BENIN: UN AGENCIES INCREASE ASSISTANCE IN WAKE OF FLOODS

United Nations humanitarian agencies have stepped up their relief efforts in the West African country of Benin, where more than 20,000 people have been displaced or affected and numerous farms destroyed by floods.

Mosquito nets, water purification tablets, blankets, tents and mats are being distributed and assistance is being provided with water and sanitation and with maternal health care in the wake of the floods.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) is providing 3,000 chlorine tablets for water treatment and 1,000 mosquito nets, and is also funding a health awareness campaign and water and sanitation activities, UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told journalists today.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has also donated blankets, nets, mats and tents, while the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) plans to spend up to $100,000 on health care.

A UN Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team is in the country to help local authorities deal with the floods, which follow some of the heaviest rainfall in Benin – beset by floods every wet season – in recent years. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) is also spending $100,000 to coordinate the overall relief effort.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was also monitoring the situation, particularly to ensure that widespread outbreaks of meningitis do not occur.

The bands of rain have moved northwards across Benin in recent days, with flood waters subsiding in the southern cities of Cotonou and Porto Novo and heavy rains and high rains in the north.
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UN EXPERTS PREDICT BETTER SEEDS CAN HELP BENIN BECOME SELF-SUFFICIENT IN RICE

Experts from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are predicting that Benin could one day become self-sufficient in rice and even export its surplus output through the intensified production and marketing of high quality seeds.

A $500,000 FAO project, due to begin in September 2009, seeks to help the small West African nation achieve the goal of producing 300,000 tonnes of rice – more than double the current output – by 2011.

To do that, Benin will have to produce more than 2,200 tonnes of high quality rice seeds each year, the agency said in a news release.

The project encourages the production of high quality seeds while facilitating access to them by farmers. FAO says an increase in production of high quality rice seeds should result in enough output to cover 70 per cent of domestic demand.

Currently, domestic rice output is "far from able to satisfy the ever-growing demand" not only in Benin but also in other parts of West Africa. FAO figures show that West African rice imports reached 6 million tonnes in 2001 and this is likely to rise to 11 million tonnes by 2010.

Exploiting Benin's rice production potential, say the experts, will not only enable the country to satisfy local demand but will also enable it to export surplus output to sub-regional and regional markets.

"If Benin exploited its full rice production potential, the net gain would be more than $55 million," according to the news release. Increased revenues would also lead to better livelihoods for farmers and would make local rice cultivation production more competitive.
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BENIN: UN ACTIVATES HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE AS HEAVY FLOODS TAKE TOLL

United Nations humanitarian agencies operating in Benin are conducting rapid assessments to determine how they can best assist the thousands of people caught up in the heavy floods that have struck the West African country.

At least 20,000 people are estimated to have been displaced or otherwise affected by the floods, with the area around Cotonou, the commercial capital, and along the entire southern coastline among the hardest hit regions.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported today that it has deployed emergency staff to Benin to ensure that priority needs in health, shelter and water and sanitation are being met.

The World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) are all taking part in preliminary assessments to ascertain the most immediate needs of the population.

Benin is beset by flooding almost every year at this time because of the annual rainy season. But this year's inundations have been so severe this year that the Government has imposed a state of emergency.
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STEPS TO BOOST FOOD SECURITY SHOULD BENEFIT BENIN’S MOST VULNERABLE – UN EXPERT

An independent United Nations human rights expert has welcomed Benin's efforts to boost food security, while stressing that they should not only increase production but also improve the lives of the country's most vulnerable.

Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, focused his 11 to 20 March visit on the situation of three vulnerable groups: small farmers, the urban poor and detainees. Small farmers, the largest of the three in terms of size, deserved particular attention, according to a news release issued at the end of his visit.

His visit took place as strategies are being devised to revitalize the country's agriculture as well as for rural land reform. In addition, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is entering the final phase of negotiation of an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union.

Mr. De Schutter welcomed the "significant" efforts by the Government to strengthen food security, particularly in anticipation and reaction to the increase in food prices in early 2008.

He also welcomed the plans to revitalize agriculture, and hailed the decision to place agriculture at the centre of the country's development.

"The Special Rapporteur highlights that the agricultural revitalization should achieve not only an increase in total production thus allowing the country to be less dependent on imports due to a diversification gained from food crops, but in particular it should lead to an improvement in the enjoyment of the right to food of the most vulnerable," according to a news release.

In addition to the plight of small farmers, the urban poor and detainees, Mr. De Schutter said that the situation of women and their access to productive resources should be a priority, adding that proposed land reform measures will have an important impact on these groups.

He noted that their situation should also be taken into account when evaluating Benin's entry into regional and international markets.

Over the course of his 10-day visit, the Special Rapporteur met with Government officials, the judiciary, officials dealing with the issue of food security, UN agencies and aid organizations. He also talked with farmers and their families, researchers and members of civil society to better understand the food situation in the West African country.

Mr. De Schutter, who, like all Special Rapporteurs, carries out his work in an unpaid capacity, will submit a full report on his visit to Benin to the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.
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MASSIVE UN POLIO IMMUNIZATION CAMPAIGN UNDERWAY IN WEST AFRICA

MASSIVE UN POLIO IMMUNIZATION CAMPAIGN UNDERWAY IN WEST AFRICA
New York, Feb 27 2009 2:00PM

Some 53 million children under the age of five, including every girl and boy in Nigeria, have been targeted by a mass polio immunization campaign across West Africa, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced today.

The door-to-door polio eradication drive is planned to sweep through eight countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Togo, and Nigeria, aiming to reach every child even in the remotest of areas.

The campaign, employing 162,000 trained immunizers, will attempt to stop last year's outbreak which hit northern Nigeria and spread to six countries in West Africa after the wild polio virus had already re-infected Niger in 2007, as well as Chad and Cameroon in Central Africa.

"The highest priority was to reach every child in Nigeria, which was one of the four endemic countries, and in the high-risk areas across the region," said Miranda Eeles, a spokesperson for UNICEF.

The total cost of the campaign is $29 million for the seven countries, with an additional $38 million for Nigeria, including the cost of the vaccine, operational costs, social mobilization and surveillance.

The campaign, which kicked off today and started earlier this month in Ghana, involves the health ministries of all the countries, as well as support from UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Rotary International, among others. It is being organized as part of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

Contracted through contaminated food, water and faeces, polio is a highly infectious and incurable viral disease, which mainly affects children under five, attacking the nervous system. One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis, usually in the legs, and among those paralyzed, five to 10 per cent die when their respiratory muscles become immobilized.
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