Donors, aid groups in talks on Africa food crisis
Date: 07-Jun-02
Country: SOUTH AFRICA
Author: Darren Schuettler
"We see this as a crisis of enormous dimensions. The situation worsens with each day," Jean-Jacques Graisse, deputy executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), said at the start of the meeting in Johannesburg.
Aid agencies say the main cause is drought, but man-made factors such as Zimbabwe's controversial land reform programme have also played a role.
About 100 delegates from aid agencies, foreign donor governments and humanitarian groups are attending the two-day talks.
They will review recent crop and food supply assessments for the six hardest-hit countries - Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia, Mozambique - and coordinate strategies for dealing with the crisis.
"A full blown humanitarian crisis is not yet with us, but it is on the horizon," Ross Mountain, assistant emergency relief coordinator for the United Nations, told reporters.
Aid officials say the region is facing its worst food shortages since a crippling drought affected 18 million people in 1992.
Drought is the main factor again this year. But the government-backed seizure of commercial farms in Zimbabwe and Malawi's decision to sell off its entire strategic maize reserves in 2000/2001 have compounded food shortages in those two countries.
"You have a variety of non-natural disaster items that have complicated the situation," Graisse said.
Regional analysts have criticised international aid agencies for appearing reluctant to pinpoint political causes for the food shortages.
ZIMBABWE LAND SEIZURES A FACTOR
Zimbabwe has targeted thousands of white-owned farms for seizure as part of a programme to redistribute land to blacks.
Zimbabwean Finance Minister Simba Makoni said yesterday donor countries had raised the land issue with Harare, but he added: "I don't know if it has led to people not giving us food.
"A number of our international friends have suggested that had we not done land reform the way we did, the extent of the shortages would have been less than they are," Makoni told the South African Broadcasting Corporation.
Makoni told an African economic forum in Durban this week that drought was the main cause of the crisis affecting 7.8 million Zimbabweans, but the seizure of white-owned farms had disrupted food production.
"That (drought) is the major cause of food shortages in the country, but I would be one to admit to you that when you are undertaking land reform of the magnitude we are...it does have an impact on levels of production," Makoni said.
In neighbouring Malawi, which faces a food deficit of nearly 600,000 tonnes, the government has been criticised for selling the country's strategic maize stocks.
FOOD RESERVES SOLD
But President Bakili Muluzi insisted this week that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had urged the sale to enable the state food agency to meet obligations on a commercial loan.
"The IMF cannot refute this. I myself argued with them over this issue of selling government reserves and they insisted. It was their decision imposed on us," Muluzi told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's annual African summit.
The IMF has denied recommending the sell-off and says Malawi's government made a wrong policy decision after ignoring advice from an expert study on the issue.
Mountain said delegates would also discuss ways to overcome logistical hurdles to delivering food aid. For example, Mozambique's road network was badly damaged by a 16-year-old civil war which ended in 1992, and recent massive floods.
