Malawi: UN launches ‘unprecedented smart appeal’ to counter food crisis

The United Nations today launched an $88 million ‘smart’ flash appeal for Malawi, where some 4.2 million people – 34 per cent of the population – face acute food shortages, in an unprecedented two-track approach to both address immediate needs and prevent a recurring crisis.

“This is not a typical UN Flash Appeal. It is a 'smart Appeal', requesting international support for the Government of Malawi's leadership in addressing both immediate humanitarian needs, and to allow the Government to take action now to minimize the likelihood of another food-shortage driven humanitarian crisis next year,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

The appeal seeks $51 million for immediate food, nutrition, education, and protection and $37 million for agricultural input for longer-term production, providing additional support to the Government’s two-track approach to combating the situation of chronic food insecurity that grips the entire southern African region.

“This appeal is truly forward-looking in that it attempts to avert hunger and at the same time promote sustainable recovery of livelihoods,” said Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

“Investing in prevention will prove much more cost effective than providing emergency assistance year after year,” he added of the appeal, which comes just four days after he raised “early warnings for Malawi” following the world’s tardy response to UN to warnings last November of impending crisis in Niger. More than 2.5 million people in Niger are now grappling with the grave effects of drought and locusts.

“By addressing the underlying causes of the food crisis, as well as emergency needs, the Government of Malawi and the United Nations will be working together to lay the basis for food security in the long run,” said UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director and UN Special Envoy for Humanitarian Needs in Southern Africa James Morris.

“This Appeal represents a real opportunity for the international community to focus on the immense challenges facing people today as well as those in the future.”

Under the strategy’s first track, the Government aims to provide food, emergency nutrition, education and protection, for the most vulnerable. The second track is intended to ensure that small farmers have access to key agricultural inputs for the 2005-2006 harvest, especially maize fertilizer.

In terms of immediate humanitarian aid, WFP will take the lead in helping 2 million vulnerable individuals in seven districts in the country’s hardest-hit southern region, with the Government aiding the remaining 2.2 million persons through food distribution and voucher schemes, as well as cash. Nutritional support will be provided by the UN in all districts.

On the second track, the UN has developed its appeal to reinforce the Government’s 70 per cent fertilizer subsidy scheme into one that ensures that the nation’s 1 million poorest farmers receive at least one bag of seeds and one bag of fertilizer.

“This unprecedented two-track approach addresses the immediate food needs from now until the next harvest in March 2006, as well as the imminent risk to next year's harvest itself,” OCHA said in a news release.