Efter at have råbt i gevær i månedsvis og advaret om truende massehunger i store del af Vestafrika, vurderer FNs Fødevare- og Landbrugsorganisation (FAO) nu, at krisen er afværget, bl.a. takket være store midler i humanitær bistand.
ROME, 7 December 2012: FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said Friday that over one billion euro (7,5 milliarder DKR) has been mobilized for the drought-stricken Sahel-region in Western africa by the international community this year, “and we are glad to see that famine has been averted.”
Graziano da Silva believes there is political will to end hunger in the Sahel (Saharas sydlige udkant):
“I recently returned from a trip to Niger. What I saw was encouraging. It convinced me that there is hope; that there is political will to reverse the negative trends leading to food insecurity in the region”, he declared.
At the same he stressed, that “investing in food security in the Sahel is also an investment in a peaceful and more stable future,”
He was addressing a meeting on the Sahel situation in Rome called by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on the Sahel who is former Italian Prime Minister and EU Commission President Romano Prodi.
“There is a clear linkage between hunger and conflict; food security and peace in Africa. In the Sahel, we are seeing how food insecurity, hunger, and the dispute over natural resources causes conflicts,” Graziano da Silva said.
“Hunger can both trigger conflicts and be a result of conflict. So we cannot treat food security as being separated from security and development as a whole,” he noted.
More needed to be done, he continued, adding:
“It is essential to step up support and also combine short-term humanitarian responses with longer-term development actions. We need to make livelihoods more resilient (sætte folk bedre i stand til at modstå omskiftelige vilkår)”.
“And we need to ensure that our interventions in different areas – food security and nutrition (ernæring), agriculture, health, education and security – are as integrated as possible. FAO is committed to working more closely and better with you under African leadership, to promote sustainable development in the Sahel.”
Mr Prodi and his team met Friday with Special Envoys, mediators and Senior UN Officials dealing directly with the crisis in the Sahel in order to review the situation in the region and discuss how efforts in support of peace and security can be enhanced.
Kilde: www.fao.org
Se også http://www.fao.org/crisis/sahel/en
