 |  |
 |
| |
|
| STATEMENT OF BRUCE WILKINSON Senior Vice-President for International Programs, World Vision before the INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS COMMITTEEE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES June 13, 2002 I am Bruce Wilkinson, the Senior Vice-President of International Programs for World Vision. I worked in Africa for 17 years, with part of my time spent managing food aid programs, responding to drought and famine. World Vision, founded in 1950, is the largest privately funded humanitarian aid organization in the United States. We are a Christian relief and development agency serving the world’s poorest children and families in nearly 100 countries, with over 14,000 staff worldwide. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to testify before the House International Relations Committee regarding the crisis in the southern Africa Region (“the Region”) that is placing 13 million people in six countries in jeopardy. World Vision operates in all of the affected countries implementing programs that help vulnerable populations improve their food security and livelihoods. We are well-positioned to respond to the famine by enhancing our ongoing development efforts with emergency food aid and by supporting agricultural production to improve prospects for rapid recovery. It is essential that emergency food aid be in addition to regularly programmed PL 480 Title II food aid in order to avoid displacing vital developmental programming that mitigates against emergencies around the world and allows people to improve their health, living conditions, and incomes. Moreover, rather than just relying on the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) to deliver commodities to the Region, it is important that Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs) that have experience, capacity, and programs in the Region also enter into agreements directly with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to bring in food aid for emergency response and to hasten the transition to the recovery phase. Some of the United States food assistance provided by the American people should be distributed by American organizations that are supported by American citizens. This reinforces the message that the United States cares about the needs of other countries. Today, I will summarize the genesis and nature of the crisis in the southern Africa Region, efforts to date to address the crisis, and how USAID and PVOs operating in the Region can most effectively integrate emergency aid with developmental aid in order to assure a more complete recovery and the most effective use of resources. Problem in Region A complex humanitarian crisis is occurring in southern Africa, with nearly 13 million people in need of immediate food assistance. It is estimated that the six affected countries – Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Mozambique – need approximately 1.2 million Metric Tons from now until March 2003. We also cannot forget the country of Angola that needs ongoing assistance. Unfortunately, as is the case with most humanitarian crises, it is the most vulnerable populations – the women, children, the elderly, and especially those affected by HIV/AIDS -- who are at the greatest risk. It is the poorest populations such as subsistence farmers, who even in the best of times suffer the most. The factors that have led to the food security crisis in the Region are numerous and complex, and are both man-made and natural. They include floods, drought, crop failures, chronic problems such as poor health care and sanitary conditions, politics, poor policy decisions, the lack of foreign exchange to import food, and last but certainly not least, alarming and growing prevalence rates of HIV/AIDS that are now approaching over 30% in some of the affected countries. By August and September, the end of winter in southern Africa, it is clear that the total amount of food available locally, as well as that given by donors, will be far from sufficient to ensure that all hungry people throughout the Region receive food. 1.2 million MT is needed immediately. We are prepared to assist and we are assisting. The most severely affected countries are Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. It is already well-known that Malawi is facing its worst hunger crisis in 50 years, affecting almost three-quarters of its 11 million population. World Vision in Malawi estimates that the food deficit of grain for the 2002/2003 consumption year will be 485,000 MT (FAO/WFP, May 2002). 545,000 persons will need emergency food aid between June and August and that number will rise to about 2.1 million between September and November 2002 (WFP/FAO, 2002). Making matters worse, the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Malawi is 16%. In Zimbabwe, disruptions in the farming cycle due to politically motivated land invasions coupled with an inflation rate of around 120% have compounded the situation, as does the fact that one out of every four adults in Zimbabwe is infected with HIV/AIDS. World Vision estimates that 6 million people are in need of food aid, including approximately 705,000 MT of cereals. In Zambia, where the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is 20%, World Vision estimates that approximately 174,000 MT are needed. However, food aid alone is not the answer to the Region’s problems. A failure of governance has exacerbated the problems in the Region and domestic policy adjustments by all countries affected need to be made to correct these systemic problems. Indeed, World Vision deals with these issues regularly as we conduct our programs in the Region. For example, last year World Vision stepped in to purchase and to assure the distribution of seed when the parastatal organization responsible for food security in Zimbabwe failed to function. However, today World Vision is here to share with the Committee the types of assistance the Region needs, rather than to discuss the political situation and governmental institutions. The vulnerable populations in the Region need more than just calories over the next few months. Integrated with the provision of emergency food aid must be developmental and emergency assistance to assure that families have the necessary agricultural inputs to sow the next harvest in order to avoid the continuance of the agricultural disaster. World Vision and other PVOs are already engaged in helping subsistence farmers under regular development assistance programs and these can be adjusted to meet the special and critical needs during this famine. HIV/AIDS is steadily reducing the number of individuals to carry out agricultural tasks, which makes it important to increase access to agricultural technologies that are both cost and labor saving. We recognized that this crisis was coming last year and actually started to adjust our plans at that time. Equally important is to continue and to increase efforts during this crisis to assure households access to health care, training on proper nutrition and hygiene, and access to clean water. A recent Nutrition Survey conducted by World Vision in Zimbabwe revealed that one out of four children is chronically malnourished with implications for learning ability and future development. Also, children are seriously at-risk for preventable infections. We recognize that when famine occurs, it is easy to lose sight of developmental goals for a country. This is a mistake. World Vision’s experience in Zambia demonstrates the need, even in times of famine, for interventions to assist smallholder farmers who are deeply entrenched in poverty and where HIV/AIDS continues to reduce the number of individuals to undertake agricultural tasks. “The African continent south of the Sahara is dominated by agriculture. 50 million families derive their livelihood from farming. The vast majority of these farms cover an area of less than 5 ha and are hand-tilled.”(1) In Zambia, many farmers are unable to purchase fertilizers and lack markets for their produce. This in turn causes agricultural productivity to decline and farmer incomes to remain low. To help address this, World Vision (supported by USAID) entered into partnership with ICRAF (The International Center for Research in Agroforestry) and the Ministry of Agriculture in 1999 to improve soil fertility. The strategy applied was the dissemination of short-term agroforestry options (which are in harmony with the environment) to farmers, targeting approximately 12,000 resource poor farm households in five districts of eastern Zambia over a five year period. As of April 2002, three years into the project, 15,000 smallholder farmers had taken up at least one improved fallow technology and the number of fields with an improved fallow crop was 20,000 indicating some farmers had adopted more than one technology. Now, when many farmers in Zambia are facing a serious food deficit, there is general affirmation that the farmers who took on agroforestry have produced enough food, even in the face of a severe drought. There have been significant yield increases of approximately 3.47 ton/ha as opposed to 1.3 tons/ha for farmers who neither applied agroforestry or inorganic fertilizer.(2) Fortunately, these development programs were being supported by USAID, which helped to mitigate against and prevent the worst impacts of famine on highly vulnerable populations. This is just one of the important opportunities provided by ongoing programming for development. As we face this crisis, we must think of similar development strategies to avoid perpetuation of the emergency, to restore families to levels of production and incomes that can support their families, and to make more effective use of food aid resources than just short-term donations to relieve immediate need. Donor Response to Date The purpose of food aid in emergencies is to sustain life and to eliminate the need for people to resort to selling assets needed for survival and recovery. Early provision of assistance also prevents the movement of people in search of food and the development of displaced persons camps, where there is an increase in economic and social instability and also where disease can readily spread, and resettlement and recovery become more difficult and more expensive. Thus, it is important to be prepared to respond quickly to avoid the worst impacts and to save lives. World Vision would like to commend USAID for its responsiveness in sending 33,230 MT of maize, beans, and oil to the Region in May and for prepositioning food for quicker access and transport. We understand that in total, USAID has either shipped or prepositioned 132,000 MT, and that the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust has been activated with a commitment of 275,000 MT. While this response is positive, it is far short of the 1.2 million MT that are needed immediately. Also, USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance needs to support the emergency response with appropriate financial resources. World Vision would also like to thank WFP for its continued partnership, particularly in response to this crisis. World Vision Response As with many other international aid organizations, World Vision is responding to the crisis, and is providing emergency relief as well as ongoing development support. We believe that it is critical for PVOs working in the areas to have emergency food aid agreements so we can most economically and effectively reach populations that are very vulnerable, including many people who live in regions where we currently work. PVOs have long-term relationships with communities, networks, and governments. PVOs also have distribution systems that can add emergency food aid to ongoing development efforts, as well as continue development efforts that are essential for recovery. In southern Africa World Vision works in all six of the affected countries implementing multi-sectoral programming focused on transformational development. World Vision uses Area Development Programs (ADPs) as a part of our worldwide strategy for child-focused, multi-sectoral programming, addressing the needs of targeted communities over a period of 10-15 years. Programs are funded by multiple donors including private child sponsors, bi-lateral government donors such as USAID, AUSAID, or CIDA, multi-lateral donors, private special donors, and foundations. In all six countries, World Vision has been distributing food assistance, but the food resources and the cash necessary to cover transportation/distribution costs in order to effectively manage and monitor the food aid is limited. Importantly as early as June of last year, World Vision conducted food security assessments in Zimbabwe and was already gearing up for a humanitarian crisis. World Vision assisted the Government of Zimbabwe’s seed parastatal in an attempt to ensure that seeds would be available for small-scale farmers. Also, an emergency food proposal was submitted to USAID in August of 2001, and approval was received from USAID in March 2002. World Vision is the only American PVO with an emergency food pipeline from USAID into the Region. We are approved to assist approximately 100,000 people with 14,310 MT of soy fortified cornmeal, kidney and pinto beans, and vegetable oil. Our first shipment with approximately 7,000 has arrived in Durban, South Africa. While there have been problems with importation requirements, particularly regarding the importation of genetically modified commodities due to concerns expressed by the Government of Zimbabwe, World Vision to date has been able to work with the Government of Zimbabwe’s requirements. We are working to ensure that proper testing of the commodities occurs so that it is clear that the commodity transported into the country is of high quality and does not pose any harm to the people it is intended to assist. World Vision is also distributing WFP food aid in four districts to assist 156,000 people. Recommendations Despite the good efforts of the United States Government in the emergency response, there are critical issues that still need to be addressed. We make the following recommendations to the Committee for your consideration: 1. This Administration must make additional emergency food aid available to respond to the crisis in southern Africa. The Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust should be used and the CCC Charter Act Authority should be used to replenish the Trust. Title II PL 480 development funding must not be used. World Vision is pleased that the Administration has decided to use 275,000 MT of the commodities in the Trust, an emergency reserve that currently holds 2.5 MMT of commodities to respond to the famine. The Coalition for Food Aid (3) of which World Vision is a member, also agrees that the Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust be used. However, much more will be needed over the next few months and we urge the Administration to use the full amount allowed under the law. Also, it is necessary to assure that the Trust will be replenished without depleting funds for other food aid programs. In particular, this crisis should not reduce existing or future PL 480 funds. It appears that USAID has already decided that about 50% of Title II will be used for emergency programs. (Under PL 480, there is a 75% nonemergency requirement for Title II programs.) This will be devastating to programming worldwide where malnutrition rates are high and agricultural production low. For example, programs in countries such as Guatemala, Sierra Leone, and Angola could be cut. When famine occurs in one part of the world it is easy to forget other parts of the world until a crisis unfolds there, too. At that point, we are too late. The Bill Emerson Humanitarian Trust may hold up to 4 million metric tons of wheat, rice, corn or sorghum, or any combination of these commodities. Rather than waiving the 75% non-emergency requirement under PL 480 Title II, up to 500,000 MT tons of wheat or the equivalent value of another commodity, including processed products, can be provided from the Trust for emergency assistance in any fiscal year. If all or part of the 500,000 metric tons is not used in a fiscal year, the remaining amount can be added to the 500,000 metric tons for the next fiscal year. This reserve has rarely been used for emergencies since its inception in 1980 as a wheat reserve. There are problems with repayment and replenishment of the Trust. If food is withdrawn, the Trust has to be repaid for commodities used. The Administration will encumber future PL 480 funds for repayment, cutting back on the amount of food aid that can be provided through PL 480 in later years. Further, the law only allows $20 million received as repayment in any fiscal year to be held by the Trust to replenish the commodities, which can only buy about 140,000 metric tons of wheat. This is insufficient to refill the Trust. Although commodities can also be transferred from CCC inventories to replenish the Trust, the Administration has no plans to replenish the Trust through CCC-obtained commodities. To fix this standby reserve, repayment should be not be required for commodities used in any fiscal year for urgent needs. This would require an amendment to the law. When commodity prices are low and supplies are abundant, CCC Charter Act authority should be used to buy commodities, which could then be transferred to the Trust. This would not require an amendment, but it would require a change in the Administration’s policy. 2. US Private Voluntary Organizations must have emergency food aid pipelines into the Region in order to effectively respond to the crisis. PVOs already work in the countries at the local levels and have effective mechanisms to provide the food aid, along with integrating the assistance into recovery efforts. Providing only for a WFP pipeline overlooks the local capabilities of operational PVOs and is not an adequate mechanism for reaching vulnerable populations. Currently the only PVO with a USAID-funded emergency pipeline into the Region is World Vision with a program in Zimbabwe totaling 14,310 MT over 12 months. Similar to many of the Title II Cooperating Sponsors, World Vision is active in the Region, working in all of the affected countries. PVOs know the communities and we have long-term relationships with local governments enabling PVOs to more effectively navigate the local bureaucracies. We have ongoing agreements in place with various Ministries within the governments. In many cases, we can leverage resources from a variety of donors thereby multiplying the impact of United States Government funding. While PVOs have many very positive working relationships with WFP in a number of countries throughout the world, including in southern Africa, World Vision and other aid agencies have learned that multiple pipelines are not only more effective in emergency situations, they are essential. Given the variety of logistical issues that must be navigated in order to move food aid commodities from the ports of discharge to the final delivery points, having the experiences, networks, and lessons from more than one agency involved with transportation, reduces the risk that all pipelines into the country would break. American PVOs, including World Vision have proposed a variety of large-scale responses to USAID to respond to the crisis. To date, none of these proposals has been accepted. Currently, a Consortium of three PVOs – CARE, Catholic Relief Services, and World Vision -- have proposed to USAID’s Office of Food for Peace a plan to distribute a minimum tonnage level of 298,800 MT over a 10 month period to meet the needs of nearly 2.5 million people in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Swaziland, Lesotho, and Mozambique. The Consortium estimates that this represents approximately 20% of the total number of people who require immediate food aid. It is the intent of this Consortium to be viewed as a pilot project for future emergency response programs that require the transport and distribution of large quantities of food aid in efficient, cost-effective ways. Importantly, this effort will complement the ongoing activities of WFP. All of the Consortium PVOs are currently active with WFP in the Region and plan to continue our partnerships. However, we do not believe that WFP can or should single-handedly manage millions of Metric Tons, primarily because it is a risky proposition to presume that WFP alone can respond effectively to a crisis of this magnitude. 3. This Administration must respond to the immediate needs and save lives, but simultaneously must integrate emergency food aid into a food security/livelihood approach to programming to address the root causes of famine, to prevent its continued destruction, and to ensure that people are on the road to recovery. Since the most affected populations live in abject poverty, and PVOs are working with many of these populations, development work with these poor communities must continue. As noted previously, the key to managing the current crisis requires that an integrated livelihood security approach be used. Food aid alone is not adequate and thus, the challenge for food aid programs is to integrate the response to short-term crises with long-term development efforts and activities to mitigate against shocks. Vulnerable populations and regions need programs to help improve their ability to prevent the worst impacts of floods and droughts, such as flood control systems, post-harvest and storage technology, improved seeds and land use methods, improved health care for women and children, and nonagricultural sources of incomes in rural areas. Approved food aid programs in vulnerable countries should be elastic, allowing PVOs to adapt to observed changes in food supply during the life of the agreement. 4. This Administration must recognize that HIV/AIDs further exacerbates the problems and the Administration should approach the crisis strategically with interventions that address this issue. Because of high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates, undernourished people are more susceptible to disease and death. World Vision has launched a worldwide campaign, the HOPE Initiative, to address the problems of HIV/AIDs throughout the world. The six countries in southern Africa that require immediate food assistance are all experiencing a mature HIV/AIDS epidemic (>10% prevalence). Countries at this stage of the epidemic are experiencing a significant increase in deaths as a result of HIV/AIDS. Increased numbers of children are being orphaned, and the community is totally overwhelmed by the impact of the disease. The general prevalence rates are greater than 10% and there is a significantly high mortality and orphan rates. The thrust of programming for countries in this category should be the provision of care and support for orphans and vulnerable children. A number of families have become affected by the epidemic, numerous breadwinners have been lost and the situation is now one in which there is an increase in aged grandparents and child-headed households. Generations of children are growing up with no knowledge of what is like to have a parent and programs need to reflect these needs and adequately respond to the challenges. At the same time there is still a great need for AIDS awareness and prevention activities particularly among the “window of hope” age group (5-15 year olds) in which the infection rate is still relatively low. All the other activities in prior stages of the epidemic will still need to be ongoing at the same time in spite of this increased demand for resources to provide for the sick and dying, and the affected children, households and communities. Unless these issues are addressed simultaneously in the crisis response, the aid will be insufficient. Additional resources, special aid food rations, and special care programs are required. Also, food aid should be used as a focal point for drawing people and communities toward HIV/AIDS awareness. As World Vision and other parts of the private sector are doing their share, Congress needs to do its part by providing $2.5 billion for the next Fiscal Year for bilateral and global HIV/AIDS programs. In closing, I ask that you consider the story of Rosalina, the Malawian grandmother of 6 year old Tamara. She told her story to a World Vision employee: “He gave food to the children. I saw him get weak. Then he got even weaker, and died,” she said recounting the death two months ago of her husband. Just before that, one of her grand-daughters, Pempherania also died of hunger. 56 year old Rosalina cares for her 3 grandchildren, Tamara (6), Gertrude (3), and Pilirani (1 month old), as their mother Aness, Rosalina’s daughter has left to find food or work to help her children. Rosalina says of the crisis: “This is the first time I have seen this. We have heard of hunger but never have we experienced it. There have been food shortages before, but this year is different. The difference is that when they took place before, they were isolated to some families. But now it’s widespread. The maize was scorched. The rains came for a month, but then it stopped. We planted, but we got very little.” The family has not had meat for two months, since their grandfather was alive. Normally, they would eat meat weekly. Tamara, her 6 year-old granddaughter, is malnourished and is suffering from intestinal worms as a result of eating contaminated food. Rosalina would like to take Tamara to the hospital, a day’s walk from the village, but she is weak herself and she doesn’t think Tamara would survive the journey. Rosalina is hopeful for some assistance, but acknowledges that the future at this stage is bleak. It is only by God’s grace that you and I are not sitting on the straw mat where Rosalina told her story to World Vision last month. We want to help her and thousands like her. We can do it. We should do it. We must do it. We need your help. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. endnotes: 1. DeVries, Joe and Toenniessen, Gary. “Securing the Harvest,” The Rockefeller Foundation, 2001. 2. Project staff and area scientists attribute this to: (i) promotion of short-term fallows using leguminous trees and shrubs, (ii) soil and moisture conservation, (iii) improved crop varieties, and (iv) ability to retain all produce as practicing short-fallow farmers do not have to sell off significant portions of their crop to pay for the fertilizer used. 3. The Coalition was established in 1985 and comprises US PVOs that conduct development and humanitarian programs overseas. The members are Adventist Development & Relief Agency International, Africare, ACDI/VOCA, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Counterpart International, Food for the Hungry International, International Relief & Development, Mercy Corps, OIC International, Save the Children, TechnoServe and World Vision, Inc. |  |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
© 2008 World Vision Inc. | Site Search : Sitemap : Privacy / Security : Contact Info : Careers : Spanish : Korean : FAQs : Links : Donor Service | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
