Legacy of war, failed harvests combine to erode security

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

JOHANNESBURG-- A WFP food security and livelihoods assessement in the central highlands region of Angola found that 52 percent of children under the age of five suffered from stunting. An estimated 336,000 people were food insecure and chronically food deficient, while 512,000 were "highly vulnerable to food insecurity".

"Although the figures are not high in absolute terms they are relatively high: we're talking about 60,000 [vulnerable] households more or less. The last agricultural season was poor, and it's a densely populated area with lots of returnees, poor soils and few [agricultural] inputs," WFP's Filomena Andrade told IRIN.

Andrade, who worked on the food security and livelihoods assessment, added that "the diversity of income is very low in the central highlands: they rely solely on agriculture and if the agricultural season is poor, then they're really in trouble; they don't have animals, they've got no household assets".

Despite the obvious need in Angola, a funding shortage has forced WFP to reduce both the size of the rations distributed and the number of beneficiaries, including returning refugees.

WFP warned in a statement that "the children of Angola are paying a heavy price for underfunded humanitarian operations across the country, where high malnutrition rates and preventable diseases are taking their toll on the weakest". Nationally at least 45 percent of children were severely malnourished.

"Many international donors think the crisis in Angola is over, but a scenario is emerging that is every bit as destructive for children as the war itself," noted WFP country director Rick Corsino.

He said Angola risked "losing a further generation of children, this time to malnutrition-related diseases like tuberculosis and pellagra, because we do not have enough funding to reach all those who need food assistance."

WFP noted that the central highlands had "one of the highest concentrations of uncleared landmines in the country" and refugees who had returned to their land had been forced to limit agricultural activities, reducing their ability to grow enough food.

"If Angola is ever to get back on its feet, children must have access to education and basic nutrition," Corsino added. "There is much at stake after years of war. Through feeding children in school, WFP is playing a vital role in the resettlement process: families can rebuild their homes and plant crops instead of searching for food."

The incentive of a regular meal was often enough to convince parents to send their children to school because it ensured that the child ate at least one nutritious meal a day, compensating families for the help lost at home.

Primary school enrolment in Angola dropped from 58 percent in 1990 to 30 percent in 2000. In 2003, an estimated half a million Angolan children were out of school and only 40 percent of those attending reached the fifth grade. Adult literacy in Angola was among the lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, with just 42 percent of people able to read and write.

As a result of financial constraints, WFP "can only meet a fraction of the needs. This means more children are at risk of contracting diseases which good nutrition can help prevent," Corsino noted.

WFP needed at least US $30 million to feed up to 700,000 people until the end of 2006. However, the agency has repeatedly been forced to make significant ration cuts, "to the point where full rations are only given to children benefiting from WFP school feeding programmes or people suffering from illnesses such as tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malnutrition".

"Already nearly 400,000 people receiving WFP assistance through food-for-work programmes or resettlement packages have had their rations cut," WFP pointed out.

The food aid agency continued to expand the school feeding programme throughout the country, but the government had pledged support and planned a gradual takeover of the programme.

WFP was feeding 110,000 school children but hoped to expand this to 170,000 by the end of the year, and to double that number over the next 12 months to around 340,000 children.

"We aim to use our limited food stocks to greatest effect for Angola's war-weary," Corsino said. "But a regrettable lack of funds to meet the immense needs, especially among school-age kids, means our activities have to be reduced."