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afrol News, 22 March - While Malawi experiences its worst food shortages in decades, foreign aid is severely cut back. While over 300 persons have died of hunger already, up to 7 million could face starvation. Help is coming too slowly. The London-based humanitarian organisation ActionAid has issued an alert over the alarming situation in hunger-ridden Malawi. Also the Malawian government, acknowledging that its people are experiencing the worst maize shortage since 1949, has declared a state of disaster. The food shortage has already caused widespread hunger, an increase in hunger-related diseases and at least 300 deaths so far, ActionAid informs. "It is expected that the number of deaths will rise before the government and aid agencies are able to bring the situation under control." Out of a total population of 11 million, 7 million could face starvation, the organisation warns. Malawi has experienced several years of poor harvests due to drought or flooding. In remote rural areas people are now eating maize husks, wild roots, grass seed and banana roots, having already started eating green maize. Malawi is now relying on food imports and is at the mercy of private traders charging inflated prices. On the black market, the price of maize in the Southern and Central regions of the country - the worst hit areas - has risen in some places by up to 600 percent, putting it out of the reach of the poor. The price of a 50kg bag of maize, which will last an average family three to four weeks, now costs as much as US$ 20.00. Even in good times a poor rural family only earns the equivalent of US$ 5 a week. There are growing concerns about the breakdown of family life as people leave their homes in the search of food. Numbers of street children are rising and anecdotal evidence reveals that women and children are increasingly resorting to prostitution. This will inevitably boost the HIV/AIDS infection rate, which already stands at 20 percent. Hospitals are also reporting outbreaks of cholera. Response to the crisis has been extraordinary slow for this part of Africa. This is mainly due to Malawi's falling star with donors over the last year, resulting in a steep drop in international aid recently. But Malawi is utterly dependent on foreign aid, with over 40 percent of the country's budget based on aid. The government now needs an estimated 15 million euro to tackle the crisis, but only the UK, China and Japan have committed funds so far. Malawi's drop in foreign aid is explained by reports of corruption and the government's harsh treatment of the opposition. This for example resulted in the total pullout of Denmark, a major donor, earlier this year. Malawian sources claim the international critics against their country are exaggerated and that the government, with its limited resources, indeed had been trying to respond to the charges made by donors. Now, the slowly approaching crisis had broken out to a full-scale disaster, and international donors still hesitate to return to Malawi. Humanitarian organisations and UN agencies, such as the WFP, are doing their best to tackle the situation with limited resources. While the Malawian government could be blamed for responding too late to the crisis, there have been several external factors limiting its capacities. Of major importance is the cut in foreign aid. But, according to ActionAid, also World Bank and IMF policies have contributed to the crisis. The two institutions had encouraged the government to keep monetary reserves instead of maize. "Surplus maize from 1998/99 was sold to Kenya, contributing to the current crisis." - Making maize affordable to the poor consumer must be the immediate priority of donors and government, the organisation says in a statement. ActionAid Malawi is assisting immediate relief efforts, helping the World Food Programme to distribute food. As part of Malawi's civil society movement, ActionAid Malawi was calling for: "pledges on food aid to be met; action to be taken against the stockpiling of maize by unscrupulous traders; subsidies on locally grown food; and the imposition of price ceilings on maize." To ensure long-term food security, the organisation says action was needed by international donors to reverse the decline in aid and to increase the effectiveness of rural development projects. Malawi's government also needed to formulate food policies in consultation with smallholders and the agencies that work with them, as the country was almost totally dependent on peasant farmers for the bulk of its food supply.
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