DJIBOUTI: Rising food insecurity fuels migration
BALBALA, 27 November 2012 (IRIN) - Successive years of poor rains have
eroded the coping mechanisms of pastoralists in Djibouti's rural regions,
even as high food prices and unemployment rates afflict the country's urban
areas. These factors are increasing the vulnerability to food insecurity and
spurring migration.
The area of Balbala, about 12km outside of Djibouti City, has become home to
families fleeing both harsh conditions in the countryside and dwindling
livelihood opportunities in the city.
"What we need most is food"
Awale Farah, 65, migrated with his family of seven from the rural Ali Sabieh
area, near the southern town of Dikhil, to Balbala three months ago. Dikhil
lies along the border with Ethiopia and has a large number of migrants,
complicating access to scarce basic resources there.
Farah says that back in Ali Sabieh, residents are moving closer to the Ali
Addeh refugee camp, hoping to obtain some of the assistance meant for the
camp's 16,778 refugees. "I don't know how they are getting along. What we
need most is food," he said.
At present, about 70,000 people in rural Djibouti are food insecure. More
than 60 percent of household food supply is being met by food assistance in
the northwest pastoral zone, according to an October-to-March 2013 food
security outlook by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (
<
http://www.fews.net/pages/country.aspx?gb=dj> FEWSNET).
In the southeast pastoral border area, "households are marginally able to
meet minimum food needs only through accelerated depletion of livelihood
assets and adoption of unsustainable coping strategies such as charcoal
sales," the outlook says.
The areas most affected by hunger include Obock in the north, Dikhil and
Balbala. According to 2010 figures, 42.9 percent of the children in Obock
showed signs of wasting. In 2006, Djibouti ranked second in the world for
prevalence of
<
http://www.unicef.org/progressforchildren/2007n6/index_41505.htm> wasting
in children under five, at 21 percent.
But life in Balbala is not easy, either. "The situation here is very hard.
Sometimes we get money from family members in town," Farah said. "In Dikhil,
at least we had livestock that would always provide us with food." Even so,
many pastoralists have lost their livestock to the successive droughts.
To cope, Farah has split up his family - two of his children are staying
with relatives in Djibouti City.
Unemployment and high prices
Meanwhile, a lack of jobs is causing city residents to migrate to peri-urban
areas such as Balbala.
Abdillahi Djama Abdiguedi's family moved to Balbala from Gagada, an area
closer to the city where rent cost them 5,000 Djibouti francs (about
US$28.20) per month.
"Here, we pay nothing," he said. "Most of the people around here moved from
the city."
Abdiguedi works as a casual labourer every morning, heading to town to
search for work at construction sites. "Today, I left at 4am to go and look
for work and came back home with nothing. There are days when we eat
nothing," he said. "The children have forgotten what milk is."
Meat prices have increased from 800 francs to 1,200-1,400 francs, notes
FEWSNET.
Water is also more expensive. At present, a jerrycan of water sells for 150
francs, up from 50 francs in 2011, according to Balbala residents. "The
water companies say that the water is more expensive due to the high cost of
fuel required to bring it in," said a resident.
FEWSNET cites high unemployment, which stands at 48 percent, and high staple
prices as reasons for poor urban households' acute food insecurity, which it
estimates will remain at crisis levels up to December.
About 90 percent of the land in Djibouti is arid and the ecosystem fragile;
the country also has few natural resources. These and other factors force
Djibouti to rely heavily on food imports.
Improving child survival
Food insecurity and drought are contributing to high rates of malnutrition
among children, according to Mohamadou Bachir Mbodj, the chief of child
survival and development at the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) office in
Djibouti.
Also contributing to child malnutrition are low rates of exclusive
breastfeeding. A 2010 survey found that, while 98 percent of nursing mothers
in Djibouti breastfed their infants, only 24.5 percent did so exclusively,
Bachir said. "The challenge is: how can we narrow the gap between the 98
percent and the 24.5 percent?"
For every 1,000 children born in Djibouti, 73 die before their first
birthday, according to UNICEF. Good child feeding practices could help to
lower these numbers. UNICEF is using 'grandmother counsellors' to encourage
exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months as well as good weaning
practices.
"When you do early initiation of breastfeeding, practice exclusive
breastfeeding for six months and timely weaning, one can help to reduce
infant mortality by up to 19 percent," he said, noting that longer-term
approaches with longer-lasting funds that address underlying factors should
be put in place to deal with malnutrition.
Safety nets and sustainability
"There is a need for more integrated strategies in water, agriculture,
health and nutrition for sustainability," said Mario Touchette, the UN World
Food Programme's (WFP) Djibouti representative and country director.
"For example, building small water catchments dams could help to improve the
situation in rural communities. The access of health and nutrition services
would also be important for them. There is also a need to provide
alternative livelihood sources for rural-based populations, a majority of
whom are pastoralists, but the environment is too challenging."
Touchette said aid organizations must strike a difficult balance between
meeting the needs of increasingly vulnerable urban populations and focusing
on rural areas where humanitarian needs remain high and many donors expect
action. "If we provide more assistance to the urban areas, vulnerable people
from rural areas might be more attracted to migrate to urban areas," he
noted.
Still, food insecurity in urban areas is becoming a priority for WFP;
Djibouti's population of about 800,000 is mainly urban.
WFP is also keen on helping the country develop a national safety net
programme. "The safety net should include food-cash vouchers, supplementary
feeding programmes and school feeding programmes. We could link it also to
some professional training, for example," Touchette said. "The challenge is
how to continue providing assistance without maintaining them
[beneficiaries] in this cycle of perpetual assistance."
During the country's July-to-September lean season, WFP, alongside three
local NGOs and the State Secretary for National Solidarity, provided food
vouchers to some 3,000 households in Balbala. The coupons were distributed
to women every week helping to supplement their households' food needs. This
pilot programme received financial support from the UN Central Emergency
Response Fund and the government of Switzerland.
Djibouti is among the Horn of Africa countries that endorsed the
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)
<
http://reliefweb.int/report/somalia/regional-approaches-food-security-afric
a-early-lessons-igad-regional-caadp-process> Drought Disaster Resilience and
Sustainability Initiative (IDDRSI ) after the devastating
<
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/94567/HORN-EASTERN-AFRICA-Drought-highlights
-in-2011> 2010-2011 drought. IDDRSI aims to help to end drought emergencies
through long-term development initiatives focusing on the region's arid and
semi-arid areas.
aw/rz
Received on Tue Nov 27 2012 - 17:35:19 EST
