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IP/08/839
Brussels, 3 June 2008
Commission provides more humanitarian aid to
fight acute malnutrition in the Sahel
The European Commission has allocated an additional
€5 million to reduce acute malnutrition and mortality in West Africa's
Sahel region. The aid targets the most vulnerable – in particular an
estimated 1.3 million acutely malnourished under-five as well as five million
pregnant and breast-feeding women. The countries covered are Burkina Faso, Chad,
Mali, Mauritania and Niger as well as the Sahel regions in the north of Benin,
Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Nigeria and Togo. The €5 million is in
addition to the €25 million already made available in June last year (see
IP/07/785) and the extra €5 million allocated for further food aid in the
Sahel this year. The recent massive global increase in food prices has further
intensified the pressure on the most vulnerable groups in a region chronically
prone to crisis.
Louis Michel, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid,
said: "Vulnerable people in the Sahel already barely cope with the regular cycle
of droughts, locust infestations, epidemics and food shortages. Soaring prices
for food staples makes their nutritional situation even worse and could trigger
a humanitarian disaster. The Commission's response is two-fold: fresh funding
and intelligent spending. Our humanitarian aid plan for the Sahel is a good
example of how we are proactively tackle not just acute malnutrition, but also
its root causes."
While responding to immediate needs, the Commission's humanitarian aid in the
Sahel complements the longer-term European Development Fund which aims, among
other things, to help the Sahel countries achieve the Millennium Development
Goals of reducing hunger and poverty and infant and maternal mortality. Child
mortality in the Sahel is one of the highest in the world and malnutrition is
associated with six out of ten child deaths – or 300,000 children under
the age of five dying of malnutrition or related causes every year.
The Commission' approach aims to manage future external shocks better.
Regarding children, the aim is to act before the severe malnutrition stage by
treating infants that are moderately malnourished. The Sahel plan finances
ready-to-use therapeutic food and medical care as well as the provision of
treated mosquito nets, training for health workers, malnutrition prevention
programmes and support to local systems to detect malnourished children
earlier.
In Niger, Commission-funded humanitarian projects have helped to lower the
overall Global Acute Malnutrition rate in malnourished children, a key
humanitarian indicator, from well over 15% in 2005 to 10% in 2007.
All funds are channelled through the Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO),
under the responsibility of Commissioner Louis Michel. The projects are
implemented by non-governmental relief organisations, specialised UN agencies
and the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement. ECHO has a regional support office in
Senegal's capital, Dakar, and field experts in Niger and Burkina Faso. They
closely follow developments in the humanitarian situation, play an active role
in the local coordination of relief efforts and monitor the use of the
Commission's relief funds.
The Commission gives particular attention to improving the linkage between
relief and development assistance to boost the long-term sustainability of
humanitarian aid and to mainstream humanitarian concerns into development aid
planning. ECHO therefore coordinates closely with the Commission services
responsible for development policies and programmes, notably in the context of
the 10th European Development Fund (EDF). All the relevant
10th EDF country strategy papers now include measures to respond to
nutritional insecurity in the Sahel.
Full text of the humanitarian funding decision:
http://ec.europa.eu/echo/information/decisions/2008_en.htm
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