FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS (FAO) REGIONAL
OFFICE FOR AFRICA, ACCRA - TEL. 675000/7010930

PRESS RELEASE NO. 01/12

HORN OF AFRICA DEVELOPMENT DISCUSSED AT FAO MEETING

Rome, 22 March 2001.- "It is within the capacity of the countries
concerned and the international community to eliminate famine and tackle
food insecurity in the Horn of Africa," says the UN Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) at the start of a meeting of donors on the Horn of Africa
initiative.

The FAO is actively participating in a UN inter-agency Task Force
initiative launched by the Secretary General, Kofi Annan, just a year ago to
eliminate food insecurity in the Horn of Africa.

The World Bank has convened this two-day donor meeting, hosted by
FAO, and attended by representatives from other UN agencies, delegates from
OECD countries, the European Union, some African countries and officials
from the African Development Bank and the Intergovernmental Authority on
Development (IGAD). It is chaired by Hans Binswanger, Director of the
Environmental, Rural, and Social Development Department of the African
region at the World Bank.

The purpose of the meeting is to reach agreement on a follow-up
mechanism for the implementation of the Task Force strategy and to obtain
indications of funding. When the Task Force report was presented to the UN
Secretary General, it was agreed that the World Bank should be responsible
for resource mobilisation.

"Both multilateral and bilateral donors need to pledge long-term
funding in support of national efforts to end famine and food insecurity at
a level that is commensurate with the scale of the problem. In addition to
traditional mechanisms such as soft loan or grant-funded projects and sector
programmes, this will require a longer-term commitment on the part of donors
as well as innovative funding mechanisms allowing greater responsiveness to
local-level initiatives," according to the UN inter-agency Task Force.

A final report by the Task Force on what needs to be done to improve
food conditions in this region underlines that "it is essential to secure
the commitment of governments, regional organizations, UN agencies, donors
and civil society, all of whom have key roles in translating common policies
into concrete and concerted action."

At the national level, governments must assume full responsibility
for eliminating food insecurity by ensuring such conditions as good
governance, health and education services and their people's empowerment.

Together with the governments concerned, intergovernmental
organizations should formulate and implement a Regional Food Security
Programme (RFSP), encompassing conflict resolution, technical cooperation,
the promotion of interregional infrastructure development, the fostering of
trade and the liberalization and harmonization of trade policies, economic
integration and an integrated early warning system for the region, the Task
Force report says.

UN agencies are assisting governments in setting priorities for
development programmes and formulating investments aimed at achieving food
security and disaster preparedness and mitigation, in particular in the Horn
of Africa.

Each government will need to formulate a Country Food
Security Programme (CFSP), building on the recommendations of the World Food
Summit Follow-up Strategies, as well as existing national food security
initiatives and Poverty Reduction Strategies. The CFSPs will have two main
thrusts: one to eliminate famine; the other to tackle chronic food
insecurity. At the World Food Summit, convened by FAO in November 1996,
Heads of State and Government from 186 countries pledged to reduce by half
the number of undernourished in the world by 2015.

One of the main elements of each CFSP should be a programme for
disaster preparedness and the elimination of famine. Early warning systems
will need to be restructured so as to give better coverage of pastoral and
agropastoral areas, and also be linked to regional systems. They should be
based on active two-way communication between local communities and national
and international decision-makers. Farmers and pastoralists should be able
to tell decision-makers when and where their food stocks are running low and
their cattle are dying, while international agencies, who have access to
meteorological forecasts, should ensure that this information is delivered
rapidly to local communities.

The immediate focus would be on enhancing the livelihoods of small
resource-poor farmers, through a combination of agricultural technologies
and support services, access to markets and credit, along with rural
enterprises and agroprocessing. Such farmers, as well as pastoralists
inhabiting the arid and semi-arid parts of the region, and the urban food
insecure, are the principal targets of the programme.

For those in the highland areas, for example, this will mean making
better use of water by adopting small-scale irrigation techniques, building
on the experience of FAO's Special Programme for Food Security. In the drier
areas, on the other hand, the focus is likely to be more on the promotion of
drought-resistant crops as well as the conservation of both soil and water.
At the same time farmers should seek to diversify their sources of income,
rearing more short-cycle livestock, taking advantage of non-timber forest
products and, in some places, developing ecotourism.

The CFSPs will need substantial funding. Much of this can come
through conventional channels of bilateral grants and concessional loans but
it will also be necessary to create new, decentralized mechanisms to offer
community-based initiatives more direct and flexible access to funds.

***

For further information, please call FAO media relations branch tel.:
0039.06.57052232.
For an up-date on the work of the Task Force, visit the ACC Network web site
(http://www.accnetwork.net/hornofafrica).