UN chief calls for long-term food security in Horn of Africa - The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, on Monday said emergency delivery of aid to people facing drought-related hunger in the Horn of Africa must be accompanied by longer-term efforts to boost food security in the region. 'Short-term relief must be linked to building long-term sustainability. This means an agricultural transformation that improves the resilience of rural livelihoods and minimizes the scale of any future crisis,” Ban said in a message to delegates attending a UN-convened emergency ministerial meeting on the Horn of Africa in Rome.

PANA reported that the meeting was organized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) at the request of France, which holds the rotating presidency of the Group of 20 (G20).

In the message, which was delivered on his behalf by Ms. Valerie Amos, UN Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, the secretary-general called for 'climate-smart crop production, livestock rearing, fish farming and forest maintenance practices that enable all people to have year-round access to the nutrition they need'.

He also urged donors to provide a further US$ 1 billion to assist those facing hunger, noting that, 'an estimated US$ 2 billion in aid is required for the humanitarian response to the drought emergency, out of which US$ 1 billion has so far been committed'.

Also speaking, Jacques Diouf, the FAO Director-General, said that, 'the combined forces of drought, inflation and conflict have created a catastrophic situation that urgently requires massive international support,”

'If we want to avoid future famine and food insecurity crises in the region, countries and the international community urgently need to bolster the agricultural sector and accelerate investments in rural development,' Diouf stated.

On her part, Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said: 'Many of the women I met in Somalia and Kenya over the past few days had lost their children and had no one to depend on but the humanitarian agencies on the ground'.

'We are particularly worried about Somalia right now and it is vital that we reach those at the epicentre of the famine with food assistance – especially the highly fortified nutritious products that are so important for vulnerable children,” she said.

PANA learnt that delegates at the meeting agreed that governments of the countries affected by the food emergency would manage response efforts in line with the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s (IASC) Horn of Africa Plan of Action.

They stressed that there is still a 'window of opportunity' to support affected populations, including farmers, fishing communities and herders to restore their livelihoods and called for a special focus pastoralists and agro-pastoralists.

'We commit to an immediate and appropriate response to ensure that affected countries and communities have the capacity to preserve the vulnerable livelihoods on which so many people’s lives depend while building long-term resilience and safeguarding the foundations of food security to ensure sustainable reduction of hunger and malnutrition,” the delegates said.

Meanwhile, WFP said it was feeding 1.5 million people in Somalia and making efforts to reach another 2.2 million in areas of the south that had remained inaccessible.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also reported that 780,000 children are acutely malnourished in southern Somalia, a 35 per cent increase since January.

The agency has sent in nearly 900 tons of therapeutic and supplementary feeding supplies, enough to assist some 38,000 children in the coming days.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is also distributing aid packages to some 189,000 people in southern Somalia and working with local authorities and other partners to register Somali refugees arriving in large numbers in Kenya and Ethiopia.

'Efforts are also under way to urgently improve shelter, water and other aid services for the refugees,' the UNHCR noted.

The UN had estimated that 11.6 million people in Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya and Somalia are facing severe food shortages with rates of malnutrition and related deaths having reached alarming levels in many parts of the region.

Last week, the UN declared a state on famine in two areas of southern Somalia, the worst affected country affected by the drought.

pana 26/07/2011