Tony Gregory
Ceist:237 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs his response to the impending famine in Zimbabwe; and the assistance the Government will make available to help prevent a disaster there. [13599/02]
Written Answers. - Overseas Development Aid.
The Government has been actively responding to the unfolding food crisis in southern Africa which has already had a severe impact on the vulnerable people of Malawi. It continues to threaten millions of others across Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe and is set to worsen in the weeks ahead. An initial allocation of €1.2 million has already been made to help cover immediate needs in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The Government is working closely with its Irish NGO and other implementing partners in building on this initial response. We are also monitoring the situation closely through our missions in Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho and South Africa. The Government's overall response is, therefore, set to deepen considerably during the critical weeks ahead.
This latest food crisis is the outcome of unusually dry climatic conditions which have resulted in crop failure and low crop yields over consecutive growing seasons. It is also being attributed to bad governance and the mismanagement of grain reserves. We are now in a situation where regional grain stocks in southern Africa are exceptionally low, having already been drawn upon to meet last year's shortages. The situation is worsened by the heavy impact which the HIV-AIDS pandemic and recent conflict are already having in the region. A joint assessment mission by the World Food Programme and the Food and Agricultural Organisation estimates that 7.7 million people will require food aid during June to August while 12.8 million will need assistance by March of next year, almost half of them in Zimbabwe. The immediate corn deficit for southern Africa is expected to be in excess of two million tonnes. Ireland is paying particular attention to the situation in Zimbabwe which is expected to account for 56% of the total emergency food aid requirement. That country is particularly ill-equipped to cope with the food emergency due to its protracted political and economic crises. For its part, the European Commission has granted €6.5 million in food aid to Zimbabwe along with an additional 95,000 tonnes of food aid worth €29 million to Malawi.
The Government is working closely with other members of the international community in an effort to adopt clear strategies on how best immediate food needs can be addressed at both the national and regional levels. An EU declaration on the food crisis in southern Africa was successfully tabled by Ireland and unanimously adopted at the EU Development Council in Brussels on 30 May. Ireland also took part in the special regional meeting on humanitarian needs in southern Africa hosted jointly by the WFP and the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Johannesburg on 6-7 June. We have urged a strong and early international response to the crisis at the recent World Food Summit in Rome. I have personally raised the matter with other EU Ministers at the meeting of the General Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 17 June.
The Government will continue to advance the necessary humanitarian responses to this crisis and will support the regional emergency appeal being prepared by the WFP following the special meeting in Johannesburg. We will substantially deepen our support for the vulnerable populations of Zimbabwe and other countries of southern Africa in the critical weeks and months ahead. At the same time, we will seek to ensure that the necessary sectoral, management and other reforms are put in place to address the underlying causes of food insecurity in southern Africa with lasting effect.