NEPAL: Concerns over worsening food security�

Photo: Naresh Newar/IRIN

Food insecurity is increasing in poor areas of both eastern and western Nepal due to poor harvests and high prices for imported food, oil and transportation

KATHMANDU,�Agricultural experts are expressing concern that people in already food-insecure Nepal will have to further tighten their belts unless food, transport and other costs can be curbed.

Local food traders told IRIN that in 2008 prices of the main staple, rice, had increased by 24 percent, cooking oil by 30 percent and wheat flour by 18 percent.

High dependence on imports during a year of rapidly rising global food prices, an Indian export ban on key food commodities, and increased transport costs were the main reasons for the price rises. Natural disasters and civil unrest had made matters worse.

My biggest concern is for people living on the margins and caught up in a situation where inflation is severely impacting them, Richard Ragan, Nepal country representative of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), told IRIN.

According to the government’s national bank, Rastriya Bank, food inflation outpaced that in India last year, reaching 17 percent compared to only 10 percent in India.

Many people are skipping meals and eating less nutritious food, said Ragan.

Malnutrition

According to WFP, the price increases had seriously affected people in western hill regions, with worsening child malnutrition rates in many areas.

Nepal has one of South Asia’s worst malnutrition rates, with almost 50 percent of children under five stunted and suffering from chronic malnutrition, according to the government’s Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). Acute malnutrition rates start increasing after six months of age and peak at 12 months; the main reason for this is poor feeding, according to the DHS.

Floods and landslides in several districts throughout the country had affected summer crop production in 2008, damaged farmland and severely cut crop yields, particularly of rice and millet.

For example, Jumla, Mugu, Humla, Bajura and Dailekh districts in the northwestern hill region had suffered at least 30-50 percent crop losses due to excessive rainfall, landslides and strong winds, WFP told IRIN.

Worse to come?

According to a February 2009 report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the food security situation is expected to deteriorate in western areas. It said Nepal was one of 32 countries with food crises requiring significant external assistance.

There has been erratic rainfall and the coping mechanisms have become challenging, said local agricultural adaptation expert Dinnanath Bhandari.

At the beginning of 2008, Nepal became vulnerable due to drought, over-reliance on rain-fed cultivation, heavy dependence on food and oil imports, poor transportation infrastructure, and a high percentage of average household income – 60 percent – spent on food, according to WFP.

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NEPAL: Long-term IDPs still living in poverty

Photo: Naresh Newar/IRIN

Many Nepalese IDPs do not want to go home to their rural communities for fear of reprisals from Maoist cadres or because their land has been seized and they will have no livelihoods.

KATHMANDU,� – Eight years ago, Kamrik Gharti Magar had a secure income, a large farm, dozens of cattle, a comfortable house and a happy family.

But that changed after he and his family were forced to flee their home in the face of Maoist death threats during the 1996-2006 Peoples War�.

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Magar, aged 60, now lives in a tiny, one-room shack with his five children and wife near the polluted River Bishnumati in Kathmandu. A stench of garbage pervades the air, and his younger children often get sick because of the unsanitary conditions in which they live.

The neighbours constantly badger Magar to vacate the government land on which he has built his shelter. He gets not just verbal abuse but is also sometimes physically assaulted, he said, adding: Where can I go? Who will help us?

Magar is too old and weak to find a strenuous labouring job – the only kind of work available to an illiterate person like himself.

Over 50,000 displaced

Life for thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) like Magar is grim. Many are crowded into fetid slums in Kathmandu and other cities where they are totally neglected by the government, according to local NGOs.

In a mid-2008 IDP report produced by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the number of IDPs in Nepal was estimated to be 50,000-70,000, and UN officials say these numbers will not have changed since then.

There is virtually nothing for them to return to. They have no house or other resources to generate income,” said Geeta Gautam, an official from the Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC), a local human rights NGO.

The Nepal Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction, which is responsible for the welfare of the IDPs, is still in the process of setting up poverty alleviation, health care and employment programmes, but has been unable to make much progress due to a lack of reliable data, officials said.

Children, women most vulnerable

Activists and experts working on the IDP issue are concerned about the growing vulnerability of women and children – the worst victims of displacement-induced poverty.

Children’s education has been severely hampered and the women have great difficulty supporting their families, explained Gautam.

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) said there was an urgent need for national IDP policy to be implemented: IDPs should be able to return to their former villages, and get reintegrated and resettled. NRC country director Phillipe Clerc said he was concerned by the apparent lack of government interest in the matter.

Even two years after the launch of the national IDP policy, a large number of women are still seeking information on civil documentation, widows’ allowances, property restitution, children’s education and shelter, said Clerc.

Typical example

The plight of women is typified by 45-year-old displaced woman Dharma Maya in Kathmandu. I can’t even provide enough food for my children. I don’t know how long we have to survive in this way, she said.

This is my youngest daughter, Meena, who was born a `bisthapit [displaced person] in this miserable condition, she explained.

Maya is the only breadwinner in the family. She is forced to work 12 hours a day in different houses as a domestic servant. She supplements her income by selling wood she collects from the forest, a three-hour trek away.

It’s a very dangerous job because often I have to run away from the local community, and the army has banned outsiders from entering the forest. But what choice do I have? asked Maya.

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EGYPT: Bird flu cases among young children raise concerns

Photo: Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population

Live poultry on sale on the streets of Cairo (file photo)

CAIRO, – An 18-month-old child contracted the H5N1 bird flu virus on 10 March, bringing the number of human cases in Egypt to 58 since records began in 2006, and prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to ask for a study to be undertaken of the causes.

The child – from Manoufiya Province in northern Egypt – is one of several recent cases of young children to have contracted the deadly virus in a country where over five million families raise poultry for a living.

Egyptian Health Ministry spokesman Abdel Rahman Shahin told IRIN the girl exhibited symptoms of infection on 6 March after reported contact with infected birds. She was taken to hospital on 9 March and given the antiviral vaccine Tamiflu.

“Her case has stabilised but she will remain at the hospital for further check-ups,” Shahin said.

The child’s case is the latest in a rapidly growing number of cases of child infection in Egypt, causing concern among WHO officials.

On 4 March, a two-year-old boy from the coastal city of Alexandria (220km from Cairo) contracted the virus. The boy is being treated with Tamiflu.

Another two-year-old boy from Fayum, 85km southwest of Cairo, was infected by the virus on 1 March, Nasr al-Sayyid, the assistant health minister, said.

According to the Egyptian Ministry of Health, five cases of bird flu have been registered in 2009; 23 people have died from the virus since records began in 2006.

The rapid growth rate of bird flu infections in children is worrying, said John Jabbour, senior epidemiologist with WHO, which is asking the Health Ministry to investigate why so many children aged 2-3 are being infected.

Jabbour speculated that the reason for the increased number of cases in this age group was that families were no longer as alert as immediately after the last awareness campaign.

He warned that families with poultry must be on their guard at all times, given UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warnings that the H5N1 strain was endemic in poultry.

“This is a problem that will not go away in poultry, hence people who deal with birds cannot afford to relax. Those who come in contact with birds must make caution part of their daily routine,” he said.

Changing the mindset

Jabbour said social behaviour and attitudes also played a vital role in tackling bird flu. “We are not just fighting bird flu only; we are also trying to change the mentality which says reporting a case of bird flu infection in poultry will destroy income,” he said.

Assistant Health Minister Sayyed said poultry keepers were often reluctant to report suspected cases for fear that health officials would cull not only their birds but those of neighbouring families.

Egypt does not run a compensation scheme for farmers who lose poultry in a cull.

According to the latest WHO statistics, some 410 people in 15 countries and regions have contracted the virus and 256 of them have died of the disease.

While H5N1 rarely infects people, experts fear it could mutate into a form that could easily be passed from one person to another, leading to a pandemic which could kill millions.

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BOTSWANA: Diamonds don’t guarantee jobs forever

Photo: AMNH

The Jwaneng diamond mine

GABORONE,� – The rent collector arrived at a house in Boteti, a small village in central Botswana, and immediately realized something was wrong.

“The house was deserted, the curtains removed,” Ratanang Otlhogile, who declined to use his real name, told IRIN.

“I thought someone had passed away and people had removed curtains, as is the norm. But it clicked in my mind that this could not be the case, as there were no mourners. A neighbour informed me that the two tenants in my house had left the previous day and said they were going to try something new elsewhere.”

Boteti is one of a number of villages around the Orapa and Letlhakane diamond mines, which either employed villagers, or provided opportunities in secondary services.

Debswana Diamond Company, jointly owned by the Botswana government and diamond conglomerate De Beers, announced a one-year closure of the Damtshaa mine and Orapa Mine No. 2 plant in February.

Hundreds of staff are being offered retrenchment packages, or a one-year special leave with full benefits and 30 percent of the salary, while the company is terminating the services of contractors, amounting to the loss of nearly 1,000 jobs on the affected mines.

The Boteti community, like many other villages near mining towns, will also no longer benefit from corporate social responsibility programmes, such as road improvement and electrification of schools.

Debswana’s operations in Botswana include Jwaneng, Orapa, Letlhakane and Damtshaa, which all employ open-pit mining methods to extract diamonds. Jwaneng, in south-central Botswana, is the world’s richest diamond mine, and is reportedly also planning to retrench workers.

The deputy town clerk of Jwaneng, Mpho Mathe, recently told reporters that it was probable the mine would scale down services offered by its hospital, which also operates as a referral facility for smaller clinics in the area.

Global recession

The onset of a global recession has had a severe impact on the region’s commodity-based economies and Botswana, the world’s biggest diamond producer, has not remained unscathed.

Diamond mining has fuelled the country’s development since independence from Britain in 1966 and is still a pillar of its economy, but in recent months the price of rough diamonds has fallen by as much as 20 percent and could, according to some industry observers, fall by a further 60 percent.

Rebecca Oitsile, chairperson of Boteti’s Village Development Committee (VDC), told a recent meeting of the residents’ organisation that many villagers relied on renting accommodation to mine workers.

Many houses are already vacant, as the retrenched workers have since moved their stuff. This has affected many households that were surviving mostly through renting their houses to the workers

“Many houses are already vacant, as the retrenched workers have since moved their stuff. This has affected many households that were surviving mostly through renting their houses to the workers,” she said.

“Life will never be the same again,” said Clayton Mothulwe, who owns a small tuckshop in Boteti. “Although most of them were not from this area, they had integrated well into the community and it is sad that it seems we will not be able to meet most of them again.

“For the past six years, I have been living comfortably from my earnings from this tuckshop, but the past few days have not been good. Most of my regular customers are not around,” he commented.

Many youths in the area survived on casual labour, but “Since the beginning of the year, contractors have not been recruiting for piece jobs. Most of the guys are now struggling, as they spent most of their money in December,” Mothulwe said.

Botswana’s labour minister, Peter Siele, told Boteti villagers at the VDC meeting: “The problem is worldwide and now requires all of us to join hands in devising effective strategies to combat it.”

Blackie Marole, Debswana’s managing director, said, “Everyone is affected [by the global slowdown], locals and expatriates. Diamond sales are at the root of the problem.”

A mineworker, who declined to be named, told IRIN: “It does not affect workers alone. It is affecting even the people we had hired to assist with other tasks at home while we are at work.

“You need people who look after the children, herd the cattle, and do other tasks at home. Now, with these developments, it would be difficult for us to pay them,” he said.

Retrenchments

Debswana’s group personnel manager, Ntoti Mosetlhe, said the company was “engaging employees” in retrenchment talks, but Botswana Mine Workers Union (BMWU) said the company “just wants to see the workers on the streets with nothing”.

We have a retrenchment agreement in place that allows workers to be given competitive exit packages, but it seems the company wants to deviate from that agreement and impliment its own schemes

“We have a retrenchment agreement in place that allows workers to be given competitive exit packages, but it seems the company wants to deviate from that agreement and implement its own schemes. From our assessment, that scheme will not benefit workers in any way, but will condemn them into poverty,” Jack Tlhagale, the BMWU secretary-general, told IRIN.

The knock-on effect is that banks and financial institutions are not offering mine workers loans, as employment is no longer guaranteed in the current situation and the cautious approach of the banks is being extended to employees in other sectors.

Keith Jefferies, an independent economic analyst and former deputy governor of the Bank of Botswana, told IRIN: “The mining industry does not have a direct impact on the major economy, but this is going to affect companies that deal directly with Debswana and the other mining companies.”

“The impact will be felt mostly among those organisations and projects that get direct funding from the government, because most of the national revenue comes directly from mining. Revenues from mining in 2009 will be much reduced, and this calls for the reduction of government spending.”

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MOZAMBIQUE: Fina Bota, “One day I would like very much to have my own piece of land”

Photo: Givemore Nyanhi/IRIN

Fina Bota in Tunduru Park, Maputo

MAPUTO,� – The plastic cap off a bottle of water, a twist of paper and a woven reed mat to serve as a tray are all that widow Fina Bota, 32, needs to sell roasted peanuts and earn a simple living in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo.

“I am a mother of two children and I live in Maxaquene district in Maputo. I was born here, in Maputo. I sell roasted peanuts every day and I have been doing this for as long as I can remember, since I was a very young girl. My husband died two years ago and I am a widow.

“Every day I go to buy my peanuts at a nearby market called Bella Rosa. I buy peanuts worth 65 meticals [US$2.50] and take them home, where I add salt and roast them over a charcoal stove. On a good day I expect to make a profit of 50 meticais [$1.90].

“A blue bottle cap measures peanuts worth 1 metical [3 US cents]. When a client buys more than one cap I simply count the number of caps, and if the customer buys for 5 meticais [15 US cents] I use a bigger bottle cap, like those used for perfumes or hair lotions.

“When my husband died two years ago he left me with two children. Both of them are girls. My first-born daughter is called Amelia and is 16 years old and learning at a nearby government school. Joanna, my second-born daughter, is only six years old, but she has also started to go to school.

“The money that I raise through selling peanuts is not enough for my needs and the needs of my two children. My children always need money for school materials like uniforms, school books, and pens and pencils.

“The house where I stay is not mine, so every month I have to pay rent of 300 meticals [$11.30]. Each day I need to budget 10 meticals [30 US cents] for onions and tomatoes, 20 meticais [60 US cents] for rice, and another 10 meticais [30 US cents] for bread in the morning.

“This year the cost of living, especially basic commodities such as rice, is very high compared to previous years, and that also makes my life difficult.

“I have lived all my life in Maputo, and one day I would like very much to have my own piece of land where I can farm my own crops, but right now I have to keep on working like this until my life changes.”

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