DAKAR (AlertNet) - Chad lacks the human resources and health services needed to tackle a looming hunger crisis that threatens around 2 million people in the central African country, a senior U.N. official said on Friday.
Drought has led to a 35 percent fall in crop production, with one-fifth of the population facing food shortages. The rate of global acute malnutrition for children under five in the worst-affected areas stands at 29 percent - almost double the emergency threshold set by the World Health Organisation.
The United Nations is transporting some 30,000 tonnes of food aid to impoverished Chad from its regional supply base in neighbouring Cameroon, but is concerned that tackling malnutrition will be difficult due to a shortage of human resources and functioning rural health facilities.
"There aren't enough competent staff to deal with this kind of crisis," Michele Flavigna, the United Nations' representative and humanitarian coordinator in Chad, told AlertNet in a phone interview.
"We are calling on specialised NGOs (non-governmental organisations) to increase their number of personnel who can intervene on the ground to reinforce nutrition centres and save these children in the villages and assist households to manage this lean season which will last until ... November," he added.
Flavigna says the Chadian government has authorised international humanitarian organisations to intervene across the country, with the expectation that local staff will be trained to manage similar situations in the future.
Millions of people in Africa's Sahel belt, which lies south of the Sahara desert, are expected to face severe food shortages this year after late and irregular rainfall during the last planting season badly affected their rain-fed agriculture, the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.
In Niger, the government estimates that 7.8 million people, half the country's population, will experience moderate to severe food shortages and nutritional problems. Authorities in Nigeria have said most northern states will experience drought and food shortages this year.
CHRONIC HUNGER PROBLEM
The Sahel region - which includes parts of Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Mali and Mauritania - has been plagued by cyclical droughts, including severe food shortages, since the 1970s. The most serious food crisis in the last decade occurred in 2005, affecting millions in Niger, Nigeria, and Mali.
"We therefore must be ready to face these drought problems which will surely be made worse by climate change and population growth ... with effective early warning systems accompanied by mitigation efforts such as cereal banks, drought-resistant crops, irrigation schemes and nutrition centres," Flavigna said.
"Each country must maintain a strategic stockpile of at least 100,000 tonnes of cereals which can feed the population for at least three months," he added. "This was decided in 1984 but was slowly abandoned by these states Â? but we cannot do without these stocks."
Some relief agencies on the ground have also found their activities hindered by poor health infrastructure.
Action Against Hunger (ACF) recently highlighted the lack of investment in health services in Bahr el Gazal, a semi-arid region in western Chad where the agency plans to help just under half of the 17,000 children who face life-threatening malnutrition.
Mariana Merelo Lobo, director of operations at ACF UK, told AlertNet that helping local people deal with the impact of recurring droughts in the "forgotten" area would require a sustained operation lasting at least a year.
Flavigna said nutrition centres that treat children needed more high-energy foods and other technical support.
"There is a health system mainly in the big towns, but they lack a lot of the inputs to support these nutritional centres," he said. "That is why the Chadian government has called for international support to provide these inputs, and then there has to be capacity building for those who have to manage this situation."
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