Brussels, 02/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has decided to allocate €24 million in emergency humanitarian aid to the Sahel region in Africa, in an effort to provide assistance to seven million vulnerable people suffering from the food crisis that is mainly hitting Niger and Chad -two countries in which a state of emergency has been decreed. The food crisis is also affecting Burkina Faso and northern Nigeria. The action by the European Commission aims to fill the gap in food production until the next harvest in November.
This decision was announced on Wednesday 2 June, by Kristalina Georgieva, the European Commissioner for international cooperation, humanitarian aid and crisis response, on the eve of her departure to Niger (3-4 June), one of the countries most affected by the food crisis. The Commissioner declared to the press, “I will soon visit some of the projects that we are funding to evaluate the effectiveness of our humanitarian response and to ensure that our assistance is being used in the most efficient way to help those in need." She also said that her mission would involve holding discussions with members of NGOs and representatives from other countries involved in food crisis management at world level. The Commissioner explained to the press that she would attempt to be in the field as much as possible in an effort to increase the trust of taxpayers in European aide.
After visiting Niger, the Commissioner will visit Rome to participate in World Food Programme (WFP) meetings. The WFP is a key partner of the EU for transporting aid.
So far, the Commission's aid budget for providing food to Sahel countries has stood at €30 million this year but according to the alert raised by the WFP, it will not be enough to bridge the gap between the two harvests. The additional €24 million, taken from the ECHO budget, the Commission's humanitarian aid service, will firstly target those most vulnerable (pregnant women and children requiring specific food needs). Aid will then be extended to the whole of the population requiring it. It will be used to provide more funding to health care operations (screening and treatment in hospitals of severe malnutrition, free access to emergency care and mobile health services for farming communities).
Commissioner Georgieva explained that, “we have increased aid because it is necessary to anticipate and prevent a major crisis occurring like that of 2005. We have to focus our efforts on food security and helping countries tackle possible climate variations. These countries also have limited capacity. The capacity for storing water is, for example, ridiculous: it represents between 3% and 4% of capacity in industrialised countries. We need to help these countries develop agricultural practices that help increase resilience for managing situations involving poor harvests”. The Commissioner also highlighted the importance of buying food products on local or regional markets, as the WFP had done in an effort to avoid, “feeding people who are going hungry but by destroying the livelihoods of farmers”.
Combined with the irregularity of rain, poor harvests, the permanent rise in food product prices, Niger and Chad have been experiencing the greatest difficulties. The food production deficit at the end of 2009 is estimated to stand at more than 30% in Niger and more than 34% in Chad. In the two countries, it is estimated that at least 10 million people depend on emergency aid to survive whilst awaiting the next harvest. Nigeria and Burkina Faso, however, are also suffering from the impact of the food crisis. (A.N.transl.fl)