News

AFP
PARIS – 20th February 2011

World Bank president Robert Zoellick warned leaders of the top global economies Saturday that the world is reaching a danger point where soaring food prices threaten further political instability.

“I mentioned that we are reaching a danger point,” Zoellick said, adding that he had urged G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs meeting here to “put food first in 2011.”

Zoellick said rising prices would eventually result in increased food supplies but in the intervening couple of years, “there could be an awful lot of turmoil and governments could fall and societies could go into turmoil.”

Soaring food, fuel and other basic costs have been one of the key factors driving political unrest across the Middle East and North Africa which has forced the ouster of long-standing autocratic rulers in Egypt and Tunisia.

“We need to be sensitive and have a fingertip feel on what is happening in terms of food prices and its potential effect on social instability,” Zoellick told a conference call.

He said the international community needs to be ready to act quickly to help countries such as Tunisia to cope with economic shocks as they try to manage political transition.

The World Bank warned ahead of the two-day G20 meeting that food prices rose by 15 percent between October 2010 and January 2011, pushing another 44 million people into poverty.

France, which holds the presidency of the Group of 20 top developing and developed countries, has made reducing price volatility in basic commodities including food one of its key goals.

Zoellick said G20 ministers were receptive to some of the ideas the World Bank has proposed and that the meeting would provide further momentum for action.

“In sum, I’d say there is a list of items here that is very do-able and the best antidote to complaints that the G20 is a talk shop is to take real action. And action for the most vulnerable people is the best form of that.”

Zoellick said the situation is more concerning today than several years ago as there is increased demand from emerging markets and severe weather has reduced the ability of farmers to respond.

There have been proposals to slap limits on commodity trading to discourage speculative trading and reduce price volatility but the World Bank chief said “you counter volatility with better information” about the markets.

He said he also favoured a “code of conduct” for food export bans so as to ensure humanitarian food aid programmes are not affected

World Bank president Robert Zoellick warned leaders of the top global economies Saturday that the world is reaching a danger point where soaring food prices threaten further political instability.

“I mentioned that we are reaching a danger point,” Zoellick said, adding that he had urged G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs meeting here to “put food first in 2011.”

Zoellick said rising prices would eventually result in increased food supplies but in the intervening couple of years, “there could be an awful lot of turmoil and governments could fall and societies could go into turmoil.”

Soaring food, fuel and other basic costs have been one of the key factors driving political unrest across the Middle East and North Africa which has forced the ouster of long-standing autocratic rulers in Egypt and Tunisia.

“We need to be sensitive and have a fingertip feel on what is happening in terms of food prices and its potential effect on social instability,” Zoellick told a conference call.

He said the international community needs to be ready to act quickly to help countries such as Tunisia to cope with economic shocks as they try to manage political transition.

The World Bank warned ahead of the two-day G20 meeting that food prices rose by 15 percent between October 2010 and January 2011, pushing another 44 million people into poverty.

France, which holds the presidency of the Group of 20 top developing and developed countries, has made reducing price volatility in basic commodities including food one of its key goals.

Zoellick said G20 ministers were receptive to some of the ideas the World Bank has proposed and that the meeting would provide further momentum for action.

“In sum, I’d say there is a list of items here that is very do-able and the best antidote to complaints that the G20 is a talk shop is to take real action. And action for the most vulnerable people is the best form of that.”

Zoellick said the situation is more concerning today than several years ago as there is increased demand from emerging markets and severe weather has reduced the ability of farmers to respond.

There have been proposals to slap limits on commodity trading to discourage speculative trading and reduce price volatility but the World Bank chief said “you counter volatility with better information” about the markets.

He said he also favoured a “code of conduct” for food export bans so as to ensure humanitarian food aid programmes are not affected.

The Hagstrom Report
Monday, February 14, 2011 | Volume 1, Number 25

By JERRY HAGSTROM

If the budget cuts proposed by House Republicans for the remainder of the 2011 fiscal year go into effect, nearly 18 million hungry people worldwide will lose American food aid and farmers will lose benefits guaranteed to them under the 2008 farm bill, key lobbyists said over the weekend as they began campaigns to try to stop the cuts in either the House or the Senate.

The federal government is operating under a continuing resolution in effect until March 4, and Congress needs to pass a new spending bill by that date. This 2011 proposal, which was announced Friday and would cover the period until the end of the fiscal year on September 30, is unrelated to the budget proposal for fiscal year 2012 that President Obama is scheduled to announce today. The Obama proposal would cover the fiscal year beginning October 1.

Responding to the political sentiment that led to the rise of the tea party movement and the shift of control of the House of Representatives from Democratic to Republican, the House Appropriations Committee released a proposal for financing the federal government through the end of the fiscal year that includes a $60 billion cut in government spending.

Of that $60 billion cut, $5.2 billion or 22 percent would come from the agriculture function and there would be additional cuts to food aid in the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development budgets. The agriculture budget cut includes a $747 million reduction in the special nutrition program for women, infants and children known as WIC, but the impact of that cut is unclear because the birth rate is down.

“This year, our nation is spending $1.5 trillion more than we have, running our debt to $14 trillion. The taxpayers have told us loud and clear that this is simply unacceptable, and have demanded that we get our nation’s fiscal house in order,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said in a statement when he released the budget. “My committee has taken a thoughtful look at each and every one of the programs we intend to cut, and have made determinations based on this careful analysis.”

Senate Democrats, who control that chamber, have already described the House Republicans’ proposal as unrealistic. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, said in a news release, “It is clear from this proposal that House Republicans are committed to pursuing an ineffective approach to deficit reduction that attempts to balance the budget on the back of domestic discretionary investments, which constitute only a small percentage of overall federal spending. The priorities identified in this proposal for some of the largest cuts —environmental protection, health care, energy, science, and law enforcement — are essential to the current and future well-being of our economy and communities across the country.”

The House Republican spending proposal is unlikely to become law as written as the Democratic-controlled Senate and President Obama will have to agree to the final bill, but it has laid out the beginning of the House negotiating position. The House is expected to act on the proposal by the end of this week, but the Senate may move so slowly that there may be another continuing resolution before Congress passes a final bill to fund the government through September 30.

Ellen Levinson, executive director of the Alliance for Global Food Security, a coalition of humanitarian and industry groups that deliver food aid, said the Republican proposal would cut U.S. international food assistance to its lowest levels in a decade, dropping the food aid budget 42 percent or $800 million from its fiscal year 2010 level.

“Cutting food aid is particularly devastating now, because food prices have soared to their highest levels in decades and low-income, food-deficit countries are struggling with growing hunger and unrest,” Levinson said.

U.S. food aid now reaches 50 million people per year, she said. The House proposal would cut 15 million people from the Food for Peace Program, which targets communities where there is persistent hunger and 30 percent or more children are undernourished, and cut 2.5 million children from the McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program, Levinson said.

“Reductions in Food for Peace will also severely limit the ability of the United States to provide assistance in response to conflicts, drought and other disasters, when hunger sets in quickly and people’s lives are endangered,” she added.

The United States has traditionally been the world’s biggest donor of food aid, and Levinson’s alliance on Sunday called on Congress “to restore funding to the Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole Food for Education Programs to assure that the United States continues its leadership role in the fight against global hunger.”

U.S. farm groups and shipping companies have formed a coalition with humanitarian groups to include food aid in the farm bill and other legislation. The impact of an $800 million reduction in government food aid purchases on the commodity markets is unknown.

Meanwhile, Ferd Hoefner, the Washington lobbyist for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, said in a blog post for his members Saturday that the cut proposed in agriculture would be “enormous.” Hoefner noted that, while the budget resolution focuses mostly on discretionary spending, it includes more than $500 million in cuts to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the Conservation Stewardship Program, the Wetlands Reserve Program, and the Biomass Crop Assistance Program.

“NSAC strongly opposes the cuts to farm bill mandatory conservation and renewable energy programs,” Hoefner wrote. “If Congress decides that deficit reduction requires farm bill spending to be on the table, then we strongly believe ALL farm bill spending should be on the table and that cuts should be fair and equitable and based on the merits. Singling out the 10 percent of farm bill spending represented by conservation and renewable energy spending to take all the cuts is grossly unfair. In our view, either everything is on the table, or nothing is on the table.

“We also believe the appropriations bill is not the appropriate venue for making farm bill cuts,” he added. “Such adjustments to the farm bill should be made by the Agriculture committees and only in the context of a broad agreement to find savings in mandatory programs on a government-wide basis.”

Hoefner said the bill would eliminate (“zero out” in budget jargon) many sustainable agriculture programs, including the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, Organic Transitions research program, the USDA Office of Advocacy and Outreach (for minority and beginning farmers), the USDA Office of Tribal Relations, Farm Service Agency conservation loans, the Resource Conservation and Development program, the regional integrated pest management centers, the regional Rural Development Centers, the National Integrated Food Safety Initiative, and the Hunger Free Communities program.

“NSAC intends to work with members of Congress to pursue amendments on the floor next week to restore funding to many of these important functions,” Hoefner wrote. “It is unacceptable in our view to focus terminations on very modest programs for sustainable and organic agriculture, beginning and minority farmers, and initiatives to reduce pesticides and pathogens in food production. Funding cuts should be based on careful evaluation of the need for and effectiveness of programs, not simply aimed to chop out small programs that only just barely begin to level the playing field for chronically underserved parts of agriculture.”

Hoefner also noted that the bill’s provision to limit the Conservation Stewardship Program by $39 million would force the government to break the terms of the five-year contracts already signed with farmers in 2009 and 2010 by delaying contract payments.

“Reneging on contracts already in effect would truly represent government at its very worst,” Hoefner said. He also noted that the proposal to cut the Wetlands Reserve Program by 19 percent or nearly 48,000 acres would be a permanent reduction in the acreage level for the WRP established in the 2008 farm bill.

USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture (formerly the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service) would also take a big hit under the bill, Hoefner said.

“Formula funds” to land-grant colleges and institutions would go up by $25 million relative to fiscal year 2010, but competitive grant programs would be funded at their 2010 levels rather than at the significant increased levels called for in President Obama’s budget request. The agency’s administrative funds would also be cut, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service would be cut by 10 percent.

• Alliance for Global Food Security
• National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

Alliance for Global Food Security
February 13, 2011

The Alliance for Global Food Security urges Congress to restore funding to the Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole Food for Education Programs to assure that the United States continues its leadership role in the fight against global hunger.

 The House Continuing Resolution released on February 11th (H.R. 1) would reduce international food assistance to its lowest levels in a decade, slashing 42%, or $800 million, from its FY 2010 level.  The bill would eliminate nearly 18 million beneficiaries.  Ellen Levinson, Alliance Executive Director, points out, “Cutting food aid is particularly devastating now, because food prices have soared to their highest levels in decades and low-income, food-deficit countries are struggling with growing hunger and unrest.”

 Put in perspective, funding for international relations comprises little more than one percent of the federal budget.  Of those international funds, food assistance programs receive only one-third of one percent.  Nonetheless, they reach and improve the lives of nearly 50 million people a year.

 With the House Bill, over 15 million people would be cut from the Food for Peace Program, which targets communities where there is persistent hunger and 30 percent or more children are under-nourished.  Reductions in Food for Peace will also severely limit the ability of the United States to provide assistance in response to conflicts, drought and other disasters, when hunger sets in quickly and people’s lives are endangered.  An additional 2 1/2 million food aid recipients – school children – will be dropped from the McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program. 

 The cuts in Food for Peace threaten operations in thousands of poor communities where humanitarian and development organizations provide food aid along with training and capacity building in health, nutrition, and agriculture and enterprise development.  Those programs have effectively improved nutrition, household incomes, food supplies, and agricultural and food systems.

 The members of the Alliance are private voluntary organizations and cooperatives that are committed to addressing hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity. They operate in over 100 developing countries, implementing emergency and development programs that directly engage, support and build the capacity of local communities, enterprises and institutions.

Alliance for Global Food Security
February 10, 2011

The Alliance for Global Food Security urges the House of Representatives to reconsider its proposed $544 million cut in international food assistance programs.  Ellen Levinson, Alliance Executive Director, explained, “Reduced funding would set back efforts in low-income, food insecure countries to increase productivity and incomes in the agricultural sector, to reduce vulnerability to food crises, and to improve nutrition and incomes of the poor.  It would be particularly devastating now, because food prices have soared to their highest levels in decades and low-income, food deficit countries are struggling with growing hunger and unrest.” 

In a letter to congressional appropriations committees, the Alliance, which is comprised of humanitarian and development organizations that conduct programs in over 100 low-income countries, urged Congress to provide the funding requested by the Obama Administration for FY 2011 for the Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole International Food for Education Programs. 

The Administration’s funding request for the Food for Peace program for FY 2011 is already $371 million less than the funding level for that program in FY 2008.  This is because up until the last fiscal year, it was regular practice to under-fund the Food for Peace program as part of the regular appropriations process and then attempt to meet the shortfall by bolstering the program later in the year through supplemental appropriations bills.  This piecemeal funding was fraught with inefficiencies, making it difficult for government agencies to control costs and procure and send commodities to needy countries in a timely manner. 

This is the second year that the Administration requested adequate funding for the Food for Peace Program through the regular appropriations process to meet minimal anticipated needs, thereby reducing reliance on supplemental appropriations except for unanticipated crises due to war, economic conditions and natural disasters (such as the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti).  Sufficient upfront funding is working well:  it has allowed U.S. government agencies to implement improved commodity procurement strategies which ultimately save the U.S. government and the American taxpayer money.  

The Alliance letter notes, “While only a small part of the U.S. international affairs budget, the funding requested for the Food for Peace and McGovern-Dole Programs for FY 2011 would nonetheless help nearly 50 million people.”  A $544 million reduction would cut the number of beneficiaries in those food aid programs by approximately 12 million.

Sufficient funding for the Food for Peace program is critical for advancing U.S. humanitarian and security efforts.  It provides a reliable source of appropriate commodities for emergencies that can be used to save lives and to give people the chance to recover.  Moreover, by using food aid in development programs in poor communities where food insecurity is persistent, Food for Peace also contributes to long-term food security. 

Developmental food aid programs are implemented by non-profit organizations (“private voluntary organizations”) and cooperatives in partnership with thousands of local business, governmental and organizational partners and incorporate strategies that:

• Show measurable results, such as improvements in agricultural production, incomes, household food supplies, child nutrition and dietary and sanitation practices; and,
• Build local capacity and infrastructure and prepare communities, organizations, government institutions, and businesses to expand activities, reap benefits and decrease vulnerability to hunger after the program is complete.

The McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program also has developmental goals, particularly to increase school enrollment, attendance and educational quality.  Meals in schools and take-home food packages for children who regularly attend classes serve as incentives for families to send their girls to school.  Longitudinal studies have shown that when girls receive at least a primary education, they tend to start their families later, adopt appropriate health practices and lead more productive lives.

For further information on U.S. food aid programs, please see www.foodaid.org.

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DesMoinesRegister.com
9:57 PM, Feb 13, 2011 | by Philip Brasher

House Republicans are making the first bid as battles over the federal budget deficit heat up this week. President Barack Obama releases his 2012 budget  on Monday.

But Republicans have released plans to slash spending for the current spending year by $61 billion below the 2010 spending level and $100 billon below what the president had requested for fiscal 2011.

Those cuts include $5.2 billion in reductions from 2010 levels at the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration. Some of the biggest cuts would be in domestic and international feeding programs. But the proposals also would also reduce spending for conservation, rural development and loans to farmers.

International food assistance would fall by 42 percent, or about $800 million, to its lowest levels in a decade, if the cuts are enacted, according to the Alliance for Global Food Security, a coalition of aid organizations. The reduction would eliminate assistance to nearly 18 million people, the group said.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which tracks the USDA budget, says that the House GOP is going after some mandatory farm bill spending that’s under the jurisdiction of the Agriculture Committee, not Appropriations, which is responsible for writing annual spending bills.

The cuts would hit among others the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which subsidizes the cost of farm pollution controls and conservation measures; the Conservation Stewardship Program, which rewards farmers for improved environmental practices; the Wetlands Reserve Program; and the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, a new measure that is supposed to subsidize the cost of  providing new, non-food feedstocks such as crop residue for biofuel production.

Get a summary of the proposed cuts here: FY2011CRSpendingTablesbySubcommittee

BBC
February 8, 2011

Schools in the arid north-western region of Kenya near Lake Turkana usually offer pupils from nomadic communities food to encourage them to come to class.

The dwindling number of children at Lokichare Primary School near Lowdar town shows that the food rations, like the landscape, have dried up.

Those pupils in attendance who trooped out to welcome the visiting BBC team chose to sing a song in the local Turkana language about the importance of washing hands before eating.

The irony is that the ongoing drought means the school does not even have water for them to drink, let alone wash their hands.

The Kenya Red Cross estimates more than two million people and 20 million head of livestock are currently in need of emergency food.

Various humanitarian organisations and Kenya’s government have launched appeals for food assistance for the region.

Aid organisations have given food to the government to distribute it to schools like Lokichare primary.

But headmaster Edward Lodoso Somal says since the school year began in January, no food has arrived.

“We think it is because of lack of transport,” he said, standing in the small windowless kitchen full of firewood and old ash in the stone hearths where the food is usually prepared.

Rose Ogola, a UN World Food Programme information officer, confirmed that food has been allocated to schools.

“We are surprised that there is no food in that primary school you are talking about,” she said.

However, Lowdar is a two-day, 700km (430-mile) journey from the capital, Nairobi – the last 300km along poorly maintained dirt roads.

This poses logistical problems and the government has no suitable vehicles to make the food deliveries.

Last year, Mr Somal had 280 pupils, now there are less than 90.

Many of the children have left to accompany their parents hunting for food and pasture in neighbouring Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Others have run off to nearby trading centres, hoping to receive relief food more easily there.

Droughts are not uncommon in northern Kenya, the last severe one was two years ago.

Mr Somal feels long-term solutions need to be found to help the communities survive.

“Pastoralists should be encouraged to start a habit of selling their healthy animals during the drought period to keep their money in banks and use it later when the conditions improve instead of letting the animals die as they wait for rain,” he said.

In 2009, when the government offered to buy healthy animals from the nomadic communities, they declined as they hoped the rains would come.

They only agreed to sell when their livestock were so thin that many of them died on their way to the national slaughterhouse on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Driving through the Lake Turkana region, there is only sand – and a few acacia bushes that keep the few malnourished goats and camels alive.

Young boys and elderly men beg for food and water along the dusty road in the 40C heat.

Conflict fears

Leah Lokala, 27, lives in a homestead – a collection of several grass hut houses surrounded by the desert – in Kalotum, 15km north of Lowdar town.

Nearby there are three famished-looking goats nibbling on thorny scrubs.

She was the only one of the group we met who speaks Kenya’s lingua franca Swahili, an indication that she has attended school for at least a couple of years.

“The drought has killed all the cattle and we now have only the three goats to take care of and we have to travel more than 15km to water them,” she said.

Several kilometres further on towards Lowdar we found a camel, renowned for being the most resilient of desert animals, that can hardly stand.

When the nomads, like the Pokot and Turkana, see their hardy animals dying of starvation, it spells more than just drought.

It often means deadly raids, usually involving pastoralists from neighbouring countries.

Come the rains, heavily armed nomads steal livestock from each other to stock up on those animals lost during the drought.

The authorities also want to stop the movement of nomadic Kenyan communities to other countries, fearing clashes over the scarce water and pasture. Click here to read more.

Reuters

Monday, February 7, 2011

Ethiopia and the United Nations said on Monday 2.8 millions Ethiopians will need emergency food aid in 2011, and appealed for $227 million to fund programs for the first six months.

The Horn of Africa nation is still one of the world’s poorest countries, with nearly 10 percent of the population of 77 million people relying on emergency food aid last year.

The U.N. cited poor performance of rains in the Somali and Oromiya regions late last year for the increasing food problem.

In addition, donor representatives said access was still restricted in nine out of the 52 localities in the Somali region, where a low-level insurgency still prevails. About 40 percent of the beneficiaries are in the Somali region.

“Presently, we all remain concerned about the situation in the eastern and southeastern lowlands of Somali and Oromiya regions, where renewed drought conditions are having a significant humanitarian impact,” said Eugene Owusu, the resident United Nations coordinator.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said his country may not need any food aid within five years thanks to an ambitious development plan that targets an average economic growth of 14.9 percent over the period.

Addis Ababa has posted high economic growth figures over the past five years, averaging about 11 percent, according to government figures.

Ethiopia is one of the world’s largest recipients of foreign aid, receiving more than $3 billion in 2008, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Ethiopia is a key Western ally in the Horn of Africa, where it is seen as a bulwark against militant Islamism. Addis Ababa also wants to attract foreign investment in large-scale farming and oil and gas exploration.   Click here.

(Reporting by Aaron Maasho; Editing by James Macharia and Mark Heinrich)

Reuters 
February 4, 2011 

The United Nations said on Thursday its Food and Agriculture Organization Food Price Index rose for the seventh month in a row to reach 231 in January, topping the peak of 224.1 last seen in June 2008. It is the highest level the index has reached since records began in 1990.

“These high prices are likely to persist in the months to come,” FAO economist and grains expert Abdolreza Abbassian said in a statement.

Wheat underscored the problem affecting commodity prices around the world, settling on Thursday slightly lower after hitting a 2- year high earlier in the day. Corn and soybeans, which also have been hovering near long-term highs, also declined.

Global food inflation is a mounting worry for world leaders. It has contributed to political unrest in countries with high poverty rates and unemployment, as evidenced in the toppling of Tunisia’s president in January. That unrest has spilled into Egypt, Yemen and Jordan.

In response, some countries are increasing food imports and have built stockpiles to meet their domestic needs. Among them is Algeria, wary after food riots in early January. It has made huge wheat purchases to avoid shortages, and on Thursday it announced plans to lift a 19-year-old state of emergency in a bid to avert spreading protests.

In Central America, Honduras has frozen prices on many basic foodstuffs despite complaints from farmers. El Salvador is increasing anti-poverty programs by 30 percent, and Guatemala is considering slashing import tariffs on wheat and is handing out food and cash vouchers to landless peasants.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick in a Reuters interview urged world leaders to “wake up” to the dangers of rising food inflation, a problem said he sees no relief from.

“We are going to be facing a broader trend of increasing commodity prices, including food commodity prices,” he said.

SUPPLY THE KEY

Catastrophic storms and droughts have slammed the world’s leading agriculture countries in recent months, including flooding and a massive cyclone in Australia and a powerful winter storm that swept across the United States.

Dubbed “Stormageddon,” one of the biggest snowstorm in decades dumped up to 20 inches of snow in some parts of the U.S. grain belt this week, paralyzing the shipment of grain and livestock.

A deep-freeze forecast for the Midwest, the bread basket of the United States, threatens the region’s winter wheat because it may lack sufficient insulating moisture to withstand the cold.

Sugar prices also have surged to three-decade highs on fears of damage Cyclone Yasi would bring to the Australian cane crop. Prices for Malaysian palm oil, a cooking staple in the developing world, hit 3-year highs on flooding.

Big companies have had to adjust to higher raw material costs. Kellogg Co, the world’s largest breakfast cereal company, said on Thursday it has boosted prices on many of its products to offset rising costs for ingredients such as grains and sugar.  Click here.

VOA News.com
January 26, 2011

Relief officials say better access to health care and family planning education can help reduce the number of malnourished children in Niger, where malnutrition rates remain above emergency levels, despite stronger rains and better harvests.

Despite record harvests in October, more than 300,000 Niger children were treated for severe acute malnutrition.  This is more than Niger’s last major food crisis in 2005.

Agriculture and livestock regularly suffer from massive droughts and floods in Africa’s Sahel region.  Coupled with basic farming technology, limited access to doctors, and a burgeoning population, Niger’s 15 million people are repeatedly affected by annual food crises and pushed deeper into poverty.

But the UNICEF nutritional specialist for West and Central Africa, Robert Johnson, says fighting malnutrition in Niger is not simply a matter of food quantity.

“Food security is considered the access and availability to an adequate amount and quality of food,” he said. “And that is very different from nutrition, which is actually getting the food into your mouth and using them for your best possible development.”

Niger has one of the highest birthrates in the world with an average of eight children per family.  Relief officials say more than half will die before the age of five.  For those who do survive, a majority will suffer from chronic malnutrition and stunted growth.

“There is a clear link between access to healthcare and acute malnutrition being a disease and not only a deficiency of food,” said Patrick Barbier, head of the Niger mission for Doctors Without Borders. “Access to health care is poor, so the health status of the children is poor.  So whenever there is a food shortage they are immediately affected, because they do not have resources, they do not have coping mechanisms, they do not have strong immune systems.  So they fall very quickly and they die at the end.”

Niger has more than 270 feeding centers to provide nutritionally-rich food and drink.  But Robert Johnson says treating malnutrition only when it becomes a serious problem puts everyone in a very difficult position.

“There is a movement towards risk reduction,” he said. “We have to focus a lot stronger on education and making sure girls get through education and not having children at 14, 15 years of age.”

Aid agencies help supplement local diets with high-caloric, nutrient-dense foods.  This helps ensure children get the required vitamins, minerals and proteins.

“This helps to build a nutrition resilience that allows children to get through the most vulnerable two years of life and then have a chance to go to school, have a chance to learn, have a chance to grow up and be healthy during adulthood and be productive,” Johnson said.

Johnson says the number of malnourished children is greater than those with HIV and tuberculosis combined, yet tackling malnutrition is far cheaper.

“With all the work in HIV and TB, it took a long time to convince people that treatment actually worked,” he said. “And then once treatment actually worked, I think everybody got on board and started to say, ‘O.K. now we have treatment covered let’s be serious about prevention.’  And I think that is where we are starting to get to with the treatment and prevention of acute malnutrition.”

As Niger’s military government prepares to return the country to civilian rule with presidential elections on Monday, one of the most pressing concerns for the new government will be providing better family planning and access to healthcare to reduce chronic malnutrition.

Click here to read more.

January 21, 2011

NAIROBI/ISIOLO – Kenya can best mitigate the devastating effects of recurrent drought by strengthening the livestock sector so that it becomes a viable money-based economy, and improving pastoral food and water security, say aid officials.

“Responding to drought has largely remained a reactive mechanism over the years,” Enrico Eminae, Action Aid Kenya’s Northeast Regional Coordinator, told IRIN. “There is also a lack of a coordinated approach by CSOs [civil society organizations] and government in addressing drought-related issues at all levels.”

According to the Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) Secretary-General, Abbas Gullet, drought mitigation should focus on addressing vulnerability factors through activities such as dam construction and investments in irrigated farming in marginal areas.

The prevailing drought is expected to hit an estimated 1.8 million people, says the KRCS, mostly pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and those in marginal agricultural areas in the Coast, Eastern, North Eastern and the North Rift of Kenya.

In the northern Isiolo, Marsabit, Moyale and Samburu districts, at least 150,000 people urgently need food aid, most of them women, children and the elderly. Long distances to relief food centres and the inability to secure manual work have added to their vulnerability.

“The situation is tough, but most families have taken different steps to cope with the hardships. Some are skipping meals; some have taken their children to school so that they can get food under the school-feeding programme. In some cases, families are [eating] wild fruits,” Bitacha Sora, a KRCS officer in the north, said.

Food and milk prices have risen, driven by reduced availability as herders migrate. A lack of water for domestic and livestock use is also forcing residents to rely on water vendors, who are charging exorbitant prices – 60 shillings (US$0.75) per 20-litre water can.

Conflict concerns

In the coastal Tana River region, drought could lead to conflict between residents and migrating livestock herders, some of whom have come to the more fertile Tana Delta area from northeast Kenya and neighbouring parts of Somalia, warned the Assistant Minister for Information and Communication, Dhado Godana.

“We have lost most of our livestock due to the lack of pasture and water,” Abdallah Musa, a herder in Tana River’s Bangale area, told IRIN.

On 14 January the KRCS launched a KSh1.5 billion ($18.75 million) appeal for about 1.8 million people over six months. The response will focus on water provision and livestock destocking programmes – an estimated 20 million heads of livestock are judged at risk.

“Water trucking is no real solution and it is very costly, but it must be done,” said KRCS’s Gullet. “We need to operate before things happen. We shouldn’t wait until people die to call it [drought] a national disaster.”

But on 18 January the government said the drought did not qualify as a disaster, adding that there were sufficient food supplies to meet the present needs.

Farmers in regions that enjoyed bumper maize harvests, such as parts of Rift Valley and Western Kenya, following favourable rains in 2010, are demanding higher prices. The government has set the price at KSh1,800 ($2.25) per 90kg bag, but farmers are demanding KSh2,200 ($2.75).

In the 2005-2006 drought, livestock worth more than KSh70 billion (about $0.9 billion) was lost in the North Eastern Kenya region alone; a subsequent drought in 2008-2009 resulted in the belated trucking of thousands of dying livestock to the Kenya Meat Commission, noted the officer in charge of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Kenya, Choice Okoro.

“The story of drought and famine is almost becoming a cliché in Kenya,” noted Damaris Mateche, environmental security analyst at the Institute for Security Studies in Nairobi. “Despite the existing drought early warning systems in the country, drought disaster response mechanisms and coping strategies remain miserably wanting. More often, drought and famine situations degenerate into dire humanitarian crises before the government takes substantial action.”

Foreign Policy

January 21, 2011

Rajiv Shah, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), has a message for those in Congress who want to slash development and foreign aid budgets: Cuts will undermine U.S. national security.

On the heels of a major speech on the coming reforms to America’s premier development agency, Shah sat down for an exclusive interview with The Cable to explain his vision for making USAID more responsible and accountable, an effort he said will require increased short-term investment in order to realize long-term savings.

But if Congress follows through on a massive defunding of USAID as the 165-member Republican Study Group recommended yesterday, it would not only put USAID’s reforms in jeopardy, but have real and drastic negative implications for American power and the ongoing missions in Afghanistan and Pakistan, according to Shah.

“That first and foremost puts our national security in real jeopardy, because we are working hand and glove with our military to keep us safe,” said Shah, referring to USAID missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, the horn of Africa,  and Central America, and responding directly to Congressional calls for cuts in foreign aid and development.

The RSC plan calls for $1.39 billion in annual savings from USAID. The USAID operating budget for fiscal 2010 was approximately $1.65 billion. The RSC spending plan summary was not clear if all the cuts would come from operations or from USAID administered programs.

“That would have massive negative implications for our fundamental security,” said Shah. “And as people start to engage in a discussion of what that would mean for protecting our border, for preventing terrorist safe havens and keeping our country safe from extremists’ ideology… and what that would mean for literally taking children that we feed and keep alive through medicines or food and leaving them to starve. I think those are the types of things people will back away from.”

The interests between the development community and U.S. national security objectives don’t always align, and this tension is at the core of the debate on how to reinvigorate USAID. Short term foreign policy objectives sometimes don’t match long term development needs and U.S. foreign policy priorities are not made with development foremost in mind.

But Shah’s ambitious drive to reform USAID seems to embrace the idea that development investments can be justified due to their linkage with national security. He is preparing to unveil next month USAID’s first ever policy on combating violent extremism and executing counterinsurgency. He also plans to focus USAID’s efforts on hotspots like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, and parts of sub-Saharan Africa, while transitioning away from other countries that are faring well and downgrading the agency’s presence in places like Paris, Rome, and Tokyo.

Shah pointed out that Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, and ISAF Commander Gen. David Petraeus have all come out in strong support of increasing USAID’s capacity to do foreign aid.

“In the military they call us a high-value, low-density partner, because we are of high value to the national security mission but there aren’t enough of us and we don’t have enough capability,” he said. “This is actually a much, much, much more efficient investment than sending in our troops, not even counting the tremendous risk to American lives when we have to do that.”

For those less concerned with matters of national security, Shah also framed his argument for development aid in terms of increased domestic economic and job opportunities: If we want to export more, we need to help develop new markets that are U.S. friendly.

“If we are going to be competitive as a country and create jobs at home, we cannot ignore the billions of people who are currently very low income but will in fact form a major new middle-class market in the next two decades,” he said.

One of the main criticisms of USAID both on Capitol Hill and elsewhere is that the agency has been reduced over the years to not much more than a contracting outfit, disbursing billions of dollars around the world to organizations that have mixed performance records. In Shah’s view, if Congress wants USAID to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, it has to increase the agency’s operating budget and allow the agency to monitor contracts in house.

“It was the Bush administration that helped launch the effort to reinvest in USAID’s capabilities and hiring and people, and the reason they did that is they recognized you save a lot more money by being better managers of contracts,” Shah said. “We have a choice. We have a critical need to make the smart investments in our own operations… which over time will save hundreds of millions of dollars, as opposed to trying to save a little bit now by cutting our capacity to do oversight and monitoring.”

Shah wouldn’t comment on the latest and greatest USAID contracting scandal, where the agency suspended contractor AED from receiving any new contracts amid allegations of widespread fraud. But he did say his office would be personally reviewing large sole-source contracts from now on, requiring independent and public evaluations, and that more corrective actions are in the works.

“I suspect you’ll see more instances of effective, proactive oversight that in fact saves American taxpayers significant resources,” he said.

Soaring prices spark fears of social unrest in developing world

MSNBC

January 14, 2011

Strained by rising demand and battered by bad weather, the global food supply chain is stretched to the limit, sending prices soaring and sparking concerns about a repeat of food riots last seen three years ago.

Signs of the strain can be found from Australia to Argentina, Canada to Russia.  On Thursday, Tunisia’s president ordered prices on food staples slashed and indicated he won’t run for re-election after deadly riots hit the North African country.

“We are entering a danger territory,” Abdolreza Abbassian, chief economist at the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization  (FAO), said last week. The U.N.’s fear is that the latest run-up in food prices could spark a repeat of the deadly food riots that broke out in 2008 in Haiti, Kenya and Somalia. That price spike was relatively short-lived. But Abbassian said the latest surge in food stuffs may be more sustained. “Situations have changed. The supply/demand structures have changed,” Abbassian told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. last week.  “Certainly the kind of weather developments we have seen makes us worry a little bit more that it may last much, much longer. Are we prepared for it? Really this is the question.”

Price for grains and other farm products began rising last fall after poor harvests in Canada, Russia and Ukraine tightened global supplies.

More recently, hot, dry weather in South America has cut production in Argentina, a major soybean exporter. This month’s flooding in Australia wiped out much of that countries wheat crop. As supplies tighten, prices surge. Earlier this month, the FAO said its food price index  jumped 32 percent in the second half of 2010, soaring past the previous record set in 2008. Prices rose again this week after the U.S. Department of Agriculture cut back it’s already-tight estimate of grain inventories.

Estimated reserves of corn were cut to about half the level in storage at the start of the 2010 harvest; soybean reserves are at the lowest levels in three decades, the USDA estimates, in part because of heavy buying by China. The ratio of stocks to demand is expected to fall later this year to “levels unseen since the mid-1970s,” the agency said.

“I haven’t seen numbers this low that I can remember in the last 20 or 30 years,” said Dennis Conley, an agricultural economist at the University of Nebraska. “We are at record low stocks. So if there any kind of glitch at all in the U.S. weather, supplies are going to remain tighter and we might see even higher prices.”

Higher oil prices are also pushing up the cost of food – in two ways. First, the added shipping cost raises the delivered price of agricultural products. Higher oil prices also divert more crops like corn and soybeans to biofuel production, further tightening supplies for livestock feed and human consumption. Conley estimates that more than a third of the corn produced in the U.S is now used to make ethanol.

Despite tightening supplies, the rise in food prices has been much tamer in the developed world. On Thursday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the food component of the Producer Price Index rose just 0.8 percent in December. For all of 2010, food prices at the producer level rose 3.5 percent.  The reason for the modest price rise in the U.S.?  People living in developed countries eat more processed foods, which are typically made from fewer raw materials.

“In this country, a much higher proportion of your food dollar is spent on processing, advertising and promotion and marketing,” said Tom Jackson, a senior economist with Global Insight. “There’s not really that margin built in between the farmer and the consumer in the developing countries.”

Food price spikes hit less-developed countries much harder because a greater share of per capita income – half or more – goes to pay for food. U.S. consumers, on the other hand, spend an average of about 13 percent of disposable income on food.

The impact of higher prices is blunted somewhat in countries that subsidize food to stabilize costs, but the trend in prices may make those subsidies unsustainable. Last month, Iran deployed squads of riot police to maintain order after slashing subsidies for food and gasoline. In September, 13 people were killed in street fighting in Mozambique after the government cut subsidies it could no longer afford, sparking a 30 percent rise in bread prices.

Though strong global demand and tight supplies are bringing misery to some poor countries, the price surge is a sign of improving conditions in emerging economies. That’s because increased demand is caused in part to rapidly rising standards of living, according to David Malpass, president of economic research firm Encima Global.

“Some of the gains in prices in Brazil and India are because people are better off,” he said “So we have to expect some inflation in those countries as people earn more and more per year.”

Reuters Africa

January 7, 2011

The Group of 20 developed and leading emerging economies will discuss steps to address soaring food prices, including regulating commodity-linked derivative trades, a senior G20 negotiator said on Friday.

Rhee Chang-yong, G20 official for South Korea which hosted the G20 summit in November, told reporters working-group talks were under way to improve global cooperation to resolve food security problems ahead of a summit in Paris later this year.

“Proposed agendas by now include how to improve transparency in food and energy derivatives trades, whether it is desirable to use food as bio-fuels and how to cooperate on trade restrictions undertaken by some countries,” Rhee said.

“France is emphasizing food security. As a former host country of G20, we would like to deal with the price volatility problem thoroughly..”

The former economics professor and a senior financial regulator added that information sharing on food harvest timetables and oil supply were also being discussed, but had yet to develop into detailed talks.

Record high food prices are moving to the top of policymaker agendas, driven by fears it could stoke inflation, protectionism and unrest and dent consumer demand in key emerging economies.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said on Wednesday that food prices hit an all-time high in December and could rise further on erratic global weather patterns.

G20 deputy finance chiefs will meet in Paris next weekend for framework working-group discussion.

To read the FAO’s policy brief about price volatility in agricultural markets, click here.

WFP Release

December 31, 2010

FAO News Release

December 8, 2010

Rome – Senior representatives of more than 60 countries including 22 cabinet ministers have met in Rome as part of a new push to galvanize support behind the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources and its Benefit-sharing Fund, considered essential to conserve and utilize the world’s threatened plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.

The meeting was opened by its governmental organizer, Italian Agriculture Minister Giancarlo Galan, who called on Governments to use the Treaty “to overcome the ancient and harmful clash between peasant agriculture and modernity.”

He explained that the Treaty facilitates access to genetic material of plant species and pointed out that since the agreement took effect in 2004 there have been more than 800 daily transfers of seeds and other plant material from a pool of more than 1.3 million samples.

The Government of Italy, together with Spain and Norway and Australia, is one of the major donors to the Benefit-sharing Fund (BSF) set up by the Treaty to support poor farmers in developing countries in conserving and adapting to climate change the most important food crops.

Adaptation to climate change

“This high-level forum has made more evident that the Treaty is able to address simultaneously several challenges, including biodiversity loss, global food crises, climate change adaptation and poverty alleviation and agricultural development,” said Shakeel Bhatti, Secretary of the International Treaty.

The Fund, operational since 2008/2009, has been accepted as a key international instrument for adaptation to climate change by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change while the Treaty has been recognized by the conference adopting the recent ground-breaking Nagoya Protocol as one of the four pillars of the new international regime on access and benefit-sharing for genetic resources.

So far, the Fund (“Leading the Field”) is supporting 11 high-impact projects for small-scale farmers in four regions of the world. For example in Peru, six indigenous communities have responded to climate change by re-introducing old native varieties of potatoes, and adapting them to higher altitude mountain terrains.

In the next three months a further amount of US$ 10 million dollars will be devoted to help ensure sustainable food security by assisting farmers to adapt to climate change.

The Round Table also reiterated the need to work towards the target of raising $116 millions by 2014.

Dealing with crop diversity loss

The Treaty is the first fully operational international mechanism for access and benefit-sharing for any component of plant biological diversity and its ratification by 126 countries plus the EU represents the fastest pace of adhesion in the history of treaties and agreements negotiated under the aegis of FAO.

The Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources was conceived to facilitate international cooperation and the fair exchange of genetic resources.

FAO estimates that 75 percent of crop diversity was lost between 1900 and 2000. A recent study predicted that as much as 22 percent of the wild relatives of important food crops such as peanut, potato and beans could disappear by 2055 because of a changing climate.

On the positive side, awareness of the problem has been growing rapidly. There are now some 1 750 gene banks worldwide, which together hold more than seven million samples.

Dawn

November 23, 2010

ISLAMABAD: US military aircraft supporting Pakistan’s flood relief efforts achieved another humanitarian milestone by delivering 25 million pounds of relief supplies since Aug 5, when US military relief flight operations in Pakistan began.

“I’m extremely proud of our aircrews and support personnel in reaching this milestone,” Vice Adm. Mike LeFever, US Defense Representative to Pakistan said.

He lauded their hard work along with their Pakistan military counterparts to deliver the much-needed food aid and humanitarian supplies to flood victims throughout the country.

LeFever noted that with the winter approaching, their work was especially important in the difficult-to-reach mountain communities in the isolated places of Swat and Kohistan in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

So far, the US military aircraft and personnel, working in close coordination with the Pakistan military, have delivered 25,029,046 pounds (approximately 11.3 million kilograms) of relief supplies and provided humanitarian airlift for more than 39,000 people in the flood-affected regions of Pakistan.

There are currently 18 US military helicopters and approximately 350 service members in Pakistan supporting the Government of Pakistan’s flood relief efforts.

In addition to humanitarian airlift, the US Government is providing more than $463 million to assist Pakistan with relief and recovery efforts, while USAID and other US civilian agencies continue to provide assistance to flood victims.

Reuters
November 15, 2010

MONGO, Chad (AlertNet) – Many Chadian farmers hit by last year’s devastating drought have lost their crops again – and some villagers are so hungry they have resorted to raiding ant hills for tiny grains and seeds.

The country appeared to be on the road to recovery this year with rains producing good harvests in many areas. But aid agencies are warning the food crisis in central and western Chad is not over.

In the remote village of Anzarafa the fields are dry and filled with failed crops. Villagers say they have received no support from the government or international aid groups.

“Nobody came to help us, we haven’t seen a gramme of food aid and now our crops have been attacked by grain eating birds and locusts,” Djibril Krouma, the 56-year-old village chief, told AlertNet.

He said the situation is so severe that young men are migrating west to the capital N’Djamena, about 500 km (300 miles) away, to look for work, and women are leaving the village to dig ant hills for wild grains and seeds – survival patterns usually only seen at the height of the annual lean season in particularly bad years.

“We will dig these ant hills around the village, when there are no more we shall go further away and harvest wild fruits to feed the children,” said Ashta Idriss, a mother of three whose two elder sons have left to look for work in the capital.

A drought last year slashed cereal production across West Africa’s Sahel region, which runs south of the Sahara desert, leaving an estimated 10 million people short of food, including 2 million Chadians.

Although abundant rainfall has boosted harvests and international aid agencies are still in the region, the Spanish charity Oxfam-Intermon warned that the overall response to the food crisis may be undermined by the failure to reach a good proportion of vulnerable people.

“We have to be careful not to shout victory as if the crisis is completely over,” said Celestin Faya Milimouno, Oxfam-Intermon’s food security officer in the central town of Mongo.

ROADS CUT OFF

Authorities say attacks on crops by birds and insects are a recurrent problem in the area but they hope the villagers will get help as more international aid agencies arrive in the region.

Most aid agencies in Chad are focused on the east of the country where they are helping around 500,000 refugees from Sudan and Central African Republic and internally displaced Chadians. This has made it difficult for them to deploy to other parts of the country hit by hunger.

In addition, some roads across Chad are cut off during the long rainy season. Aid workers say they can get stuck in rivers and take days to reach some places.

Experts say the response to the hunger crisis in Chad should include medium and long-term measures to strengthen food security in an area prone to drought.

They say governments in West Africa’s Sahel region must invest more in agriculture and pastoral livelihoods. Chad should also promote the cultivation of nutritious crops like groundnuts and cowpeas (black eyed peas) which are drought resistant and less vulnerable to attack by birds and insects than the traditional millet and sorghum.

In the village of Roumou, about 40km from Mongo, farmers expect a good harvest this year, but they want irrigation projects and food reserve granaries to protect them from recurrent drought.

“Food aid is good, but our salvation will come only when we are able to properly manage water so that even in a season with erratic rainfall we can still farm,” said Weldi Abashen, a smallholder in Roumou.

The food shortages have exacerbated a chronic malnutrition problem in Chad’s Sahel belt. The U.N. children’s agency (UNICEF) said its nutrition teams had saved the lives of 5,000 children but feared many more may have died.

“There are still many communities that have not been reached,” Marzio Babille UNICEF’s representative told AlertNet.

He said the agency had set up 12 mobile units with doctors and nutritionists who travel to remote villages to look for children with severe malnutrition for referral to hospitals and nutrition centres run by aid groups.

“The most important thing for us is that we can save as many lives as possible,” he added.

Click here to read more.

Nam Aids Map
November 08, 2010

Providing food assistance to people living with HIV in a comprehensive HIV programme in Haiti, where the quality and quantity of food is poor, improved adherence, weight gain as well as clinic attendance, Louise C. Ivers and colleagues reported in a prospective observational cohort study published in the August 26 online edition of AIDS Research and Therapy.

The health and well-being of people living with HIV In resource-poor settings is closely linked to food insecurity and being under nourished. HIV has long been associated with wasting syndrome. Evidence shows that being underweight, even in people on antiretrovirals, is predictive of a poor prognosis.

Food insecurity – understood “as lack of access to food of sufficient quality and quantity to perform usual daily acitivities” – and HIV infection note the authors, can make going to school, the ability to work and provide for the family as well as adherence particularly difficult.

While international programmes support the integration of food assistance into HIV programmes evidence-based guidelines on how and who to target are lacking.

The qualitative benefit of food to relieve hunger is not in question. The authors note to date no study has shown the improved quantitative benefits including improved clinical outcomes from food assistance.

Haiti, because of poverty, recurring natural disasters and political instability is especially vulnerable to food insecurity.

The authors chose to look at how targeted food assistance would affect the body mass index (BMI), quality of life and household food security of people living with HIV in a comprehensive HIV programme at three clinic sites (rural, urban and semi-urban) in Haiti run by Partners in Health (PIH).

PIH, working in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, is a non-profit organisation providing comprehensive primary healthcare services including HIV care in rural Haiti.

In 2006 PIH in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP) provided food rations to people living with HIV. Criteria for eligibility for receipt of monthly food rations included: co-infection with tuberculosis, a body mass index under 18.5kg/m², CD4 cell count under 350/mm³ in the previous three months or severe socio-economic conditions based on a social work assessment and clinical team consensus.

Between May and July 2006 the authors undertook a prospective observational cohort study of 600 people living with HIV and enrolled in HIV care in Partners in Health (PIH) programmes. 300 were eligible for food assistance and 300 ineligible based on the criteria outlined above.

The monthly standard pre-determined WFP family ration provided by prescription contained 50 gm of cereal, 50 gm of dried legumes, 25 gm of vegetable oil, 100 gm of corn-soya blend and 5 gm of iodized salt for each of three family members (approximately 949 calories) per person per day.

At six and 12 months 488 and 340 subjects respectively, were eligible for analysis. The researchers focussed their analysis on those who remained in the food programme from the start compared to those who were never eligible for food assistance to clearly see the effect of food rations.

At six months food security improved significantly in those who received food assistance compared to those who did not. On a scale ranging from 0 (best) to 20 (worst) in those receiving food and those not the scores were -3.55 compared to -0.16, p<0.0001, respectively.

While at six months BMI decreased in both groups but less in the group receiving food -0.20 compared to -0.66, p=0.012. The decrease, the authors suggest is explained because this took place during the “lean season” when food supply is generally scarce.

At 12 months food assistance was linked to improved food security -3.49 compared to -1.89, p=0.011. Whereas BMI increased in those getting food assistance but decreased in those not, 0.22 compared to -0.67, p=0.036.

The authors highlight that the WFP distributed rations are considered as a family support and not specific for people living with HIV. The rations provide approximately 45% of the daily calorific requirement for a family of three; the authors note in this study the median number of people eating in each household was six.

Nonetheless the authors stress food assistance was “protective against weight loss in the short-term and associated with weight-gain in the long-term for individuals with HIV.”

The authors note that in line with national statistics 72% of study participants spent almost all their income on food with a high mean baseline food insecurity (14.6 on a scale of 0 to 20).

The study supported other findings where in addition to relief from anxiety of getting food those getting food assistance showed significant improvements in general health, nutrition and health services usage.

Studies in Canada have shown food insecurity is associated with an increased risk of mortality as well as incomplete viral suppression in people with HIV, note the authors. In San Francisco in non-HIV infected individuals food insecurity has been associated with anxiety, depression as well as postponing needed medical care, they add. And, recently in Haiti food insecurity has been associated with childhood malaria.

Food assistance was linked to improved adherence to monthly clinic visits at both six and 12 months. At six months out of six visits the mean attendance was 5.49 compared to 2.82 , p<0.0001 for those getting assistance compared to those not, and at 12 months out of 12 visits was 9.73 compared to 8.34, p=0.007.

The authors note that while attendance at baseline was good food assistance played an important role in keeping those HIV-infected individuals with food security issues engaged in care.

Additionally, food assistance made it easier to take antiretrovirals. A full stomach eliminated nausea. Competing demands between getting food and other necessities were also eliminated. The authors stress the importance of this finding that supports high levels of adherence and the positive long-term implications for people living with HIV.

Limitations, according to the authors include the observational nature of the study meant that the subjects were not randomly selected and multivariate analysis will have controlled only for those measured differences between the groups.

The authors conclude that food assistance was associated with improved food security, increased body mass index and improved adherence to clinic visits at six and 12 months among people living with HIV in Haiti and should be the standard of care in regions where HIV and food insecurity overlap

Click here to read more.

The Zimbabwean
November 7, 2010

HARARE- A national survey has indicated that Zimbabwe will face another food crisis as more than 1,3 million nationals will need food aid to reach the harvests of the next season. According to the National Nutrition Survey, close to 1,3 million individuals will be in need of food supplies as the country reserves cannot reach the end of the next season.

The survey further indicated that about 36 percent of children below the age of five suffered from malnourishment hence there was great need of expedited national and household food security response from the government and its strategic partners.

The government, which is not in a position to solely address the looming crisis, has called for a State-Non-governmental organisation partnership to improve agriculture productivity and food security. Speaking on behalf of other humanitarian organisations, Catholic Relief Services country representative, Paul Townsend, assured to assist the struggling government to address food shortages in the country.

"Our relationship with the government lies in the common interest of serving the people. This means that we will always extend our hand in all matters to do with people’s well being," he said.

Click here to read more.

Progress in the fight against hunger requires the leadership of experienced, motivated individuals dedicated to making the alleviation of hunger a priority for U.S. and international leaders and to finding concrete, innovative and lasting solutions to food insecurity on the ground. The Congressional Hunger Center’s “Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellows Program” is dedicated to developing a growing community of tomorrow’s anti-hunger leaders by providing fellows with the skills, tools, and experience they need to create a hunger- free world and to inspire others to do the same.

Testimonials on the value of the Leland Fellowship:

Dalia Emara: “I am where I am today because of the experience that I gained during my time as a fellow.”

- Program Officer, International Relief and Development; Leland Fellow (2005-2007)

Amanda Rives Argeñal: “The fellowship helped me better understand how indi­viduals and families directly experience hunger and poverty. By working alongside communi­ties in a developing country to find solutions, I was also able to better understand resiliency and coping mechanisms. I felt fortunate to advocate with and on behalf of those communities, influencing various national and international policies which impact hunger. The public policy work provided me with important skills around networking, coalition building, and communications.”

1. Senior Advisor for Public Policy and Advocacy for the Latin America and the Caribbean region, World Vision International; Leland Fellow (2005-2007)

“When [the Leland Fellow] applied for the Land O’Lakes fellowship position, both the field and headquarters staff felt that she would bring a high level of capacity and professionalism to this challenging fellowship.  We were more than thrilled with the outcome. [The Fellow’s] performance has certainly put Land O’Lakes on the map as a quality designer and implementer of programs that make use of and focus on livestock.  We wanted someone to do some work for us, and what we actually got was a highly skilled livestock expert who changed the way we thought about our programs.”

1. Mara Russell, Practice Manager, Food Security and Livelihoods, Land O’Lakes, Inc.; three-time Leland Fellow supervisor

The 5th Class of Leland Fellows (2009-2011) during their field training in Washington, D.C.

Become a Leland Fellow!

Leland Hunger Fellows Program – Now Accepting Applications

http://www.hungercenter.org/international/documents/Leland_Fellowship_Flyer.pdf

The Mickey Leland International Hunger Fellows Program is now accepting applications for the 6th class (2011-2013)! Information on the fellowship and how to apply is accessible here: http://www.hungercenter.org/international/international.cfm. Applications can be submitted online from now through January 7, 2011 at: http://www.hungercenter.org/international/apply/.

Mmegi Online
October 26, 2010

At least 80, 000 people have registered to join the food-for-work programme in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo province in the wake of acute food shortages, reports Zimbabwe’s Herald Online.
Government introduced the food-for-work programme in Masvingo last week following poor harvests in most parts of the province.

Masvingo Provincial Governor and Resident Minister Titus Maluleke said that government had introduced the programme to ameliorate the effects of looming food shortages in the province.
Chivi and Mwenezi districts registered to join the programme after reports that about 40 percent of the province’s population will be in need of food relief before year end. He said more districts were expected to enlist soon.

"We have already started the food- for-work programme in Chivi and Mwenezi, which are more vulnerable in terms of food availability and we have since registered thousands of people who are receiving cash every month under the programme.

"As a province, we expect that before the end of this year, the number of people in need of food aid will balloon to about 40 percent and we expect the figure to rise. Chivi and Mwenezi are in more urgent need of food relief at the moment since the districts recorded poor harvests last year," Maluleke said.

He added that in the first quarter of next year, the number of people in need of food aid could rise to about 80 percent of the population.

Masvingo is believed to have a population of over 1, 2 million people, meaning one million people will require food relief in the first four months of next year.

PBS NewsHour

October 18, 2010

MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE | Maputo’s streets were buzzing with commercial activity Monday and its beaches packed over the weekend with families having picnics and friends sharing beers.

But just last month, there was a very different scene here: riots over a hike in food and water prices raged for three days and ended with 13 people dead. The government has since reduced prices by reinstating the food subsidies it cut prior to the riots, but the chronic problems of hunger and food insecurity remain in this impoverished nation.

The NewsHour’s Global Health team is in Mozambique this week to shoot a series of reports that will air in November. We arrived just in time for World Food Day, Oct. 16, a day created to bring more attention to these issues.

Prices for staple foods like bread have climbed steadily over the last year in Mozambique, where more than 44 percent of children are chronically malnourished, according to the recently dismissed minister of health, Dr. Ivo Garrido. The country was given a rating of “alarming” on the Global Hunger Index released last week, even while being cited for improvements.

Vincent Augusteu is a tailor from Maputo who alters clothing in an outdoor market stall. He told the NewsHour it’s hard for him to afford rice for his family of five now, and he sees other families struggling as well.

“It has become more difficult, I am running out of clients,” he said. “They are spending more money on food, they don’t have money to pay me.”

Mozambique is a prime example of a country dependent on imports for food – only 30 percent of the country’s wheat is grown domestically, so price changes in the global market can have a swift impact. Grain prices shot up over the summer because of response to severe drought and fires in Russia, a large wheat-producing country, and corn prices jumped again last week on a new assessment of the U.S. crop yield.

Keith Wiebe, deputy director of the agricultural development economics division of the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, said that 2010′s crop yield is actually quite good and is on track to be the third largest cereal harvest on record. In addition, some of Mozambique’s food price problems were caused by a devaluation of its currency, he said, making a chain effect similar to the widespread food riots seen in 2007 and 2008 highly unlikely.

But Wiebe warned that increases in staple crop prices affect those in the developing world more severely because they are often buying the grain itself, instead of a processed food item. Those in the developing world also have less room in their budgets to reallocate, he said.

“When prices go up in the United States or Europe it means very little for most people, because we spend a relatively small share of total income on food– maybe 10 or 20 percent,” Wiebe said.

“It’s much different in developing countries and in particular for poor households … they might spend half or three quarters of their income on food.”

As food takes up a larger portion of a family’s budget, nutrition can also start to suffer as a result, said Susan Shepherd, nutrition coordinator for Doctors Without Borders.

“When food prices rise generally families spend their money on fewer types of food so the diet becomes much less diverse,” she said. “That means that children are not getting the range of proteins and vitamins they need.”

While Maputo is calm for now, it remains unclear how long the government will be able to maintain the current subsidies, or how it will confront the long-term challenge of hunger among the country’s most vulnerable populations.

October 15, 2010
ACDI/VOCA Observes World Food Day

This World Food Day, Oct. 16, the global community has good news to celebrate. Recent agricultural and economic gains have pushed the number of hungry people below 1 billion. That drop is a 9.6 percent decline since last year according to the U.N.’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO).

ACDI/VOCA President Carl Leonard released the following statement in observance of World Food Day:

“Renewed investments in agriculture and a recent focus on smallholder farmers, especially women farmers, are helping countries meet food and nutrition needs,” Leonard says. “The number of people who are hungry has declined significantly this past year—nearly 10 percent—to 925 million.

Click here to read more.

October 13, 2010
Alliance for Global Food Security

As this year’s World Food Day approaches, there is good news in the fight against hunger. Over the past year, commitments by the G-8 countries of $21.5 billion “to achieve sustainable global food security” and agreement by donor and recipient countries on guiding principles indicate that the international community is ready to tackle the global hunger challenge.

Click here to read more.

FAO Press Release
October 11, 2010

A five-day high-level intergovernmental meeting of the newly reformed Committee on World Food Security (CFS) opened today. The meeting takes place against a background of recent increases in international food prices which pose additional  challenges to food security.

Since its last session in October 2009, the CFS has been undergoing a major reform with the aim of making the Committee the most inclusive international and intergovernmental platform for all relevant stakeholders to work together to ensure food security and nutrition for all. In its role as the cornerstone of the global governance of agriculture and food security, the CFS will be more effective in facing challenges to food security.

First session

In this first session following the reform, a wider group of stakeholders such as non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, other UN bodies, the private sector and philanthropic representatives are included in the deliberations of the Committee.

As well as including more stakeholders, the Committee will also receive advice from a High-Level Panel of Experts in a variety of fields associated with food security and nutrition. On an operational level, the CFS Secretariat is now made up of members from the three Rome-based food and agriculture organizations — FAO, IFAD and WFP.

Welcoming the delegates, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said “Global problems demand global as well as local solutions. The renewed CFS constitutes the required platform for debating global complex problems and reaching consensus on solutions.”

Tangible results

He noted, “for the CFS to be concrete in action and achieve tangible results, it is also vital that partnerships and linkages be established at country level through proper and recognized mechanisms, like the thematic groups and national alliances for food security.”

“FAO is fully committed to the CFS reform. Its expertise, experience, multidisciplinarity and wide field presence are vital features,” Diouf said.

“This week marks the launch of a strategically coordinated global effort to draw on the combined strengths of all stakeholders engaged in the fight against global hunger,” said WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran. “With recent volatility in commodity prices and increased global demand for food this comes not a moment too soon. The reformed CFS has an opportunity and a responsibility to rally nations of the world to respond effectively, efficiently and coherently to provide vital humanitarian assistance when disasters strike and build long-term food security.”

Reform process

“IFAD  believes that the CFS has a very important role to play in the years ahead,” said Yukiko Omura, IFAD’s Vice President. “IFAD has participated intensively in the CFS reform process and is committed to continued engagement in the new CFS. We are working with FAO and WFP in the joint Secretariat and in the Advisory Group. Investing in small farmers — improving their access to land, to appropriate technology, to financial services and markets, and responding to their other requirements — is the most effective way to generate a broad-based movement out of poverty and hunger.”

Sharing experiences and discussing global issues

This session of the CFS has been designed to support the roles of the renovated Committee to provide a forum for coordination of initiatives at global, regional and national levels.

Panellists from Africa, Asia and the South West Pacific, Euro-Asia, the Near East and Latin America will share their experiences, and thematic country case studies will be presented by Bangladesh, Haiti, Jordan and Rwanda.

A series of Policy Round Tables are looking at important issues related to food security such as land tenure and international investment in agriculture; food security in protracted crises; and ways to manage vulnerability and risk.

“It promises to be a rich and lively session which we hope will have a very fruitful outcome” said the CFS Bureau Chairperson, Noel De Luna. “The world needs to address the food security situation and the CFS is the right place to make it happen.”