Mass starvation in Africa looms, but political will can stop it, Security Council told

Some 38 million Africans are at risk from an unprecedented hunger crisis on the continent, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today, stressing that adequate political will and resources can stem the tide of famine.

"Mass starvation in Africa is not inevitable," James Morris, the Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), said in an open briefing to the Council. But in order to make progress, he cautioned, "difficult political choices will have to be made, both by African States and by traditional donor countries." In the short term, an infusion of funds is urgently needed, while long-term goals must include greater investment in agriculture and changes in international trade regimes.

Mr. Morris described the upsurge in recent years of food emergencies, saying his agency has gone from largely sponsoring food-for-work and other development projects to being "the UN equivalent of an ambulance service for the starving." Nearly 80 per cent of WFP's work is now devoted to emergency response.

Examining the causes for this "explosion in food emergencies," Mr. Morris cited collapsing economic systems, political and ethnic violence, AIDS and weather conditions. All of these factors are combining to exacerbate Africa's critical situation, while WFP has received pledges of only 56 per cent of the $511 million needed to help meet the continent's needs.

Looking to the broader picture, the WFP chief urged major changes, including a shift from reliance on the United States for food aid. "Last year, the US provided 62 per cent of all food aid worldwide," he said. "This is simply not sustainable."

He added that the recent controversy over genetically modified (GM) food in southern Africa demonstrated the dangers of relying too heavily on a single donor. "Requirements by some of the southern African that GM maize from the US be milled have created a logistical nightmare and we have been left scrambling, trying to raise more cash contributions from other donors while confronting the complexities of milling the maize to ensure there is no break in the food pipeline."

At the same time, Mr. Morris urged the creation of a new global trade environment, stressing that developing countries "simply cannot compete with developed country subsidies that now amount to $1 billion a day and allow food to flow into poorer countries, making investments in agriculture unprofitable."

"People are hungry because their governments have made the wrong political decisions," he said. "In the end, hunger is a political creation and we must use political means to end it."