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Save the Children USA President and CEO Visits Ethiopia's Emergency Feeding Programs
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (August 4, 2008) — While praising concerted efforts in Ethiopia to address severe malnutrition among growing numbers of children, Charles MacCormack, president and CEO of Save the Children USA, said donor nations including the United States may not be able to provide the same resources as they have in the past to help countries like Ethiopia deal with the global food crisis.
MacCormack said increases in transportation costs could reduce the ability to ship food from the United States to the Horn of Africa. However, he added, "There will likely be more money available from donor nations for irrigation, research into new seed varieties and fertilizer. Donor nations need to assist Ethiopia so that it becomes less reliant on rain-fed agriculture to provide good harvests to feed its people."
MacCormack recommended that Ethiopia seek a "better balance of people to land availability" through access to family planning. He also suggested that donors might embrace an agreement to support a safety net to meet the nutritional needs of households for the next ten years in exchange for a 5-10 year development strategy that would include new agricultural developments.
MacCormack's remarks came in a meeting with Ethiopian and US Government regional and national government officials after visiting Ministry of Health emergency feeding sites in Lanfuro, Southern Nations Nationalities and People's Region (SNNPR) during a recent visit to Ethiopia.
MacCormack, who also serves as chair of InterAction, a coalition of 160 U.S. international humanitarian aid groups, met with the State Minister of Health for Operations, the US Ambassador, Acting US Agency for International Development Mission Director, and the head of the US Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).
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A father helps his daughter eat Plumpy'nut at an outpatient clinic in Ethiopia. |
Hopeful Signs
MacCormack said he found hopeful signs in comparing the current situation with the food crisis in Ethiopia in 2003. "I've seen vast improvements in the capacity of the Government of Ethiopia Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Authorities and the Ministry of Health to respond to the emergency," he noted.
MacCormack also pointed to the increase in trained health professionals and volunteers, including the large cadre of Health Extension Workers now dispersed throughout the country. "People are now more knowledgeable about where to get help. The Government's Productive Safety Net Program, the stabilization centers and out-patient therapeutic care sites mean that people have more options for support and are more knowledgeable about how to access the services and programs."
MacCormack emphasized the big difference that "portable foods" such as Plumpy'nut (a ready-to-use therapeutic food containing vitamin-fortified peanut paste) have made in emergency response. In the past, Save the Children worked with the government to set up large scale operations to house hundreds of children and their caretakers who were coming to health centers and health posts for supplemental feeding. "As you can imagine, having all these people in one crowded area was not easy to manage — finding food, clean water, and shelter for all — but it also made it easier to pass on diseases. With Plumpy'nut, mothers are able to come once a week to the health sites and return home to feed their child in their own home as well as to care for other children — often left alone in the past," said MacCormack.
Background
Save the Children Alliance members working in Ethiopia launched a $20 million appeal on June 18 to support the Government of Ethiopia request for emergency food and livelihood support for the 4.6 million Ethiopians — 736,000 of whom are under the age of 5 — that are in need of assistance.
As the extent of the drought has continued to increase, the impact on children has increased, as children are the most vulnerable members of food insecure households. Official current estimates indicate that approximately 75,000 children are severely malnourished, while assessments continue in affected areas of the country to verify the actual nutritional status of vulnerable communities.
Save the Children USA is addressing this crisis largely through Community Therapeutic Care programs (CTC) in SNNPR, Somali and Oromiya regions. Currently Save the Children USA has set up 285 out patient therapeutic care (OTP) sites, and 36 stabilization centers, with 18,000 children enrolled in either program.
The Stabilization Centers and all OTP sites are located in Ministry of Health (MOH) health centers and health posts respectively, with full participation of Health Extension Workers (HEWs) and seconded by health workers from each woreda. Save the Children has provided training to MOH staff, health extension workers and community volunteers in SNNPR in the identification of malnutrition, and management and referral of CTC.
MacCormack's visit to Lanfaro was organized so that he could share the extent of the Ethiopian humanitarian crisis with US donors. At the regional government's request, Save the Children went into the Lanfaro woreda on June 23rd. Save the Children worked with the MOH to train staff and set up 4 stabilization centers and 30 OTP sites. According to the Toro Health Center Director, since the start-up of the project, 54 children with severe malnutrition have been admitted to the stabilization centers and 780 children are currently registered in OTP in the Lanfaro woreda.
Read More about our response to the global food crisis.
