Food Aid — Ethnic Supplies

Why are 2 million Ugandan children starving?

June 25, 2011 By ethnicsupplies 4 Comments

Today we return to the 30 day blogging challenge and we are at task 19 and the social media media support supremo Nikki Pilkington has challenged us to use anchor text for this post

Ruhanga SW Uganda -

I have selected a question that is on most development experts minds at the moment and they are not on their own in the quest for answers to this question. I have just got back from Uganda and the night before I left this very question was up for discussion on one of the Ugandan Television channels.

I have previously written about the issue of food shortages in Uganda and I must admit it continues to puzzle me today and whilst watching the news last Saturday night 18th June 2011 it was interesting to note that I am not the only one that does not understand why so many children are going hungry in a country that has plenty of food.

The issues of why 2 million Uganda children are starving are complex but some are easily resolvable so long as there is commitment on the part of government but some require better governance and planning

according to the expert that was being interviewed for the news bulletin- some children are simply unable to absorb the food that they eat and as such it is of no benefit to them at all
cost of food
poor food distribution within the country
they are fed the wrong kind of food
the way that food is currently traded on world markets etc

I touched on some of the issues in a recent post Food, disease and Poverty- the irony here is that most of the reasons listed above are more likely to be faced by poor people especially the poor of Africa. What was interesting too in the same bulletin the governor of the bank of Uganda gave a news conference in which he called on the government to reign in their spending and an interesting static came out of the same news bulletin

68% of Ugandans do not “touch” money for the entire year and riches are concentrated in the hands of only 6% of the entire Ugandan population

with that in mind I suppose it is no wonder that 2 million Ugandan children are malnourished

The trading of food on world markets will continue to affect the poor’s ability to access food and Johann Hari’s article in The Independent gives us a great insight into how that is done and the impact on the poor. For a comprehensive analysis of the issue of food availability please read Oxfam’s report FOOD JUSTICE IN A RESOURCE CONSTRAINED WORLD

Another reason for food shortage and one that we should pay attention to is food being used for bio fuels and or land that should be used for agriculture being taken up for bio fuels, as Eliza Anyangwe explains on Africa on The Blog a multi author blog by people of African descent.

The issue of food affordability in Uganda was taken up by the opposition who led the Walk to Work protests in a bid to force the government to address the issue, leading to great unrest in the country- you can follow that story on this YouTube video clip http://youtu.be/ZoNt_RKhIdk

The question is what can be done about these 2 Million Ugandan children that are malnourished?

Whilst here I would like to share with you a really interesting and practical initiative that ensures children in Zulu land are fed it is called the Banana Appeal founded by Kevin Allen

If you have a view on this issue please join the discussion

Filed Under: Latest, Poverty in Africa Tagged With: Africa, Food Aid, Food shortages, Independent, Johann Hari, Kevin Allen, Oxfam, Uganda, Ugandans, YOWERI MUSEVENI

Food Shortages in Uganda?

January 26, 2011 By idahorner 6 Comments

Food shortages have made headlines in the news recently. The debates appears to be split into 2 schools of thought.

Says that with need to grow more food as the population grows it is likely that there will not be enough for us all and that African countries and India are especially affected
the other that we already produce enough food to feed double the current population we just need to get it to where it is needed! In addition that those pushing for more food are simply interested in promoting the GM agenda

I am not sure who is right or wrong here but I found myself agreeing with the second opinion in relation to yesterday’s headline on Uganda specifically North eastern Uganda

I have to stress at this point that the only aspect of point I agree with in relation to Uganda at least is that there is plenty of food, however it does not get to where where it is needed. I don’t doubt that people in Karamoja are starving either. But I wonder why this is? Travelling through other parts of Uganda especially, to the West, SW and centre of the country one notices the abundance of food.A quick visit to local food markets around Kampala – the capital of Uganda and you will note how much food is going to waste

The question is where is it all going wrong? Why isn’t all this food getting through to North Eastern Uganda? The region has it’s own Minister who happens to be the President wife, so I can’t imagine that it is due to lack of political will but then again I could be wrong.

What about the role of the World Food Programme? Are they doing the best they can do or simply pushing the FOOD AID AGENDA?

We debated their involvement in Zimbabwe and Kenya over at Africa on The Blog.

Another interesting point of view that was put forward by the think tank CHATHAM HOUSE was that we need to work out how to secure the food we have- in the west food is wasted between the fridge and the plate whilst in developing nations food is wasted between the fields and the plate. In developing nations there is an urgent need to come with ways to preserve food once it leaves the fields/farms. This is very true and it could be the answer to food problems.

What do you think? Do you agree with either opinion?

Filed Under: food distribution, Latest, Popular post, Poverty in Africa Tagged With: Africa, Food Aid, HUNGER

Will Africa be the source of world food in years to come?

March 30, 2010 By idahorner Leave a Comment

Yeah right! I can hear some say and you will probably be right after all we have all seen the headlines of starving children in Africa. Please bear with me whilst I explain.

The world is changing in ways we never imagined nor expected, folk in the developed world are living longer they are more single households, we use more energy and our eating habits have changed etc.

A consequence of this is that we are having to further for some of these resources including food and it would appear that Africa is seen as rich pickings for what The Guardian journalist called the AFRICA LAND GRAB

This reminds me of the O’level history lessons “The scramble and partition of Africa”, that saw Africa dived up and shared up amongst European nations only this time round there is more at stake as far as I can see any way.

If we agree generally, based on the what we see on television that some African countries can’t afford to feed themselves is it right that African politicians should be selling off land to the developed world for their food production? What is our role in all this? What about that of our politicians

And what continues to perplex me is the fact that none of this food actually ends up on the African market and some of those African countries that are short of food like Kenya have to rely on food Aid from the developed nations. Does this make sense at all?

An interesting story that will be worth keeping an eye on is developing on the coast of Ghana. This sees Tullow Oil “fighting2 it out with local fishermen who believe that Tullow Oil is ruining their livelihoods. But not everyone agrees with the fishermen’s point of view and in the words of one local man man “the fish only benefits the fishermen whilst the oil will bring revenue for the rest of the country” (source BBC Radio 4)

Who is right or wrong depends on your point of view!

But with European waters depleted of fish and those in the industry heading out to African waters for fish, how will this pan out?

Have you got a view on any of this? Looking forward to hearing it

Filed Under: Ethics, food distribution, Good Practice, Uncategorized Tagged With: Africa, BBc, Food Aid, food distribution, Senegal, tullow oil