HUMANITARIAN SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE STILL GRAVE, UN CAUTIONS

With not enough food to feed all 12.5 million Zimbabweans and funding requirements to provide urgently-needed aid only half met, the United Nations humanitarian arm today warned that the situation in the Southern African nation remains acute.

Even with commercial imports, there will be a 180,000 ton cereal deficit for 2009-2010, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.

According to an assessment by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP) and Zimbabwean Government, only 1.4 million tons of cereal will be available domestically, compared to the more than 2 million needed.

Even assuming that 500,000 tons will be imported, there will still be a significant gap, OCHA warned.

The FAO-WFP assessment found that in spite of increased agricultural production this year, with the maize crop to have more than doubled, high food insecurity persists in Zimbabwe.
This year's abundant rainfall has resulted in the amount of maize harvested – 1.14 metric tons – recording a 130 per cent increase over 2008.
But study warned that this winter's wheat harvest is only expected to yield 12,000 tons, the lowest ever, due to the high cost of fertilizers and seeds, farmers' lack of funds and the unreliable electricity supply for irrigation.
Some 600,000 households will also be receiving agricultural help – supplied by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and funded by 10 donors – in the form of seeds, legumes and fertilizer, OCHA said today.

FAO suggested that additional resources be channeled into providing top-dressing fertilizer, which is needed later than at seed planting, but cautioned that it must reach farmers before the end of this November.

Only 47 per cent of the $718 million needed to assist Zimbabwe, less than half has been committed to date, OCHA noted.

The funds are intended to boost access to clean water for 6 million people, feed nearly 3 million people and assist 1.5 million children in getting educations.

Currently, 22,000 children under the age of five in Zimbabwe are in need of being treated for severe acute malnutrition, while maternal and child under-nutrition is largely responsible for over 12,000 deaths, or one-third, of all deaths of all under-five children.

OCHA reported today that while no cholera cases or deaths from the disease have been reported in the country since early last month, nearly10,000 cumulative cases and over 4,200 deaths have occurred.

Aid agencies have been preparing for another outbreak by pre-positioning emergency kits around the country.
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NEW UN-BACKED REPORT FINDS DECLINING FUNDING LEVELS FOR HIV VACCINE RESEARCH

A new United Nations-backed report on investment in HIV prevention research in 2008 finds that funding levels for a possible vaccine for the virus have decreased for the first time since investment trends have been tracked.

The report – "Adapting to Realities: Trends in HIV Prevention Research Funding 2000 to 2008" –notes that this trend may have been influenced by shifts in scientific priorities, the global economic downturn and competition for various health issues.

Despite the decrease, the overall trend since 2000 has been of greater investment for experimental biomedical prevention strategies, adds the report, prepared by the HIV Vaccine and Microbicide Resource Tracking Working Group, of which the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) is a member.

It identifies investments of almost $1.2 billion in HIV prevention research in 2008, of which $868 million supported vaccine research and development (R&D), and $244 million supported microbicide R&D.

The United States was once again the leader in funding HIV prevention research, supporting 71 per cent of HIV vaccine R&D and 63 per cent of microbicide R&D in 2008. "A decrease in investment from the US National Institutes of Health contributed to the overall decline of funding for HIV vaccine R&D," states a news release published by UNAIDS on the report.

In addition to the $39 million decline in US investment, there was also a decrease in funding for HIV vaccine research from other countries, including from European governments, Brazil, Canada, India, South Africa and Thailand.

A recent report from UNAIDS and the World Bank warned that the well-being of millions of people could be put at risk as HIV prevention and treatment programmes fall victim to funding cutbacks as a result of the global economic crisis.

It found that eight countries – which together are home to more than 60 per cent of all those receiving AIDS treatment – are already facing shortages of antiretroviral drugs or other disruptions to treatment.

In addition, 34 out of the 71 surveyed countries report that HIV prevention programmes focusing on high-risk groups such as sex workers, injection drug users and men who have sex with men are already feeling the impact of the crisis.

Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, said research to develop new HIV prevention tools and strategies is essential to prevent new infections, and an HIV vaccine still holds "the greatest hope" to ending the epidemic. "It is vitally important that investments into research for HIV prevention be sustained and increased for as long as it takes to reach those goals."

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LACK OF FUNDING FORCES UN FOOD AGENCY TO DOWNSIZE OPERATIONS IN DPR KOREA

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced today that it is being forced to scale back its emergency operation to reach six million hungry and vulnerable people in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) due to a severe lack of funding.

At a press briefing in the Chinese capital, Beijing, today, the agency said that of the $504 million needed for the programme, only $75 million has been received so far.

Amir Abdulla, WFP Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, said that the agency is currently reviewing the terms and conditions under which the scheme is providing food to the hungry.

"We need to make sure that any terms agreed to do not compromise our accountability," he said.

A joint report by WFP and the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) released last December estimated that nearly nine million people could be hungry due to a shortage in cereals in the DPRK in 2009.

Even with commercial imports, DPRK will face a cereal deficit of over 800,000 tons, according to the FAO/WFP Crop and Food Security Assessment Mission, the first such comprehensive mission conducted since 2004.
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UN HEALTH AGENCY URGES GREATER FUNDING FOR DISPLACED IN PAKISTAN

Extra funding is urgently needed to strengthen disease control efforts, re-stock rapidly dwindling supplies of essential drugs and improve access to reproductive health services in north-western Pakistan, where some 2 million people have been uprooted by violence, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) says.

Eric Laroche, WHO's Assistant Director-General for Health Action in Crises, warned today that the agency could run out of supplies of some key drugs within two or three weeks without an injection of funding.

Dr. Laroche is currently in Pakistan to assess the situation and support the agency's efforts to bring relief to civilians in North West Frontier Province (NWFP).

Fierce fighting between Government forces and armed militants, especially in the Swat Valley, have displaced waves of people this year, and left UN agencies scrambling to assist.

Dr. Laroche said that while he has been impressed by the level of services he has seen inside camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), he remains concerns about the vast majority of displaced who are now living with host communities in Pakistani towns and villages.

"The problem is, how we can reach these people," Dr. Laroche said in an interview with UN Radio. "How can we make sure these people are going to be served the proper way?"

Dr. Laroche said it was vital to reinforce existing support structures and therefore to increase the number of health-care and other workers who can help the displaced, particularly women.

The Assistant Director-General noted that ethnic Pashtun women prefer not to be treated by male doctors or medical staff.

"Therefore we need to have other women, Pashtun women doctors, Pashtun women workers, health workers, to be taking care of them… This is a major challenge."

But he stressed that a lack of donor support for the health response to the situation in north-western Pakistan is particularly worrying.

"We have gotten only 27 per cent of what we were asking for. And what we are asking for is not even 10 per cent of the overall [total]. We are asking for $4 million."
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UN FOOD AGENCY WARNS G8 MINISTERS OF UNPARALLELED HUNGER CRISIS AS FUNDING FALLS

UN FOOD AGENCY WARNS G8 MINISTERS OF UNPARALLELED HUNGER CRISIS AS FUNDING FALLS
New York, Jun 12 2009 10:00AM
The head of the United Nations World Food Programme (<"http://www.wfp.org/">WFP) today warned that the poor and hungry around the world are facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, while global food aid has hit a 20 year low.

WFP Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, urged development ministers of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations meeting in Italy today to support the agency – which depends entirely on voluntary donations – in its efforts to help some of the world's hungriest survive.

"With one in six people going hungry, one child dying every six seconds, and 80 per cent of Sub-Saharan African countries facing higher food prices than a year ago, the poor and the hungry are facing one of the biggest crises in our lifetimes," said Ms. Sheeran.

Underscoring the permanent impact that hunger has on children, she said that the world risks losing a generation unless they have adequate access to nutrition during this crisis.

She added that hunger can also lead to dangerous destabilization, and impact global peace and security, saying that "without food people revolt, migrate, or die."

"None of these are acceptable options," she said.

In a message directed at the G8 meeting, Ms. Sheeran said that at "this moment of
dramatically growing need, it would be wrong to cut our funding."

On top of the mounting humanitarian crisis, WFP said earlier this week that it is suffering a funding shortfall of almost $450 million needed for the next six months to continue feeding the hungry in the Horn of Africa region where it is aiding some 17 million hungry people and numbers are expected to rise.
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URGENT FUNDING NEEDED TO AVERT WORSENING MALNUTRITION, DISEASE IN SOMALIA

URGENT FUNDING NEEDED TO AVERT WORSENING MALNUTRITION, DISEASE IN SOMALIA
New York, Feb 25 2009 7:00PM

Without an immediate infusion of funding, the already grave malnutrition and disease levels in Somalia will worsen, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cautioned today.

In an alert to donors, the Office highlighted the need for assistance for emergency nutrition as well as Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programmes in two regions in north and central Somalia.

The nutrition situation is critical in Gedo and Central regions, and has been exacerbated by limited funding and a water shortage.

Both areas have reached Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rates above the 15 per cent emergency threshold, topping 20 per cent in some parts.

OCHA warned that more people could become vulnerable to water-borne diseases, which are responsible for 20 per cent of deaths among children under the age of five in the Horn of Africa nation. More than one-quarter of the over 200,000 acutely malnourished children are in need of immediate treatment to survive.

Over $20 million is required for nutrition needs for the next four months, while $6 million is needed for WASH needs, including improving emergency water and sanitation services.

Last month, a UN analysis found that more than three million people in Somalia, a third or more of the total population, will remain dependent on humanitarian assistance this year.

The country, which has been riven by factional fighting and has not had a functioning central government since 1991, witnessed several encouraging developments over the past month, including the election of the country's new President and the creation of an enlarged Parliament.
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