UN Special No 541 Juin - June 2005

Mrs. Shaver, I would like to start by thanking you on behalf of the Editorial Board for accepting to be interviewed by the UN Special, despite your busy schedule inside and outside the country. How long have you been in Ethiopia? Is this your first assignment in Africa if not in which other African countries were you posted before?
Four years in Ethiopia. This is the fourth African country. In Rome, I worked in the East and Southern Africa Bureau for nine and a half years. I have been posted in Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique and Ethiopia. My experience of 25 years in WFP has been in the continent.

What is your experience about Food Security in these countries? Is there a need for more awareness about the problem of food shortage? Is it getting better or worse?
Unfortunately disasters seem to be increasing and have a direct impact on food security. There may be shorter disasters of flood, drought, which pits? in food security in these countries. Obviously we are better informed. Nutrition has gotten worst. It does not seem to be getting less. A number of these countries have been in conflict. The instability in these countries has been increasing challenges including Ethiopia. I had a lot of hope in Southern Africa, but because of HIV/AIDs it is not getting better.

What are the factors to be taken into account when considering food security in a country?
The access to food, the availability, the production are the factors to take into account. Food security is a very integrated subject. It is not only agriculture; it is education extension services, the role of women which is not always given the importance and HIV/AIDs. It is a very complex area and we do not focus on all of them with the same attention and support. Its dynamic is not appreciated and not given the attention. It is the underlying of economics which is agriculture. The priorities are not always there. Land policy is very controversial. We call it food security, but it should probably be called integrated rural development.

With respect to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG), Africa on the whole has not achieved progress and may be even has experienced significant regress in many areas. Does this regression include food security? If so what do you think are the reasons and the remedies?
MDG is launched in 2000. Many countries have only now completed a review and assessment process. The review process must be completed. It is not only these areas of sectoral assessment that includes food security and in case of Ethiopia, for example it is rural development. There is a need to see cost benefits of achieving the MDG. It is a process which is new and requires a lot of additional resources. When completed, it will lay the review and data contribution. The Secretary General’s report will be issued shortly that will give us a snap shot.

What is the extent of regression in food security, due to poor governance and/or to the policies of the donor communities which are at times blamed for coming to a country with their own pre packaged assistance programmes, which does not always fit with the priorities of the countries?
There is no single answer. First and for most, it is country specific and each country is different. It is retention of donor assistance nor can programmes take place because of conflicts and as a result donors reduce their assistance; or could be a disaster which overrides development programmes. In general donors and governments have joint programmes. Programmes cannot be carried out unless they are government’s. This in line with Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) of countries. Governments are sitting on the driver’s seat leading other actors including NGOs and Civil Society Organizations. This is a very positive approach. It has started joint government/ donor consolidated and harmonized programme which is being operational.
We are not living in the days of people doing their own jobs. It is harmonization of agenda, budget, government procurement, harmonization of reporting, accounting and auditing, harmonized missions, joint missions and joint programming. In Ethiopia, the safety net is a good example of joint programming and joint assessment, sector date programming pre-dated harmonization.

According to the information from the WFP web site, ten million people die every year of hunger and hunger related diseases world-wide. This is, despite the overall increase in food production globally. This kind of imbalance in the world economic order makes you wonder if the policies of trade in the area of food production and processing are somehow responsible for millions of lives perishing every year in the third world countries. What does WFP has to say about this?
Many people advocate that the world trade policies and the economic order are unfair to countries in the developing world, and have called for measures, such as the cancellation of debt to help address this inequality. Poor countries also face structural challenges that keep them developing. We must advocate for clean water and sanitation, proper access to health care and educational facilities – the basic necessities – to be made available to all. These are the sort of interventions that will also help save hunger-related deaths in the world.

During the World Food Summit in 1996, Heads of States and Governments committed themselves to eradicate hunger in all countries, by immediately reducing the number of hungry people by half by 2015. Do you see this commitment being followed through by the economically advanced countries?
Athough progress has been made in the fight against hunger, it remains too slow to meet the internationally accepted target of halving rates of hunger by the year 2015. FAO is worried, that; given the current situation, the target will not be achievable. I think that it has been said before, but for targets to be achieved, bold steps have to be taken. Countries have to dig deep and follow through on their commitments. The costs of action are tiny compared to the long-term costs of inaction.

Some experts and researchers say that chronic hunger and food security is directly linked to poverty. Can you elaborate on this?
Poverty creates not only food insecurity but also health insecurity, education insecurity, etc. Therefore poverty is the cause for all other insecurities and not only food security.

Specific questions on Ethiopia

As you know very well people have the right to food, it is one of the basic human rights. Does WFP has a strategy for food security in Ethiopia or is this exclusively the government’s responsibility? If that is the case, how does WFP involve itself in this area?
The Government establishes its food security strategy, the right to food and access to food. WFP supports the governments programme by prioritizing food for work for soil conservation and watershed management. People who are chronically food-insecure are given food as an incentive within the government’s programme. Activities are based on plans prepared at the community level. We provide technical support on how the work should be carried out, looking at the whole area and at its methodology, we see that the country’s soil conversation are designed in consultation with the community which decides on what is good and bad soil conservation. This approach enables communities to identify their priorities and as a result caring for the land, the use of tree plantation, compost making, and introduction of fruit trees in the country, have more income and prioritize decision making. After three to four years you will see the grass growing, the soils getting better and all of a sudden you are seeing a result more productive land, more food. Such programme has been in existence for 20 years. It covers over a million people and it is nation-wide. The new programme is a step away from food security. It is an incentive which will have a lot of link with other food security activities. The community involvement has been successful and this experience should be replicated in other areas. When draught happens, communities carrying out this programme do not need emergency food assistance.

What is the policy of production and distribution of food in the country?
There are private suppliers who buy from the farmers and bring it to the market. You have also the cooperatives. There is no price setting in this country and it is not a State run monopoly. The Ethiopian Grain Corporation (EGTE) still has a support from the government. You have WFP, European Union (EU), Ethiopian Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission (DPPC) are all buyers. We buy from EGTE or suppliers based on free market. A more marketing surplus is in the Western part and most shortages are in chronic areas which are in the North and South and East. The size of the country and the cost of transportation makes marketing of food supplies more expensive. There is a big project coming up which looks at marketing. The Government is sitting with donors in order to fill this very important gap. It is not enough to produce more and more, you need to get it to the people.

Do you have a system whereby you verify whether the food is reaching the intended people? Who are your partners in this task?
We have several systems. We have computerized system that tracks distributions in the country to the Kebele level. WFP’s food aid is handed to the Government and our partner could be the DPPC. The title of the food is given to the Government and it is the government who is responsible for distribution. But the computer tracking system is installed in all WFP offices. We have 8 sub-offices in the country which do physical monitoring of distributions. We verify the stores; we check with the beneficiaries whether they received the quantity and report back to head office. If there is a problem we go back to the government.
We have also post-delivery monitoring to verify assumptions of programme and planning; we do every year an evaluation. We build information on quantities people are receiving and their nutritional values. These reports are important to readjust our programmes. The monitoring and post-review is useful to
our donors.
We have to report to donors on an annual basis on how the donations are used. All the three pieces of information, i.e., the result of the computerized tracking system, the physical monitoring of distribution and the postdelivery monitoring and evaluations will be included in the report. In addition, we have audit in the office as well as internal and external auditors.

How is the draught situation affecting the people this time?
There was an updated appeal issued for 3.8 million people who require emergency relief assistance for 2005. Assistance will be in food and non-food items. This situation is due to a variety of reasons. One is a delay in the Government/Donor Safety Net Progamme, which is cash and food transfer that should have come in January but started several months later. There was an under funding to an appeal made by the Government and the resources needed for the first three months of the year did not come. This delay caused the population to ask more and increased nutritional need which is caused by lack of food. Also the original appeal beneficiary numbers were under-estimated. The population which requires emergency relief assistance has slightly increased from 3.1 to 3.8 million. Since the last 4 weeks however, we had a good response and this will take of the pressure. Having said this, we do not know how the Belge rains (small rains) will do and whether that will bring the load up or not. Therefore, there is a need for assessment in July. About a million people or so will need an increased assistance.

Where do the people that are most affected live?
They live in the Somali region and in the Northern and Southern parts which are chronically food-insecure areas due to drought and land degradation.

How do you reach the affected people and most important of all how and when do you get your information? Do you always get help on time or only after hundreds of thousands are dead in rural areas, the cities, and towns?
The Government has a very regular assessment and an early warning system. WFP participates in other interrelated groups. We look at each incoming information. There is also an emergency national group which looks from a strategic point. Assessments are made in consultation with the people, after the Belge and Meher rains to see how these benefit the community. You get the information on time, but the time line for getting the resources and distributing on schedule is not certain and this is to the detriment of the people.

Do you rely on the information provided to you by the government or you do your own investigations?
This is all done jointly with the government and in the light of decentralization of the regions of the country. We can contest about the quality of information, that it is over and/or under estimated but otherwise it is a joint process.

Is there a special feeding programme for those affected by HIV/AIDs? If so how many of them benefit from this programme?
It is an urban based programme and the beneficiaries are about 31,000. The government has asked this number to grow. NGOs verify the families.

WFP has a world-wide school feeding programme. Do you have one in Ethiopia and if so who are the beneficiaries and what is the criteria for being accepted?
Yes. They are located in food chronic shortage areas. Right now some 575,000 children are benefiting from the programme. It is gone up in the last couple of years because of the drought in 2003-2004. It covers the chronically food insecure regions.

Is the country’s dependence on food aid increasing or decreasing?
Clearly it has increased because of the drought in 2003-2004. In the history of WFP in Ethiopia, more food aid are provided, more people needed food assistance in 2003-2004 including the food safety net programme. I would say it is increasing but started to level off. We are engaged with the government to actively decrease food dependency for the next 3 years through a system called exit strategy.

Thank you very much and I wish you success in your work.