Western Producer reporter Barry Wilson visited parts of Africa to report on how people are dealing with the food crisis.
KAMPALA, Uganda – Most days of every week, convoys of trucks roll out of a giant World Food Program warehouse in the Ugandan capital, each carrying 43 tonnes of food destined to keep more than 1.2 million hungry people alive.
Many of those trucks carry bags of grain, pulse crops or vegetable oil either donated by Canada or purchased locally with Canadian money.
Before they reach their destinations, many of these convoys will pick up armed guard trucks front and rear to protect them from attacks by rebels or thieves.
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The recipients range from more than 100,000 refugees from neighbouring countries to AIDS orphans, drought, flood and other climate change refugees.
“It always seems like it is a race against time,” says WFP official Lydia Wamala. “The need is so great and there are never enough resources. There is always a cash crunch.”
In fact, the WFP estimates its programs in Uganda will cost $191 million in 2008. So far, it has raised less than half of the estimated budget.
If more money is not raised, thousands of people will be cut from the program and some HIV/AIDS victim programs will have to be dropped, as well as school feeding programs.
These trucks, with the grim statistics behind them, are the frontline face of the world’s largest food aid dispenser and one of its largest food purchasers, particularly in developing countries.
And there is no end in sight for the need.
While the WFP expects the refugee problem in the north to diminish as local rebel activity decreases and people return to their homes and farms from refugee camps, the agency also predicts more hunger because of the effects of climate change.
The northeast province of Karamoja is especially hard hit with frequently recurring drought. Floods are the problem elsewhere.
“The entire country and especially Karamoja has experienced an increase in natural disasters, reflecting in part the impact of climate change” said a WFP situation report for 2008. “Uganda had seven droughts between 1991 and 2000 as compared to only eight in the previous 80 years. In the country as a whole, nearly 900,000 people experienced the damaging effects of floods or drought during the year (2007).”
Canada is one of the largest supporters of the WFP and in Uganda, one of the largest donors so far this year.
Recently, Canada won high praise from the food aid community and the WFP by announcing that it is ending the longstanding requirement that at least part of the food purchased with Canadian money be spent on Canadian-sourced food. It gives WFP purchasers more options about where they buy food and reduces the cost of purchasing and transporting.
“We want to thank Canada for its bold move,” WFP executive director Josette Sheeran said June 5 during the world food summit organized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome. “It gives us much more flexibility and it can save lives.”
Most other countries continue to use food aid programs at least in part as a domestic agriculture program to give their farmers an additional market.
The United States AID program requires that 100 percent of U.S. contributions to the WFP be used to buy American product.
The evidence is in the warehouse where thousands of 50-kilogram bags of food and cans of vegetable oil are stacked for delivery.
Bags from the U.S., the largest WFP supporter, proclaim: “US AID from the American people.”
Most of Canada’s contribution is labelled: “Product of Uganda. Gift of Canada.”
In fact, local purchases in Uganda last year of 210,000 tonnes of food made the country the largest developing country supplier.
The WFP says local or regional purchases serve the needs of the hungry by making more food available more cheaply and faster but also are an important stimulus for small-scale developing world farmers.
Increased local purchases “will help reduce the risks farmers face from uncertain markets, boost incomes and encourage investment in technologies and practices, which increase and improve food production,” the United Nations agency said earlier this year when announcing its buy-local strategy.
