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Oxfam & Southern Africa food shortages: DFID statement

8 September 2005

A DFID spokesman said:

"We are aware that up to 10.7 million people in Southern Africa are vulnerable to severe food shortages between now and the harvest in March 2006. DFID has already provided over £40m of humanitarian relief to Southern African countries this year and is monitoring the situation closely. Hilary Benn is writing to EU partners to respond promptly to humanitarian needs as the situation becomes clearer."

The UK is already:

  • providing £30m for humanitarian relief and HIV/AIDS programmes in Zimbabwe this year;
  • providing over £10m to the Government and World Food Programme (WFP) in Malawi since March this year;
  • providing £460,000 to WFP and considering a further contribution, while also working with WFP and other agencies to ensure a coordinated approach to food shortages in Zambia;
  • considering a proposal from the government to provide $450,000 for seeds for farmers affected by drought in Mozambique;
  • considering proposals to support the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s activities in Swaziland;
  • looking at what is the best approach to support those facing food shortages in Lesotho.

We are working with governments and the World Food Programme to distinguish those that will require humanitarian relief, from the broader vulnerable population.

Effective early warning systems have been in place and we are monitoring needs closely. A DFID-funded early warning mechanism provided assessments which were discussed by regional Governments and donors in July.

We have argued for some time that the UN needs to create a standing humanitarian fund in order that money is readily available to be deployed to deal with problems like Darfur and Niger. The current system is self-evidently not working, as shown in those cases. The creation of a fund along these lines would save lives. We have been lobbying for the creation of this Fund since December 2004. We welcome Oxfam’s support for this Fund, and the UK is willing to put up to $100 million to the Fund.

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