Based
on the results of the latest government and UN World Food Programme
(WFP) food security survey in Mauritania, Giancarlo Cirri, Representative
of the WFP, predicts 2008 as the year in which the country may face
the highest levels ever of hunger.
Mauritania
has a chronic food deficit with an average 70 percent of the food
eaten being imported. The effects of rising costs for oil, raw materials
and food commodities, combined with a reorganisation of the main ocean
trading routes and the weakening of the dollar are all having a shock
effect on local food prices. Wheat and sorghum prices in Mauritania
rose by 40 percent from May 2007 to January 2008. Millet prices over
the same period rose by 50 percent. Towards the end of last year,
Mauritanians have been out on the streets of the capital Nouakchott
and major cities to demonstrate against ever rising food prices. The
government is now facing a double emergency – escalating prices and
dwindling availability of grains.
The
report of the recent food security survey carried out by the Government
and the WFP is to be released in April 2008, showing the specific
details on the most affected groups and geographic areas. According
to a September 2007 survey, global acute malnutrition in Mauritania
affected 11.9 percent of the population in 2007. The latest survey
indicates a 15 percent rise in the number of families with inadequate
food to get through the year. With a total population of 3.1 million,
close to 425,000 people are likely to be severely affected.
The
government allocated USD 3.2 million to build up national food security
stocks in 2007, and is supplying grain to 1,200 community based
stocks in the country. The food survey report is still to be validated
by the government and no official emergency response has been given.
Aid agency representatives are worried that not enough stocks are
available to meet a large-scale crisis. The WFP in Mauritania faces
a deficit of USD 6 million to cover its food security operations
between March and July 2008.
The
Lutheran World Federation (LWF) field program is the only ACT member
in the country. Currently the LWF, through local partners, runs
child feeding centres under ACT Appeal AFMR71 in eastern Mauritania.
Any new ACT initiated activities, especially related to nutrition,
will be part of a coordinated government and UN response and will
have to wait until the validation of the food survey report by the
government. Meanwhile, preliminary planning is being done by LWF
field staff and partner agencies.
LWF,
together with its implementing partners, has the capacity to organise
and manage feeding centres for children, pregnant women and lactating
women, who are usually the most affected during a food crisis, as
men tend to migrate in search of work to support the families. Feeding
programs would also likely be further accompanied by vegetable production
activities. LWF will look to working in affected areas where they
have a programme presence not covered by other agencies.
