Myriaden af hjælpeorganisationer har stået midt i en storstilet aktion for at bistå millioner af sultende i Sahel-regionen i Saharas sydlige udkant, men der er mange og slemme fodfejl i operationen, fremgår det af en analyse fra nyhedstjenesten IRIN.
DAKAR, 25 October 2012 (IRIN): The Sahel food crisis this year put an estimated 18,7 million people at risk of hunger and 1,1 million children at risk of severe malnutrition (underernæring), prompting the largest humanitarian response the region has ever seen and averting a large-scale disaster.
But emergency responses are rarely smooth and there is always room for improvement. IRIN spoke to Sahel aid practitioners, analysts and donors to discuss what hampered the response, and what needs to be done to improve response in the future.
Early warning messages in competition
As early warning data came in, aid agencies and food security analysts interpreted it very differently, creating some confusion and slightly slowing down the response of donors.
The debate “diverted energy away from scale-up (optrapning), which was the priority,” said Stephen Cockburn, West Africa advocacy adviser for NGO Oxfam.
The issue lay in different means of interpreting (fortolke) early warning signals:
* Food production across the region was down by just 3 percent
* But at the same time, there was severely high food prices (30-80 percent higher than the five-year average)
* Lack of (mangel på) jobs
* Border closures between Niger and Nigeria, and
* The internal crisis in strife-ridden Mali.
All this, jarring (modstridende) as they seemed, were nevertheless enough to throw people into a crisis, and pushed agencies to call for a one billion US dollar (5,5 milliarder DKR) aid response – it later became 1,6 billion dollar.
“The circumstances that cause vulnerability have changed,” said Sahel expert Peter Gubbels, with NGO Groundswell International, adding:
“With food prices that high, you do not need a drought to spell a crisis, the drought merely stimulated these dynamics.”
Aid to pastoralists (nomader) off-rhythm
Pastoralists are affected by food access issues earlier than other groups and need support to access animal fodder, water, vaccinations and to destock (begrænse deres hjorde), in March and April, not May and June.
This need is rarely reflected in early warning or response, said aid agencies.
Pastoralists’ needs are still relegated (henvist) to a few specialist NGOs rather than being addressed through national systems and as a result they remain marginalized, said Gubbels.
Further, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which could be a vocal advocate on their behalf, did not clearly ring the alarm bell to donors on their needs, said NGOs.
Agriculture, health, WASH and education
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http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96638/Analysis-Sahel-crisis-lessons-to-be-learnt
