Despite Greater Need, Niger Got Less Aid from Rich Countries, Says Oxfam
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WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug 10 (OneWorld) - Famine in Niger is the most visible sign of a West African food crisis that could have been averted had international donors not been so stingy with some of the world's poorest countries, a leading aid group has said.
The assessment from Oxfam came as international aid agencies warned that 20 million people face famine in a hunger belt stretching across Africa. In Niger alone, 3.6 million people are critically short of food, according to Oxfam, which called for increased aid to the West African country and three others where millions face starvation: Burkina Faso, Mali, and Mauritania. ''Years of neglect by rich countries have contributed directly to the current food crisis in Niger, Mali, Mauritania, and Burkina Faso,'' the group said in a statement Tuesday. The four African countries get only a fraction of the development aid that countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan receive from wealthy governments, it said. Niger, the world's second poorest country, gets $12 per person per year in aid, compared to $91 for Iraq, Oxfam said. Even countries with poverty levels similar to Niger's--such as Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Zambia--receive at least three times as much aid as Niger. ''If Niger had received the same levels of aid as Iraq, a much richer country, this crisis may never have happened,'' said Natasha Kofoworola Quist, Oxfam's director for West Africa. ''Sadly, rich countries give aid on the basis of news headlines and political priorities instead of need. Millions of people across West Africa are now paying the price of this bias,'' Quist added. Oxfam cited U.N. estimates that poor countries need $45 per person per year in aid to fight poverty and reach the Millennium Development Goals, which include halving the number of people who live on less than $1 per day by 2015. Burkina Faso receives $13 per person, Mali $19, and Mauritania $20, Oxfam said. ''People across the Sahel live on a knife-edge. It takes only the smallest shock to send them spiraling into a food crisis,'' Quist said. Niger and other West African countries stand to benefit from a recent Group of Eight (G8) dominant nations' decision to increase aid to Africa to a total annual figure of $50 billion by 2010. ''However, this will clearly come far too late to help with this crisis and is likely to remain short of what Niger needs,'' Oxfam said. Aid experts long had warned of a looming food crisis in Niger, where drought and locusts destroyed last year's crops. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, in separate assessments, warned that 20 million people across Africa face food shortages and urged rapid action to head off shortages in seven countries. The network, comprising a number of international aid agencies, highlighted emergencies in a swathe stretching from Niger through Chad and Sudan to Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia. Aid experts long have debated the long-term measures needed to banish the specter of famine. There is broad consensus, however, that the answer lies in a combination of political, economic, and technological interventions. Massive long-term investments have been urged to harness the Niger and Nile rivers and ensure reliable irrigation in regions vulnerable to drought, for example. Since these regions are tended by some of the world's poorest farmers, aid experts have said new technologies--whether for irrigation, mechanized cultivating, or drought-resistant seed stock--would have to involve little or no cost to users. In countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe, however, starvation also has been the result of political vendetta and no lasting solution to food insecurity is considered likely unless this can be stopped. In a growing number of countries, progress against famine also hinges on efforts to rein in AIDS, which has devastated farming communities and entire economies by disproportionately claiming the lives of the most productive age groups. AIDS is of particular concern in Southern Africa, where some 10 million people in six countries will need humanitarian assistance in the coming year after another year of poor harvests, the U.N. World Food Program (WFP), U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the Southern Africa Development Community warned last month. The agencies also blamed the situation on erratic weather and fertilizer and seed prices they said were too expensive for local farmers. |
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