Australia is responding quickly to prevent a deepening food shortage in the Sahel region in Africa and address urgent humanitarian needs in Sudan and South Sudan.
The Sahel region stretches across Africa–a semi-arid transition zone between the Sahara desert in the north and the wooded savanna to the south.
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said that millions of people in the Sahel are in need of food following drought, reduced crop harvests and people movements from other parts of Africa affected by conflict, such as Libya and Cote d'Ivoire.
'Australia is acting early to help prevent an escalating food crisis in the region, providing $10 million through the World Food Programme and other UN partners focussing on the worst hit countries of Niger and Chad. The investment will also help build preparedness in the region to help prevent future crises.
'This builds on Australia's existing work, through the CSIRO, to improve the long term food security and resilience of West African countries,' Mr Rudd said.
In addition, ongoing conflict in the border areas of South Sudan have left villages burned, hundreds of people killed or injured and hundreds of thousands of displaced people without access to food, water, health and other basic services.
Australia will provide $4 million through the United Nations Common Humanitarian Fund (CHF) to assist those in urgent need and $1 million through the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to air lift relief supplies to the hardest hit and most inaccessible areas.
Nearly two million people in Sudan, particularly women and children, rely on humanitarian assistance due to ongoing conflict. This insecurity, along with adverse weather, has affected crop plantings, leading to a warning by the UN of an impending food security crisis.
An additional $4 million is being provided by Australia through the UN CHF and the International Committee of the Red Cross to address urgent needs and help mitigate a potential crisis.
Improving food security by investing in agricultural productivity, infrastructure, social protection and the opening of markets is one of the ten development objectives for the aid program.
Food security underpins all other development, as without it food insecure populations prioritise food and sustaining their own lives and those of their families over everything else.
Australia's approach to food security is centred on increasing the availability of food through production and improving trade, while also increasing the poor's ability to access food.
Horn of Africa crisis
During the recent crisis in the Horn of Africa Australia was the fifth largest donor, providing $128 million. This included $98 million in humanitarian assistance and $30 million for the region's long-term food security. In addition $27 million was raised through the Dollar for Dollar initiative in partnership with Australian NGOs and the Australian public.
Food prices
Food prices are also having a significant impact on the ability of countries in Africa to overcome poverty. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Food Price Index average in 2011 was higher than any year since the FAO started measuring food prices in 1990.
The FAO estimates that almost one in three people suffers from hunger every day in Sub-Saharan Africa, an ongoing challenge that has been compounded by the global food crisis, which in 2008 pushed more than 130 million people back into poverty as the price of staple foods rose by between 50 and 200 per cent. Prices abated somewhat in 2009, but since mid-2010 they have risen above even 2008 levels, pushing an estimated 44 million people back into poverty, according to the World Bank.
Australian International Food Security Centre
The Australian International Food Security Centre is being established as part of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), and will be a hub for research interactions between Australia and African nations. The Centre will have a broad international focus, recognising the significance of food security to developing countries across Africa, Asia and the Pacific. In the first instance particular emphasis will be given to Africa, where the highest proportion of the world's poor are found.
More information
Media release: Escalating crisis in Sahel and Sudan (Foreign Minister's website)
Australian Government assistance to the Horn of Africa crisis in 2011
Australian International Food Security Centre (external website)
CSIRO–Facing Africa's food security challenges (external website)