By Caroline Hooper-Box
Urgent food aid is needed in southern Africa as life expectancies plunge and the
number of children orphaned by HIV and Aids heads towards one in five - or 18
million - by 2010.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) this week appealed for
R360-million to buy 102 tons of food to get the most vulnerable in Swaziland,
Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia through the first three months of 2005.
Many millions of orphans will be specifically targeted for assistance in the
regional operation, for which the WFP has launched an appeal for R2,5-billion
over the next three years.
Recovery from the widespread drought and crop failures that put millions at risk
in 2002 has been slow, and sometimes short-lived, because of deepening poverty
and HIV and Aids.
Mike Sackett, the WFP's regional director for southern Africa, said food aid
needed to be directed at orphans to reduce the risk of these children dropping
out of school to scrounge for food, and resorting to theft and prostitution to
survive.
"The concept of Aids orphans simply did not exist in Africa 10 years ago," said
Sackett. "There was always an aunt or an uncle to look after children who had
lost their parents. Today, so many people in the 30 to 40 age group have died
that communities are simply overwhelmed. Community officials talk of a daily
increase in the number of orphans."
Children who had not reached adolescence when their parents died were not
receiving information on how to cultivate crops as they would have done
traditionally, he added.
As sickness and death take hold in southern Africa, food production declines.
Smaller harvests and increased spending on healthcare and funerals also result
in declining incomes.
In the past 10 years, 17 countries worldwide have shown a negative trend in the
Human Development Index put out by the UN. Of those countries, eight are in
southern Africa - South Africa included.
The WFP said a devastating combination of chronic poverty, food insecurity, HIV
and Aids and weakened capacity for governance was driving the decline in
development indicators in the region. Life expectancy in Lesotho, Malawi,
Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe has fallen by an average of 22 years.
The WFP's new approach was a protracted relief-and-recovery programme, said
Sackett. The agency was appealing for funds to give a basic ration of cereals,
pulses and vegetables to keep orphaned children in good health. Junior farming
programmes would also be started.