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Hunger: Machele, EU Blame Conflict

The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
April 3, 2004
Posted to the web April 4, 2004

By HALIMA ABDALLAH, MATSIKO W'MUCOORI, BADRU D.MULUMBA & Agencies
Kampala
If you don't have enough to eat, blame it on war in northern Uganda.
Ms Graca Machele, wife to former South African president Nelson Mandela, and
the European Union have blamed the surge in hunger levels in Africa on war.
One of every four Africans, or 200 million of Africa's 800 million people go to
bed hungry, according to estimates at the on going pan African conference on
food security in Munyonyo - where experts are plotting a way to end hunger by
2020.
"Conflicts are the primary causes of food insecurity in our continent," said
Machel.
"We cannot plan how to get out of food shortage and how to improve the
nutrition status of our citizens without concentrating efforts in solving
conflicts that affect our society," she said.
The three-day conference ends today at Speke Resort Munyonyo.
Ending conflict, Machele said, would allow Africa refocus its resources towards
development.
"Resources that were concentrated on arms and the so-called security, [have] to
be diverted now to human security, which is 'enough food for everybody," she
added.
Minister: Uganda isn't starving
War, Mr Kisamba Mugerwa said, is denying Uganda chance of becoming a food
supplier in Eastern and Central Africa.
"The war will affect us in Agriculture not to become a food basket in Eastern
and Central," he said.
But he quickly added that, " we are not starving", pointing out that World Food
Programme annually buys over 100,000 tonnes of grains for distribution.
Mugerwa was together with Ghanaian counter part, Maj. Courage E.K. Quashigah
(rtd) addressing a press conference on day two of the hunger conference at
Speke Resort Beach Munyonyo.
International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) report states projects
that about 50 million children in Sub -Sahara Africa shall be malnourished by
2015.
In Uganda 11 out of 1000 children are malnourished.
It also projects that hunger will worsen in the entire continent in the next
decade.
But Quashigah said if we go back to traditional science as a basis for
research, avoided conflicts and mismanagement of funds the situation can be
improved.
"If every country contributed $1 per head we could raise $1bn for NEPAD, the
money that we can control ourselves, there is a lot of wastage in Africa" he
said.
The New Partnership for Africa's Development is a blue print for what Africa
ought to do in order to develop.
EU: forget food aid
Earlier on Thursday, the European Union Head of Development and Humanitarian
Aid Mr Poul Nielson said that conflicts are damaging the image of Africa and
hindering any prospects of development.
"Armed conflict and civil strife not only cause humanitarian crisis for
millions of internally displaced people and refugees they also cause
agricultural output losses and increased food insecurity," he said.
In a speech read for him by EU head of delegation, Mr Sigurd Illing, Nielson
said that food aid could not stop hunger in Africa.
"We in the [European] Commission are convinced that food aid is not an
appropriate instrument to foster long term food security and, as a result, we
have reduced our supplies of food aid-in-kind to emergency interventions," he
said.
EU, he said, has budgeted about 450 million euro annually for food aid and
security to selected countries mostly in Africa.
Forget New York
Presidents Yoweri Museveni, Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo, and Senegal's
Abdoulaye Wade opened the conference on Thursday with a swipe at United Nations
meetings in New York, saying that African presidents are never given enough
time to illustrate how an unfair trading regimes are hurting its people.
"New York is such a long way," Museveni said. "But when you get there, they
say, 'I have given you five minutes'."
But Wade said: "That is our fault because we don't say the same things. If Mr
Museveni or Mr Obasanjo talk, why should I talk? But we talk because we go
there to talk."
To wild applause, Wade suggested that Africa should send one person to
represent it at the meetings.
"You will have two hours to explain the problems of Africa," he said. "We must
discuss this at the level of the African Union," he added. "Each of us goes
with 20 to 30 persons. And then the hotels; they don't help us to pay for
them."
Africa reportedly spends an estimated $75 million per U.N general assembly.
"For each conference, that is the amount of money that we spend."
The three-day conference has attracted about 500 participants from 50 countries
worldwide, mostly Africa.
International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington organised it.

   

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