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No
More Choice?
Southern Africa Gripped by Famine
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By
Najma Mohamed
Environmental researcher – South Africa
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18/11/2002
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Southern
African heads of state, attending a Southern African Development
Community (SADC) Summit in Angola, reinforced appeals for food aid
as almost 14 million people face severe food shortages in the
region.
The
annual summit, convened in October 2002, highlighted the food crisis
that has affected six member states in the region. Food aid has been
distributed to the affected countries since April 2002. The impact
of the famine is predicted to extend well into 2003.
The
six countries affected are Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland,
Zambia and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia are at present the
worst affected countries. The United Nations and SADC have issued a
joint appeal for assistance.
In
its call to international donor agencies, the UN stated that
“underlying food insecurity, high prevalence of HIV/AIDS and
chronic malnutrition, have led to a dire situation that requires
immediate humanitarian assistance.”
The
appeal, launched in New York on July 18, 2002, set a target amount
of $611 million. By September 2002, about $183 million had been
received for food aid and $12 million for non-food requirements.
On
the occasion of World Food Day, held on October 16, 2002, under the
theme Water and Food Security, Food and Agriculture
Organisation (FAO) Director-General, Jacques Diouf, said that water
is “a matter of great concern to all, because it is a limited
resource shared by a growing population.”
Lack
of water has been one of the causes of food insecurity and
consequent famine in southern Africa. OXFAM, a development agency
operating in the region, denoted the complex causes of the crisis as
“a mixture of poverty, erratic weather, poor governance, bad
advice from donors and economic collapse.”
While
the region has experienced adverse weather conditions, a number of
factors have combined to push millions across the region into a
crisis that has already claimed the lives of hundreds. Compounding
the crisis is the policies of international finance institutions and
donor agencies that have pushed “damaging and inappropriate”
economic reforms onto several poor countries.
Yet
hunger, like the environment, has topped the international agenda
this year. A World Food Summit was held in Rome in June 2002, five
years after the last Food Summit. It attracted few world leaders
from Western countries, signifying a lack of commitment to end world
hunger.
Civil
society bodies that broadly regarded the Summit as a failure
rejected the final declaration of the Summit. According to
environmentalist Vandana Shiva, there was no commitment to “find
collective ways and make collective commitments to address the
biggest human rights disaster of our times - more than a billion
people going hungry in a world with abundant food and wealth.”
Concerns
abound in Rome around the promotion of genetically modified (GM)
crops as a key strategy for solving world hunger. These concerns
arose recently when three of the countries affected by the food
shortage in southern Africa, rejected food aid containing GM crops.
In
June 2002, Zimbabwe rejected a food aid convoy of the US because it
was not certified GM-free. Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe declared
in August 2002 that they would not accept food aid containing GM
organisms, citing health concerns. Fears were also raised that GM
grains would be planted, thereby contaminating local varieties.
Genetic
Resources Action International (GRAIN) noted that the issue of GM
food aid would seriously impact on the long-term food security of
the region. “Local maize varieties are a key foundation of food
security in much of Africa. Maize has been grown in many parts of
the continent since the early colonial times and some 54% of the
maize growing area is still planted to local varieties,” said
GRAIN.
Since
then, Zimbabwe and Mozambique have stated that they would only
accept milled genetically modified grains. Milled grains reduce the
risk of the crops being planted. Despite appeals to accept GM food
aid, Zambia has maintained its position.
These
fears are not unfounded as US food aid to Bolivia was tested and
found to be contaminated by StarLink genetically engineered corn, a
crop not approved for human consumption. The majority of the
GM-maize food aid to southern Africa is from the US.
No
tests have been conducted into the safety of the food aid coming to
southern Africa but the SADC Summit established an advisory
committee to investigate the potential dangers of GM food.
Critics
have also raised suspicions that GM food aid provided an avenue for
dumping “unwanted” or “Frankenstein” crops that several
international markets are rejecting. After all, what choice do the
hungry have?
Emergency
food aid operations in the region are ongoing. Yet, crises such as
these will recur unless “the right to food for all is put top of
the agenda of international financial institutions and governments
both inside and outside the region, and policies changed,”
according to OXFAM.
As
four southern African countries, Angola, Botswana, Democratic
Republic of Congo and Namibia face possible food shortages, it is
imperative that resources and efforts are directed towards
strengthening food security in the region. The alternative is a
future of food aid that we may not always be able to reject.
Najma
Mohamed is a freelance environmental researcher and writer
residing in Cape Town, South Africa. She completed her M.Sc. in
Environmental and Geographical Science at the University of Cape
Town and is involved in both print and broadcast media. She is
currently a student at the Yusufeyah Islamic & Arabic
Institute in Cape Town. You can reach her at najma_mohamed@hotmail.com
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