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MADAGASCAR: Food security now taken literally
Photo: Tomas de Mul/IRIN  | | With more and more mouths to feed patience is required at WFP food distribution sites |
TANANDAVA, 15 May 2009 (IRIN) - In Tanandava, a small village in the arid south of Madagascar, the community's most valuable asset is kept behind two padlocks to which two people each have a key. They can only access the school's food store when they are together.
"That food is by far our most precious possession," Jean Louis Rafanomezantsoa, director of the local school, told IRIN. It was provided by the School Feeding Programme of the World Food Programme (WFP) and is but one of many assistance programmes that have become increasingly critical.
"If we don't take care of it properly they will stop helping us," Rafanomezantsoa said, acknowledging the donor contributions and WFP support that have kept the school kitchen going since it opened 15 years ago.
The daily ration of 115 grams of rice, supplemented with pulses and oil - for school children only - have become the envy of the village after three consecutive years of drought.
Hunger is common in the southern Androy Region. On the main road into the area two heavily armed military policemen were seen guarding two 50kg sacks of rice; they said "bandits" had tried to steal them off a moving WFP truck.
"[The] most recent rapid assessment by WFP in April confirmed that 100 percent of 160 sampled households in 16 food insecure communes were 'severely food insecure'," said Krystyna Bednarska, head of WFP in Madagascar.
Rice, the national staple, is a commodity worth risking everything for, and Rafanomezantsoa's concern is not unfounded. WFP has also had to step up security at its warehouses after one was targeted by looters.
From bad to worse
"The situation is quite serious," John Uniack Davis, Country Director of the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), an international aid agency, told IRIN. The government's Early Warning System (SAP) said by late 2008 some 400,000 Malagasy in southern districts were more food-insecure.
 That food is by far our most precious possession - if we don't take care of it properly they will stop helping us |
"Rainfall has been below normal all year, the December harvest was late and poor, and the June [2009] harvest is expected to also be quite poor… Consequently, the nutritional status of children has become quite worrisome," Davis noted.
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that up to 250,000 children are at risk of disease and malnutrition. "The problem has been getting worse over time, and people thus have less and less time to recover," he said.
People were "stretched more thinly than they have been in the past", and assets were being depleted. "With more frequent food security crises, families have sold off what little wealth they have and are less resilient in the face of shocks," Davis warned.
People and programmes at risk
2009 has been rough in Madagascar: the humanitarian community and the state's fragile administrative structures have been overwhelmed by the deepening drought, two cyclones, a tropical storm and continued political turmoil.
The coup-style change of power year froze international development assistance and the economy has barely functioned. Even humanitarian aid has been slow: a joint "Flash Appeal" for US$36 million in early April has seen barely $5.5 million in commitments trickle in.
"While the degradation of the food security and nutritional situation is being reported, WFP's response interventions are dramatically underfunded," said WFP's Bednarska. Of the US$8.2 million WFP requested in the appeal, only $600,000 has been committed.
"WFP's interventions are now limited to life-saving operations," she said, and the organisation has had to source funding internally from its development programmes.
"The Country Office is trying to address the most compelling needs, targeting 116,000 beneficiaries with 4,000 tonnes of food assistance so as to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe - we had to scale down the previous caseload from 150,000."
Very bad news for Tanandava
WFP has only 600 tonnes of food available in the country, so this assistance is contingent on the arrival and clearance of the remaining tonnage. Most food assistance schemes, including the School Feeding Programme, would "undoubtedly" suffer, Bednarska warned.
The programme depends on funds managed by the World Bank, but after the recent political upheaval, "and the lack of international recognition of the so-called 'transition government'", the organisation suspended all dealings with the new Malagasy Higher Transitional Authority (HAT).
"This may dramatically impact on the continuation of the activities in 611 WFP-supported schools - 90,000 children - for the academic year 2009/10. In the meantime, the coming lean season is expected to be severe," Bednarska said.
CARE's Davis said he hoped "current international assistance and the meagre June harvest" would help vulnerable populations make ends meet until September.
However, he warned that worse was to come: "Beginning in September or thereabouts, there will be another dangerously lean period. International and national actors need to plan now for the inevitable September crisis in order to avoid the worst."
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