asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will outline current developments in world hunger and the on-going steps being taken by (a) Ireland and (b) the EC through the influence of Ireland to alleviate world hunger.
Written Answers. - World Hunger.
19.
All the information from the international organisations most directly involved in the fight against hunger in the world would indicate that the short term food situation is reasonably good following good harvests in many of the most vulnerable areas. As regards emergency aid, the international donor community has successfully concentrated its resources this year on purchasing, transporting, and distributing both imported food aid and stocks purchased locally from surplus areas within recipient countries in those regions where famine continued to be threatened and on providing other forms of emergency relief. As a result the immediate food needs of those threatened regions have been met.
The Government recognises that, while the immediate threat of famine appears to be over the real answer is to help Third World countries, where the threat of famine is prevalent, to develop and to provide for their own food needs. It is for this reason that our Bilateral Aid Programme is concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa, where problems of food insecurity are greatest. In addition to the Bilateral Aid Programme the Government has allocated £300,000 to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a UN body, for an agricultural development programme in sub-Saharan Africa.
Ireland continues to provide milk powder (valued at £903,500 in 1986 and £834,844 in 1985) to the World Food Programme. In addition 4,000 tonnes of wheat valued at £760,000 is provided annually under the Food Aid Convention and also channelled through the World Food Programme. For emergency relief purposes in 1986, the Government has allocated a total of £300,000 for transporting food and for non-food emergency relief in Sudan and Ethiopia including a joint operation with the EC.
As members of the European Community we support its development and food aid policies including emergency food aid. The EC provides more than 20 per cent of all food aid to developing countries. In 1986 a sum equal to IR£464 million is allocated for this purpose. The Community has established an emergency food aid reserve for 1986 equivalent to 386,700 tonnes of cereals. A Commission proposal to provide a similar emergency food aid reserve in the 1987 budget has our support. For longer term development purposes with special emphasis on agriculture and rural development, the Community under the Lome Convention, will provide the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP) with over IR£6 billion in aid in the period up to 1990. Provision is also made for non-ACP developing countries in Asia and Latin America.
In addition to the EC's food aid and development aid, an interim programme known as the Rehabilitation and Revival Plan is being implemented in 1986. Its aim is to help eight of the worst hit African countries to recover from the recent famine, to boost their food production, improve food transportation and distribution facilities and, most important, to develop early warning systems which will facilitate the prediction of future famines in these countries before they occur. To date a total of IR£246 million has been allocated by the Commission and the member states to activities covered by the plan. A further measure in the EC's campaign against famine is the European Plan of Action to Combat Desertification whose object is to maintain and increase the amount of cultivable land in Africa.