Food |
Over hundred million people are facing food insecurity with some on the brink of famine, says Daniel Gustafson, deputy director of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. Helping people feed themselves is key.
DW: The
United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and other
organizations issued a report in March that about 110 million people are
on the brink of a food crisis or even worse in Africa. How has the
situation developed in the last six month?
Daniel Gustafson:
The situation in essentially all of the countries that were highlighted
as being in a severe crisis situation continues. Somalia, South Sudan,
Syria, Yemen and northern Nigeria - all of them have a very large number
of people essentially on the brink of collapse even with humanitarian
assistance.
That means appeals to the international community to do something have not bore fruit so far?
There has been a considerable outpouring of support from donor countries, but not at the level that was requested.
The scale of the
crises in those countries is really quite staggering relative to what
we've seen in normal years even with the effects of drought and El Nino
and so on, exacerbated by conflict and a number of the countries that we
see like Yemen and Syria for example.
I understand FAO is
for example trying to help in the Lake Chad region with projects to
make people able to feed themselves. How is that progressing?
The main objective
for us is together with other partners of course to build resilience of
households and communities to be able to withstand the impact of drought
and other unexpected shocks to the system.
We hope we can do
that during the relief operations in a way that protects the livelihoods
of the farmers. This is especially true for pastoralists to keep the
livestock alive.
That is what we see
for example in Somalia, South Sudan and elsewhere - that we need to
protect the assets, to protect the livelihoods of the people so that
they are able to continue producing food.
Even if you look
for example at Syria: with the crisis that's been going on for years
still 40 percent of Syria's food is produced locally - which is kind of
astonishing to a lot of people if you think that country has ended and
collapsed. But we need to maintain the livelihoods of the pastoralists
and the farm families.
You are
here in Brussels to have a strategic dialogue with the European Union.
What are your requests or demands? What should the EU do which always
tells us the EU is already the biggest donor in the world?
We are here to talk
about our partnership. We do get a lot of funding from the EU, they are
among our largest voluntary contributors. But in fact we are partners
in a number of ways.
A big part of the
discussion is how we support countries in understanding their
commitments, understanding implementation and helping them in
implementation of commitments on climate change, forestry, soil
degradation and fisheries.
There are a lot of
international regulatory agreements on food safety and illegal fishing.
There are lots of things where we collaborate quite closely in helping
countries on their side and on our side through the offices that we have
in the countries and through the delegations that the EU has.
Of course we
appreciate enormously the financial contributions from the EU for the
work that we do. But a lot of the dialogue is in fact about how we work
together in addition to funding.
What about
other major donors? Is the new American administration - the Trump
administration - breaking away when it comes to financing the FAO?
So far we have not
had any reduction in US funding. There are statements from US President
Donald Trump on wanting to pay a lower share of the UN budget. Part of
that of course is done through what are called assessed contributions
where each member country has an obligation to pay according to the size
of their income and population. And that's a table that is fixed and
that is not so easy to change.
What is easier to
change would be the voluntary contributions for projects and there so
far we have not seen a reduction. There is a big debate in US Congress
which is the one that appropriates the funds on whether or not to cut
funding at all. And we'll see how that plays out.
From some of these
countries now the refugees who are coming to Europe are passing through
Nigeria and Libya. EU policymakers say we have to cope with that in the
countries of origin. If you look at these countries, which are under
stress because they have so many internally displaced persons, do you
understand what the EU is really talking about and looking for?
I think so. The
complexity I think really is on the migration side. Very often the
people who are migrating to Europe have already gone through several
internal migrations. And what we really need is peace and stability and
improved livelihood conditions so that people remain in place.
The issue however
is how to keep them on the land over the long term and also to help
countries in Africa in particular who have themselves absorbed a huge
number of migrants.
We look at the case
of Uganda which is probably the leader on this and has given land plots
to incoming South Sudanese refugees. Uganda is providing support to
both the host communities and to the migrants who are coming in. That is
a really fascinating approach that needs international support - it's
getting some international support, [but] it needs more.
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