabwe and the poisoning of a mother and daughter in Zambia, among others.

Despite months of reporting on the drought and impending humanitarian crisis, conditions continue to deteriorate across much of Southern Africa as a result of inaction.

Malawi

Crop failure and food shortages have hit Malawi the hardest. Receiving up to 60% less rainfall than normal in parts of the country, Malawi sustained its worst harvest in more than a decade. Producing a meager 1.25 million tons of maize, the country’s cereal harvest accounts for only 37% of the minimum 3.4 million tons necessary for annual national consumption.

With governance marked by instability and inconsistent policy, Malawi has had four different agriculture ministers in only two years. Internal political turmoil and impeachment proceedings have further racked the Government in recent months, preoccupying both Parliament and the country’s embattled President. Despite declaring a state of disaster in mid-October, President Bingu wa Mutharika and members of Parliament have done little to address Malawi’s worsening condition.

Forced to ration the sale of subsidized maize throughout the country for months due to its limited supply, Admarc, the government’s grain marketing parastatal, has reportedly run out of grain at various depots and continues to struggle to supply the country’s overwhelming demand. Without access to maize at subsidized prices, the number of food insecure household continues to rise, increasing vulnerability and malnutrition rates throughout the country.

As a result of the grain shortages, there have been sporadic reports of civil unrest throughout Malawi. President Mutharika has ordered the army to protect food convoys, authorizing lethal force against anyone ambushing food shipments. In an unrelated event, a guard shot and seriously wounded a 13- and a 20-year-old in drought-stricken Nsanje district, attempting to disperse a hungry crowd fighting over government-subsidized grain,.

UNICEF has estimated that more than 136,000 children in Malawi are malnourished, with some facing the risk of starvation. 46,000 of these children face severe acute malnutrition and the number of children requiring emergency therapeutic feeding at nutritional rehabilitation centers has risen by more than 60% from November to December, alone. As the crisis worsens, the number of children requiring emergency treatment is expected to rise dramatically.

Zimbabwe

Conditions in Zimbabwe are similarly difficult. Once the agricultural breadbasket of the region, violent land seizures by the government of 4,500 white-owned commercial farms, mismanagement of the land reform, corruption and economic collapse have combined to devastate agricultural production in the country. Despite government assertions that only 2.9 million people are in need of assistance, international relief agencies estimate as many as 4.9 million in the country will require food aid and humanitarian relief over the coming months. The disparity may be largely attributed to apprehension by the Government to admit the country’s inability to provide for its 11.5 million people through domestic agricultural production.

Initial estimates of the number of food insecure households were quickly surpassed as hyperinflation set in, further diminishing the purchasing power of poor households in Zimbabwe. Staple food prices have risen by up to 700%, effectively pricing basic foodstuffs out of reach for all but the wealthy. Further exacerbating the limited food supply, widespread fuel shortages have reduced transportation capacity and market access for maize distribution.

Aggravated by the government-sponsored campaign of urban eviction and demolition earlier this year – which left an estimated 700,000 people homeless and two million without a source of income after markets and vending stalls throughout the country were destroyed – conditions remain critical for the tens of thousands still living without shelter. Purportedly designed to clear illegal settlements and black market trading, the destruction increased vulnerability preceding the current food crisis.

Zambia

The Zambia Vulnerability Assessment Committee initially estimated that 1.2 million people throughout the country would need emergency food assistance. As conditions deteriorate and access to grains in the market diminishes, President Levy Mwanawasa declared a national food disaster mid-November, highlighting new reports of between 1.7 and 2 million people in Zambia facing hunger and starvation without immediate emergency assistance.

According to the World Food Program, a majority of households in Zambia are now unable to access maize in the local markets due to the limited supply and high cost of the grain. Despite the widespread food shortages throughout Zambia and increasing need for relief, severe funding shortfalls remain. As a result, the World Food Program has been forced to cut assistance programs and ration-levels countrywide. Beginning in January, food rations were cut by 50% for the estimated 82,000 refugees currently in Zambia. Similar food ration reductions in 2004 resulted in rioting and violence, tension between refugee and host communities, a rising incidence of prostitution and increased vulnerability of women, migration of refugees in search of income and food, increased exploitation of child labor and subsequent absenteeism from schools, and diminishing health and nutritional status of the refugee children.

Mozambique

Earlier this year, the Mozambican government appealed for international assistance for 550,000 people when it became apparent that the 43% of the country’s maize production would be lost as a result of the drought. Due to the widespread food shortages and a slow response by the international community, grain prices have soared in the last six months, effectively doubling the market price for maize in many districts. Unable to afford the rising costs of food, the number of people in need of food aid has now almost doubled.

According to Mozambique’s Technical Secretariat for Food Security and Nutrition, 800,000 people will require humanitarian assistance. Due to limited food aid donations and a sluggish response from international donors, the World Food Program has previously reported being able to provide assistance to only 30% of those in need.

Beyond widespread food shortages, acute water scarcity is fueling migration in drought-affected areas of Mozambique. Reports of women reportedly walking up to 40 kilometers to fetch water further illustrate current conditions in the country.

Lesotho

With nearly 30% of the adult population afflicted with HIV/AIDS in Lesotho, labor constraints grossly limit the country’s food production. Chronically unable to provide the country’s minimum food requirements, agricultural production was further crippled by the severe drought, exacerbating food insecurity throughout much of the country. According to UN reports, an estimated 548,800 people, or one-quarter of the population, will require food aid over the critical five-month period.

The World Food Program expects to be able to assist only 250,000 to 300,000 of the half million people in need of humanitarian relief throughout the country. Due to the severe funding shortfall, the World Food Program reports having to cut assistance to nearly 70% of the 100,000 orphans in Lesotho, leaving thousands of children vulnerable and without support.

Swaziland

Previously self-sufficient in food production, Swaziland now faces similar suffering as erratic weather and inadequate rainfall resulted in failed crops and food shortages. Burdened with the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the world – a staggering 42% of the population infected with the virus – the country faces increasing dependency and diminished production. Despite its proximity and extended border with South Africa, Swaziland has been unable to access the country’s extensive maize surplus and one-third of the population remains vulnerable. Without immediate relief from other governments and the international donor community, 330,000 people in Swaziland will face severe food shortages and hunger until the next harvest in three months.

Despite repeated calls for preventive intervention and humanitarian assistance, the international response to the food crisis in Southern Africa has been unnecessarily slow and inadequate. Constrained by resource limitations and unable to operate effectively, the World Food Program’s efforts in Southern Africa remain desperately under-funded. As a result, the number of households receiving emergency assistance and food aid has been dramatically reduced throughout much of the region, leaving millions vulnerable and without assistance in this critical period.

Refugees International therefore recommends that:

• International donors immediately mobilize the necessary resources to prevent the World Food Program from being forced to cut food rations to the 82,000 Angolan and Congolese refugees in Zambia.
• The international community immediately increases financial and food aid commitments to prevent further deterioration of food security in southern Africa and allow adequate distribution of emergency relief to all food insecure households in the region.
• Humanitarian organizations and donor governments refocus efforts on the development of improved transportation infrastructure in Southern Africa in order to reduce future shipping constraints that limit distribution of food supplies, such as the existing maize surplus in South Africa, during regional food shortages.
• Affected governments accelerate maize imports from South Africa to supply local and government-subsidized grain markets in order to reduce market exclusion of poor households and stave off a market-driven famine.