29 July 2011
As well as responding to immediate needs, see latest update, Tearfund is joining calls from agencies to address the underlying causes of the food crisis.
In Rome earlier this week, an emergency session hosted by the United Nations stressed the need to boost productivity of small farmers and pastoralists through seeds, fertilisers, animal feed and vaccinations, as well as improving infrastructure in the form of roads, utilities, safe water supply and village stores.
A summary issued after the meeting said the crisis threatens 12 million people and risks ‘leaving a generation of children in jeopardy of irreversible physical and cognitive impairments, due to the devastating impact of malnutrition and disease’.
In addition to drought, high food costs have caused much of the hardship. During the last four months, food prices have rocketed by 240 per cent in Somalia and 70 per cent in Kenya. But people in poor communities spend up to 80 per cent of their income on food.
‘As well as saving lives now, we need to build livelihood resilience to future droughts, price rises and conflict,’ says Jo Khinmaung, Tearfund’s Food Security Policy Adviser.
‘We would like to see donor governments investing more in smallholder farmers and pastoralists in the long term, and making decisions quickly based on early warning signals and contingency plans to avoid this happening again.’
Meanwhile, Tearfund’s SuperBadger campaign has been urging the G20 to increase its aid to the estimated US$1.6 billion needed to tackle the emergency and meet the $850 million gap. To add your voice, visit http://apps.facebook.com/superbadger/
- Unite to pray that those on the brink of survival will be reached by aid.
- Pray for Tearfund partner staff and other relief workers as they work around the clock to ease suffering.
- Pray for a spirit of urgency and unity amid the international community, so that enough money will be committed and delivered.
- Pray as One Voice for the investment in agriculture needed to reduce long-term vulnerability.
One Voice
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