ETHIOPIA: UNICEF says malnutrition serious in some places

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

ADDIS ABABA, 25 Apr 2005 (IRIN) - Ethiopia is facing serious malnutrition in 25 hot spots around the country and is in dire need of funding to avert deaths, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday.

UNICEF said they need US $40 million to help support tens of thousands of children under a "child survival" package to provide food, water and vaccinations.

"Children will needlessly die without more funding," said Ambassador Andrei Dapkiunas, team leader of the UNICEF Executive Board, which was visiting the country to witness the potentially looming crisis. "The main problem is the critical lack of resources."

Dapkiunas said that many countries are facing difficulties in securing funding for emergencies. "The international community has to deal with emergencies in a different way than it was addressed in the last decade. If we continue to see the process of development as business as usual we are going to face bigger and bigger disasters."

He said there had been delays in responding to the appeal for non-food items in areas like health, water and nutrition where just a quarter of the $40 million needed had been received.

"This is not big money," said Bjorn Ljungqvist, head of UNICEF in Ethiopia. "It is really important to put the money into those critical areas where you both protect vulnerable parts of the population at the same time as you do work for long-term development."

UNICEF said the current crisis is due to delays in the start of the Ethiopian government's safety net programme, failed rains, chronic water shortages and failing cash crop prices.

UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) are currently screening seven million drought-vulnerable children. An analysis of the figures will help the government form a new appeal for aid, which will be announced on 2 May.

The 2005 Joint Humanitarian Appeal for Ethiopia was launched in December for 387,482 tons of food worth $159 million for 2.2 million needy people. Another $112 million of non-food assistance is needed to meet emergency humanitarian needs for the year.

"In some parts of the country the situation is deteriorating," said Ljungqvist. He added that to screen a child and provide nutritious food to those who suffer from malnutrition costs less that $9 per child." It is not a lot of money to stop children falling through the net," he added. "That is why I am so surprised that more donors have not come to the rescue to support this programme. It seems the obvious thing to do."

Ljungqvist added that new strategies in health and maternal care in Ethiopia were improving, and that education -- and the enrolment of girls in school -- was being scaled up.

Meanwhile, the US government announced on Friday that it would make an additional pledge of $19.5 million in food aid. According to a statement from the US Embassy, the 47,320 metric tons of wheat will be supplied to Ethiopia through the WFP.

[ENDS]