MALNUTRITION: MADAGASCAR: Fears of another locust plague

9 September 2010 (IRIN) -
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned of an "imminent and severe threat from the increasing number of swarms of Migratory Locusts" in Madagascar, requiring "immediate response assistance to prevent a humanitarian disaster". "There is a likelihood of extensive breeding ... Should that occur, Madagascar will experience one of the most severe locust outbreaks in recent years, and will need to launch large-scale control interventions through mid-2011," the FAO said. The warning was issued at an Emergency Assistance to Locust Control meeting on 8 September in the capital, Antananarivo, a few days after an Emergency Transboundary Outbreak Pest (ETOP) Situation Report for August with a Forecast till mid-October, was published by USAID. Dealing with the locust threat will cost about US$14.5 million; so far $4.7 million has been received from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and $490,000 from the FAO Technical Cooperation Emergency programme. Annie Monard, the Rome-based FAO locust officer who will be arriving in Madagascar in the next few days, told IRIN that the indicators were of "serious concern", as the locust population was "so high" that they had been able to "escape the traditional area" [in southwestern Madagascar] and swarms had been observed along the east coast and in the whole mid-west. A four-year locust plague ended in 2000, when only the far north of the world's fourth biggest island was spared from invasion by the Malagasy Migratory Locust (Locusta migratoria capito), and even the east coast, usually considered too humid, was affected. This insect can produce a new generation almost every two months, and consumes roughly its own weight in vegetation - about two grams - every day. Monard said that while travelling in a helicopter in 1998 she looked down on a swarm covering an area about 30 km by 70 km. "It was like a huge cloud moving over the whole plain." Undetected The build-up of locusts occurred undetected during the previous rainy seasons (from October to April) while the capacity of the government's Locust Control Centre (CNA) was weakened as a result of the socio-political situation in the country, said an FAO document, Emergency assistance to locust control in Madagascar. Madagascar has been enmeshed in a political crisis since 17 March 2009, with foreign aid cut to emergency humanitarian assistance, and only if justifiable, since the "illegal" transfer of power in which President Marc Ravalomanana stepped down in favour of opposition leader Andry Rajoelina. The current prevailing dry, cool weather is unsuitable for breeding, but with the onset of the rains and higher temperatures, rapid reproduction occurs. As population density increases, the insects undergo behavioural and physical changes from solitary to gregarious, forming swarms that devastate crops - every million locusts eats one ton of food. "The recently reported swarms outside their outbreak area indicate a major upsurge is on the rise. Past experience demonstrates that a plague could evolve if the locust population remains unchecked at this stage. The ensuing plague would persist for many years, with devastating consequences for food security," said the FAO emergency assistance document. "Currently immature locust swarms will mature and start breeding at the onset of the next rainy season, and concentrations of wingless young locusts (hopper bands) will develop from October to December 2010. These bands will attack primarily the eastern parts of the outbreak area, which will receive the first rains. However, they will also affect the mid-west, which has been already invaded by swarms." Monard said surveys and preparations had been undertaken since July this year to begin a spraying campaign ahead of the onset of the rains, using "three families of pesticides" to keep the insects in check. Three families of pesticides Conventional pesticides will protect threatened crops, Insect Growth Regulators will control hoppers [wingless locusts], and biological pesticides will be applied in ecologically sensitive areas, such as "natural reserves, national parks and populated areas", the FAO document said. Spraying an estimated 500,000 hectares would take place when the locust populations were most vulnerable, and they "are not yet winged and less mobile, are marching, and at their most sensitive to pesticides," Monard commented. However, equipment had to be pre-positioned ahead of the rains, as the roads to many areas threatened by locusts would become impassable during the rainy season, the FAO said. FAO noted in its August Locust Response report that "The livelihoods of the rural communities, already precarious especially in the Great South [of Madagascar], are under immediate locust threat." Around 70 percent of Madagascar's roughly 20 million people live below the poverty line, and 50 percent of children under the age of five are malnourished. Up to 52 communes in the region are predicted to be food insecure by the end of 2010, and 10 of these - containing around 100,000 people - are seen as acutely food insecure, according to an evaluation by the World Food Programme in July 2010. All the food insecure communes are threatened by locust swarms. The CNA said more than 460,000 rural households, or 2.3 million people, would be affected by locust invasions, and potential crop losses could amount to at least $135 million.

MALNUTRITION: CHAD: Malnutrition outstrips response

DAKAR, 24 August 2010 (IRIN) - In parts of Chad acute malnutrition levels far exceed the international emergency threshold, according to a new study - fallout, partly, from crop failure hitting already fragile communities where access to basic health services is low and aid agencies are scarce. The study, by Action contre la Faim (ACF) along with the government, donors and UN agencies, showed that in Nokou and Mao in the western Kanem region, acute malnutrition strikes 27.2 percent and 21 percent of under-five children, respectively. The figures for severe acute malnutrition - which commonly results in death if untreated - are 6.4 and 4.7 percent. The highest numbers are in the central-west Barh El Gazel region, where 28.1 percent of children are acutely malnourished - 10.4 percent severe. Even in a part of the world where periods of grave hunger are common, the recent survey numbers shock, Cyprien Fabre, head of the West Africa office of the European Commission's humanitarian aid department (ECHO), told IRIN. "In the Sahel [region of Africa] we always have high malnutrition rates during the lean season, above the World Health Organization emergency threshold of 15 percent," he told IRIN. "But when we see numbers like 27 and 28 percent, it's appalling." Of the roughly 102,000 children nationwide classified as having severe acute malnutrition, about half are in Chad's Sahel band - a semi-arid zone some 500km wide stretching from near the capital N'djamena to the border with Sudan, according to UN Children's Fund (UNICEF). Malnutrition rates are higher than in neighbouring Niger, another West African country where poor food and fodder production from 2009 has destabilized agro-pastoralist communities who already live on next to nothing during lean seasons. In Chad, UNICEF says, under-nutrition is also due to poor access to health services and safe drinking water, inappropriate infant feeding practices and a lack of trained staff in hard-hit areas. Malnutrition has been above the 15 percent threshold in Chad for a decade, according to UNICEF. Kalzeubé Payimi Deubet, governor of Barh El Gazel, lives about 100m from the main regional hospital. He says he sees malnourished children daily. "It is difficult just being in that atmosphere," he told IRIN. "You have little children, their skin just sagging over bones - nothing but skin and bones."Response, but not enough While aid groups have been operating for years in eastern Chad, where over 400,000 Darfur refugees and displaced Chadians live, humanitarian agencies are scarce in the rest of the country. UNICEF has long pointed to the lack of aid partners as a barrier to tackling acute malnutrition in Chad. From January to May 6,508 children were treated at UNICEF-supported therapeutic feeding centres in the Barh El Gazel and Kanem regions, according to UNICEF. The recovery rate at outpatient therapeutic feeding centres was 88 percent; in inpatient feeding centres the rate was lower and varied widely - from 16 percent to 75 percent. UNICEF says this is due in part to the lack of centres for severe cases (Barh El Gazel, population 260,865, has just one); in many cases children are simply arriving too late. Malnourished children with other health complications receive medical treatment in addition to therapeutic feeding. For severe acute malnutrition children receive foods like special fortified milk several times a day and are closely monitored by health staff. Some children can be treated at home with nutrient-dense, ready-to-eat Plumpy'nut, with regular checks. Barh El Gazel governor Kalzeubé told IRIN children in many of the region's villages are simply not being reached, even for detecting under-nutrition. "We do not have the means to diagnose and treat all children." ACF operates 33 nutritional centres in Kanem and Barh El Gazel - expected to reach 43 in the coming months, with one mobile clinic - according to ACF head in Chad Jean-François Carémel. Some areas with high malnutrition are supported by Médecins Sans Frontières and other NGOs, but "the system is not covering all the needs," Carémel told IRIN. He said government health structures are "weak" with a lack of skilled staff and quality care. Under a just-revised national protocol for treating malnutrition - to reflect changed World Health Organization standards - more children would be classified as needing treatment, which will only underscore the deficiencies of the health system, ACF says. Funding shortfall The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Chad said the nutrition response needed more aid workers and more dollars. "We received US$3.8 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) early in the year for this crisis but much remains to be done," said OCHA humanitarian affairs officer David Cibonga. "We need more aid groups to fill coverage gaps. At the same time we need more funds; the UN consolidated appeal for Chad is funded at only 50 percent." OCHA is seeking another $8 million from CERF. Parallels with Niger 2005 Patricia Hoorelbeke, ACF West Africa representative, said Chad's nutritional situation today is similar to Niger's in 2005, when few humanitarian agencies were in place when a hunger crisis hit. "There is a lack of implementing partners in Chad as was the case in Niger at that time; that's still a major problem." ECHO's Fabre said the comparison is apt. "There is not enough attention [by aid agencies and donors] to the nutritional situation in much of Chad. The problem is overshadowed by the refugee situation in eastern Chad and by Niger." For Nicolas Louis, ECHO's representative in Chad, the "weak humanitarian response" to date has dire consequences: "Quite high morbidity and mortality, as well as potential long-term effects on psychomotor development." He added: "Irregular migration [driven by the crisis] and household debt burden could block some families from restoring their lives and livelihoods, thereby making them more vulnerable to future shocks."

MALNUTRITION MALI: More aid needed for the north

DAKAR, 14 July 2010 (IRIN) - Aid agencies are struggling to meet the food and water needs of people and their livestock in drought-hit Mali, with potentially "catastrophic gaps" in the humanitarian response, according to Oxfam's country head, Gilles Marion. Some 258,000 people are in need of urgent assistance in Mali, according to the government-led early warning mechanism (SAP), with a further 371,000 at risk, following poor rains across the Sahel region. There are severe acute malnutrition rates of 19 percent in some pockets of the northeast, according to Oxfam. Meanwhile, 40 percent of cattle in the north are sick or dead and a further 30 percent at risk of disease or death, according to food security analysts FEWSNET. [http://www.fews.net/docs/Publications/Mali_fsu_2010_06_fr.pdf] Eight out of 10 people in northern Mali raise and breed cattle to survive. "There will be a catastrophe if more people do not respond," Marion told reporters at a press conference in the Senegalese capital, Dakar. The World Food Programme, Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Oxfam, are some of the main actors responding to the crisis in Gao and Kidal. Oxfam has US$6 million - from the UK government, British public, the European Union humanitarian aid office (ECHO) and the US Agency for International Development - to help pastoralists in the north feed their animals, or to use as vouchers to spend on household priorities, whether food, water, animal fodder or medical care. ICRC has distributed food and seeds to 97,000 people in the north, is buying up thousands of cattle at pre-crisis prices, and is putting cash injections into the economy to try to stabilize prices. The government has subsidized cereals and animal fodder since April, and distributed 7,000 tons of food to 23 communes; a further 2,600 tons of grain are on their way. It is also sending 1,100 tons of animal feed to Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu, but "this is not nearly enough to meet all the livestock needs, and some at-risk communes will not receive grain," Madeleine Diallo Ba at the Agriculture Ministry in the capital, Bamako, told IRIN. She is in urgent talks with the World Food Programme (WFP), the European Union and Japan to see if they can release rapid funding to enable the government to procure more. WFP head Alice-Martin Dahirou told IRIN there are enough actors in place but not enough money. "The region is well-served by several NGOs and local associations who could do the job if resources were put at their disposal to support the government services." She added: "It is difficult to determine at this time the additional number of people who need support, in the absence of a comprehensive analysis of the situation." Fragmented responseThe quality of the aid response in the north is being compromised because it is not well-coordinated, said Marion, who called on the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to fulfil this function. Food Commissioner Lansry Nana Yaya Haidara agreed: "Agencies are intervening, but in a fragmented way. We want all partners to start working together towards common goals - that is the only that way we can get tangible results on the ground," he told IRIN. Noel Tsekouras, deputy head of OCHA in West and Central Africa, told IRIN: "OCHA had a presence in Mali from 2005 but was forced to discontinue in 2008 due to financial constraints. As mentioned by Oxfam, there may be a need for the UN to reinforce the cooperation among the key [response] stakeholders." On the financial front, some "encouraging" headway has been made, he said, with emergency activities under way and US$1.5 million provided by the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). However, only 23 percent of the $8.8 million requested by Mali under the West Africa appeal has been funded. "Without more resources, it will be difficult to tackle the acute vulnerabilities being reported," he told IRIN. "The priority at this point is to. assist the government in coordination, and to scale up the response. However, it remains the responsibility of the government to facilitate the short-term response and tackle the longer-term structural causes," said OCHA's Tsekouras.