Famine in northern Uganda is a wakeup call for everybody
An empty granary which should be filled with food. (Photo by Richard M Kavuma, Guardian)
Norbert Mao (Letter from Gulu)
WHEN the guns fell silent in northern Uganda, we told our people to leave the IDP camps. After being concentrated in these squalid conditions for over a decade, going home was the best peace dividend. We told them to open their land and cultivate for their own consumption and for the market. Everyone was excited. No more lining up to face the indignity of receiving rations of food from relief organisations.
Heads of households looked forward to reasserting their authority as bread earners by the sweat of their brows. For those inclined to farm for the market, South Sudan beckoned. Our people made the leap of faith and returned to their abandoned homesteads. The lack of shelter did not deter them.
Even though roads, water, schools and health facilities were inadequate, they still moved hoping for the best. With rudimentary tools, they tackled the land that had now become bushy due to disuse. Many of the households that returned home put their faith in farming. But alas, they did not expect the drought that has hit the region. The prolonged dry spell has led to crop failure and poor harvest.
Last week, we received a report of a rapid Food Security Assessment for Acholi and Teso sub-regions from the Food Security and Agriculture Livelihoods cluster. The assessment found that in Gulu, the expected and harvested crop is less than 40 per cent of the normal season’s harvest except for rice, pigeon peas, maize and simsim.
The situation is roughly the same in most of Acholiland. Besides the dry spell, the assessment concluded that the food shortages are due to low food stocks in storage, high market prices, food aid dependency, and low acreage of cultivated land. Other factors include poor crop husbandry (untimely ploughing and weeding), obnoxious weeds, hailstorms, harvesting of immature crops and bush- fires. In normal situations, a season’s crop failure should not lead to an emergency. If crops fail, farmers should turn to what they have in storage. If the stores are exhausted, they turn to their cash savings. If the savings are wiped out they turn to the local government. If the local government fails them they run to the central government. An international appeal for help is supposed to be the last resort.
The fact that one year’s crop failure forces us to appeal for international help means that we live from hand to mouth and our food security situation is still extremely fragile. The current food shortages are thus a wake-up call to the government at the local and national level. It is also a wake-up call to the affected communities. The current state of hunger has created a shock among returning communities. This is more so because the response to the crisis has been very slow. So what is to be done? The measures that the Food Security Cluster recommends range from short-term, intermediate and long- term measures. To deal with the emergency cases, there should be immediate provision of food aid. This should go hand in hand with supply of seeds and cuttings for early maturing crops like sorghum, cowpeas, rice, potatoes and cassava.
There should also be supply of farm tools, especially ox-drawn ploughs and oxen. In order to enable the population access food through the market, there should be conditional money transfers, for instance money and vouchers for work. There should also be an all-round campaign to encourage communities to grow the so-called famine crops like cassava and sweet potatoes.
These measures should be carried out between now and December when the situation is expected to stabilise. From early next year, communities should be encouraged to establish food banks. These can be included in the Food Security Ordinance that we are currently discussing.
The Food Security Ordinance will require each household to have food stores, to cultivate a certain acreage considered optimum and to practise good crop and animal husbandry. Also included will be a commitment to promote water-harvesting and simple irrigation technologies, the diversification of enterprises, promotion of mixed farming, the regulation of the sale of food, the provision of training and extension services, and the promotion of savings and village credit services.
These measures have to be planned and carried out in an intentional manner for the simple reason that the food shortage has had serious effects. The social impact of the famine in northern Uganda cannot be underestimated. Several deaths have been reported. In Gulu two deaths have been reported in the sub-counties of Lakwana and Palaro due to consumption of poisonous cassava. Theft of food from gardens has become commonplace.
Extremely vulnerable individuals who receive food have reported housebreakings by thieves looking for food to steal. Cases of food-related family conflicts and domestic violence have increased. The inability of family heads to provide food is severely undermining family ties. In some areas, there are reports of increase in prostitution by women seeking a means of survival. Young girls have reported that in some cases family members seeking bride price are forcing them into early marriages. In Teso, cases of asset-stripping have been reported. Livestock is being sold at give-away prices so as to get money to purchase food.
In Gulu, the Education Department has reported a drop in school attendance due to hunger among children of school-going age. Cases of malnutrition have also increased, especially among children. At the Nutrition Unit of Lacor Hospital, Dr. Cyprian Opira, the executive director of the hospital, says the number of children being treated for acute malnutrition has more than doubled. At the beginning of the month there were 30 cases. Now the cases are 90.
This is not the first time famine has hit parts of the country. We can either waste time in finger- pointing or put our heads together to seek durable solutions. The situation is very bad and calls for leadership. We can leave the blame game for later when we have the leisure. Instead of cursing the darkness that has befallen our people we should each light a candle.
The writer is Gulu LC 5 chairman
High food prices are affecting children’s nutritional levels’
Not only is the food crisis affecting the poorest people, it is impacting the most vulnerable population — children.
Worldwide, every year:
- 1.1 million children under five die due to vitamin A and zinc deficiencies
- 136,000 women and children die from iron-deficiency anaemia
- 18 million babies are born mentally impaired because of maternal iodine deficiency
- 150,000 babies are born with severe birth effects due to inadequate maternal B-vitamin intake
- 350,000 children become blind due to vitamin A deficiency
- 1.6 billion people suffer reduced productive capacity as result of anaemia
Keep those vitamins coming
JOHANNESBURG, 12 May 2009 (IRIN) – During the three-year Asian financial crisis in the 1990s, the number of children suffering from anaemia in Indonesia increased significantly as the poor could not afford quality food.
The condition is caused by body tissues and organs suffering a lack of oxygen when there are insufficient micronutrients such as iron in the diet. The percentage of children experiencing anaemia rose from 52 percent in 1996 to 68 percent in 1998, said a new report, Investing in the Future, citing a study.
The research found that among poor households, low consumption of eggs and dark leafy vegetables – both important sources of micronutrients like iron – resulted in an increased prevalence of anaemia in both mothers and children. “The effects were particularly severe for children conceived during and immediately prior to the crisis.”
The global economy is now in recession and children in developing countries are most at risk, warned the joint authors of the report, a group of nutrition advocacy NGOs: Micronutrient Initiative, Flour Fortification Initiative and Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition, and aid agencies USAID, the Canadian International Development Agency, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the World Bank and the World Health Organisation.
A World Bank study on the impact of the current financial crisis has estimated that in 2008 alone, higher food prices may have been responsible for an additional 44 million children suffering permanent physical and cognitive setbacks due to malnutrition.
The authors of Investing in the Future, which was released at the 2009 Micronutrient Forum in Beijing on 12 May, urged countries to increase their investments, renew commitments and expand existing vitamin and mineral supplementation programmes.
Micronutrient deficiencies lead to more frequent infections, reduce children’s ability to fight and survive disease, and impair mental capacity. In adults, vitamin and mineral deficiencies can affect general productivity and cause debilitating illnesses and even death. Deficiencies during pregnancy threaten the health and lives of women, and negatively affect their unborn children.
Inexpensive supplements and fortificants are available: the cost of salt iodization is a mere five cents per person per year, while vitamin A capsules cost two US cents each.
