Overview of Food Crisis in Southern Africa

The United Methodist Church has issued a Churchwide Appeal for Southern Africa Famine. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR), working with its United Methodist and ecumenical partners, is responding. Ecumencially members of Action by Churches Together International (ACT), including UMCOR, are taking part in a huge effort.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has described the food crisis in southern Africa as the most severe and urgent dilemma facing the international community at the moment. Some 14.4 million people will require urgent humanitarian assistance in the next seven months. It is the worst agricultural disaster that this part of Africa has faced in a decade. The countries affected are Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe has been hit the hardest.

The food shortage is a complex crisis with a different situation in each country. The overview below summarized the current situation in those countries where ACT members have started programs to assist people in this crisis. WFP estimates that there is an overall gap of a million tons of grain in the region.

Lesotho

The government declared a state of famine in April after another poor harvest in Lesotho, which is small, mountainous country. The harvest is this year is reported to be 60% below normal. Food production in the last two seasons has dropped by almost 55% compared to the previous five years. A complicating factor to the hunger crisis in the country is the high levels of HIV/AIDS cases further weakening the immune systems of people already suffering from malnutrition. The UN says that some 500,000 people will require emergency food aid.

ACT member the Christian Council of Lesotho (CCL), in close collaboration with its member churches, is targeting 9,700 of the most vulnerable people at Ha Sekake in the Qacha's Nek district and Seforong in the Quthing district for eight months. The next harvest should be ready about May 2003. Assistance will include the distribution of corn, beans and oil. In addition, the beneficiary families will receive sorghum seed to plant for the next season.

Malawi

Malawi is the worst-affected country in this food crisis. Reportedly hundreds of people have already died from starvation. About 3.2 million people are threatened by famine, the majority of whom live in the southern part of the country. President Bakili Muluzi declared a state of emergency in February. Malawi needs 560,000 tons of food to avert widespread hunger.

The ACT Alliance has been responding to the food needs in selected communities since March 2002. The first part of relief food distribution was finished in July. The effort focuses on the distribution of relief food and on nutrition and health programs.

Mozambique

At least 515,000 people in the provinces of Gaza, Inhambane, Manica, Maputo, Sofala, and Tete in Mozambique will require food aid through March 2003, according to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) and the Mozambique Ministry of Agriculture. The food shortages are a result of severe dry weather during the 2001-2002 growing season that sharply reduced crop yields in the southern and central parts of Mozambique. This comes after devastating floods in both 2000 and 2001. Some of the areas affected by the floods are now facing food shortages. ACT members report that the situation is deteriorating rapidly. Affected families in the southern part of the country are reported to be eating wild fruits, seeds, and berries.

ACT members are providing food aid and seeds to vulnerable communities affected by the current drought in a joint response. This comprises the distribution of food to 29,500 beneficiaries, high-energy protein biscuits to about 12,000 school children in rural schools in drought affected areas and the distribution of seeds to 178,756 beneficiaries or 35,751 families.

Swaziland

More than 140,000 people in Swaziland are identified by the UN as needing immediate food assistance. They have little or no food stocks available after the failure of the 2001-2002 harvest. This number is expected to increase to 280,000 by December 2002, when present stocks will be exhausted.

Zambia

The government has declared the country's food shortage a national disaster. Officials say 2.4 million people face starvation and the country could soon run out of food. Severe drought has caused total crop failures in the southern parts of the country, with an estimated corn shortage of 630,000 tons.

The food shortages in the country have been caused not only by the drought in the south of Zambia but also by the lack of policy and government support to the agricultural sectors, critics say. During the last crop season, over 75% crop failure was experienced in six districts of the country's 52 districts, and 51% to 75% failure in eleven districts.

The price of corn has risen so astronomically that most Zambians cannot afford it. They are selling their animals and poultry at very low prices to get money to buy food. Hundreds of thousands of families are going without food for days or resorting to eating wild fruits and tubers. ACT members are responding to the crisis by distributing relief food as well as seeds and tools.

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is experiencing its worst food crisis in a decade. A school in a village 435 miles (700 kilometers) southwest of Harare reports that pupils fall asleep in class from exhaustion. Many now eat only one small meal a day; the poorest are forced to beg for a handful of corn meal from their neighbors. Eating only one meal per day has a severe nutritional impact, especially on children, pregnant women, elderly and disabled people. Lives are under serious threat due to the food shortages. An estimated six million of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people are threatened by the hunger crisis. The government has declared the hunger situation in the country a national disaster.

With the current drought and disruptions on commercial farms, the grain harvest is expected to drop by more than 50% this year compared to last year. Most of the corn crops, the major source of food in the country, wilted due to the persistent drought from January through March in most parts of the country. In addition, all other crops were affected by the mid-season water deficit resulting in total crop failure in most parts of the country.

ACT members' programs include supplementary feeding, food for work and the distribution of seeds for tolerant crops to build food security. So far, food has been distributed to more than 100,000 people in the two regions of Harare and Mutare.

Initially opposed to importing food aid containing genetically modified (GM) material, the government is now accepting such food. Zimbabwe mills the corn before distributing it to ensure it is not planted.

Populations requiring emergency food assistance by March 2003:
Lesotho 444,800
Malawi 3.2 million
Mozambique 515,000
Swaziland 231,000
Zambia 2.3 million
Zimbabwe 6.1 million

Source: World Food Program June 2002.

How You Can Help

One hundred percent of every gift designated for "All Africa Famine Relief, Advance #101250" will be used in the relief efforts. We also need Medicine Boxes. The generous giving of United Methodists to the One Great Hour of Sharing supplements the cost of Advance gifts. Give through a local United Methodist church or send financial contributions to: UMCOR, PO Box 9068, New York, NY 10087-9068. Call 1-800-554-8583 to make a credit card donation.