---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "IRIN" <[email protected]>
Date: 27 May 2015 03:14
Subject: Your daily selection of IRIN Africa English reports, 5/26/2015
To: "Elisabeth Janaina" <[email protected]>
Cc:
[image: IRINnews logo] <http://www.irinnews.org/>
humanitarian news and analysis
Table of contents
1. An ‘almost impossible job’ - 10 tips for the UN's next humanitarian boss
<#14d92b89903cc534_1>
2. Food worries widen in Mauritania <#14d92b89903cc534_2>
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*An ‘almost impossible job’ - 10 tips for the UN's next humanitarian boss
<http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=101540>*
[image: lead photo]LONDON, 26 May 2015 (IRIN) - Former UN humanitarian
chief John Holmes has a few words of advice for the next person to take up
the job, British politican Stephen O'Brien.
*Next week, O’Brien, a former British international development minister,
succeeds Valerie Amos as the UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian
Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Holmes, who was in the role from
January 2007 to August 2010, is now director of the Ditchley Foundation,
which helps shape policy on major international issues. *
Ten things to bear in mind when you start your new and almost impossible
job:
1. Forget your nationality. Britain should now just be a major donor –
important and sometimes irritating – but give it no special treatment in
your professional role.
2. Travel a lot, but not too much. You need to see and understand all
the major crises on the ground, particularly when you start, but you also
need to contribute to the strategic discussions in New York and run OCHA
(the UN humanitarian agency) properly.
3. You have a bully pulpit and a degree of influence on the rest of the
humanitarian system, but little power. Hone your powers of persuasion, and
use the media more than they use you.
4. Establish good personal relations with the heads of the main aid
agencies, the NGOs and the Red Cross/Crescent movement. You will need them
at times of stress.
5. Be tough on governments misbehaving, but remember to be tougher in
private than in public if you want to keep the aid flowing.
6. Be nice to the donors. You can do nothing without them. But never
feel captured by them (or anyone else).
7. Work closely with the development community, and try to overcome the
artificial barriers between them and the humanitarians.
8. Build local capacity and invest more in disaster risk reduction,
preparedness and anticipation. It becomes clearer as you go along, but you
should be fully aware of it from the start.
9. Pace yourself. It’s tough mentally and physically, so don’t burn
yourself out too soon.
10. Remember at all times the people on the ground you are trying to
help. That’s what makes the job ultimately rewarding.
Above all try to enjoy at least some of it, despite the frustrations.
John Holmes, Emergency Relief Coordinator, 2007-2010
Access report online <http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=101540>
------------------------------
*Food worries widen in Mauritania
<http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=101544>*
[image: lead photo]NOUAKCHOTT, 26 May 2015 (IRIN) - Hundreds of thousands
of Mauritanians are struggling to feed themselves as they fall victim to
the effects of climate change.
A chronically hungry country, Mauritania could see the availability of food
drop to its lowest level in years if drought continues to ravage crops,
livestock and livelihoods.
An estimated 1.3 million people will face food insecurity this year,
according to the latest assessment
<http://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ep/wfp274287.pdf>
by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).
Among them, nearly half a million people are expected to fall into severe
food insecurity by June and be “unable to meet their food needs without
external assistance." Around 21,000 will suffer extreme food insecurity, or
a near complete depletion of their livelihoods.
“Mauritania is a country which is affected by climate change, as well as
recurrent climate-related shocks, like the drought,” said Janne Suvanto,
the World Food Programme’s (WFP) country director in Mauritania. “In recent
years there have been successive shocks that have seriously affected the
food and nutrition security of the country, and this has particularly
undermined the resilience capacity of the most vulnerable populations.”
Many families still have not recovered from the 2012 drought
<http://www.irinnews.org/report/95885/mauritania-sharing-to-survive>, which
left more than 800,000 people in need of humanitarian assistance.
Suvanto told IRIN that recent assessments show that the food security
situation has gradually worsened in Mauritania since mid-2013 and that it
is now at the same levels as during the 2012 drought.
*Not enough water*
Mauritania, which is about 75 percent Saharan desert and 25 percent Sahel,
normally sees an average annual rainfall of less than 100 millimetres per
year, according to the FAO. In recent years, locals say the rains have
become even less frequent and more erratic.
Due to poor soil and agricultural conditions, many people rely on
pastoralism and animal husbandry for their livelihoods.
“These last few years, have been more and more difficult,” said Hussein
Ould Imijen, who has already lost 10 animals this year due to hunger and
thirst. It is a devastating loss, as like most people in the community,
Imijen’s ability to feed his family depends on the sale of his livestock.
In Taboit town, local resident Zeinabou Mint Mamadou Ould Neji told IRIN:
"Low rainfall in recent years has not helped restore groundwater.”
She said the water levels in the wells are barely enough to cover drinking
and cooking needs, never mind watering crops or gardens.
Even in towns, such as Azgueiloum in Gorgol, in southern Mauritania, which
is located along the Senegal River, water is scarce.
“We have some beans and corn this year, but early drought this year has
cost us dearly,” said Aminetou Mint Abeid, who is part of a women’s
gardening association in Nabaam. “The assistance of international NGOs has
allowed us to be a little more independent and meet our needs, but in hard
times it isn’t [enough].”
Souleymane Sarr, who works for Oxfam, which has been working to improve
access to water in Gorgol, agreed.
"Water is central to all these areas,” he told IRIN. “You can’t help them
achieve anything without the assurance of the sustainable access to water.”
*Not enough food*
Dry-cereal harvests last year, such as millet, sorghum and rice, were 38
percent lower than the average of the last five years due to poor rainfall,
which, according to WFP’s Suvanto, is “quite a significant figure” and will
make this year’s lean season even more difficult than usual.
Many families have begun to cut down on the number of meals they eat each
day as well as the quality of the food. Many people have begun selling off
assets to afford staple foods.
Nearly 140,000 children under the age of five and pregnant or lactating
mothers are now affected by acute malnutrition.
The health of school-aged children could be affected by the suspension of
WFP's school feeding programme in March, due to lack of funding, which
helped nourish some 86,000 primary school-aged children from the country’s
most vulnerable families.
Some people blame the government for not doing more.
"None of the families you see in this village received even one feed bag
they were supposed to receive from the government,” said Isselmou Ould
Mohamed. “Without Oxfam, ACF, or some local NGOs, there would be many more
dead animals.”
"These are criminal acts,” said another angry resident in the town of
Monguel, who wished to remain anonymous. “Here, our children are hungry and
our cattle die. And still [the government] does not propose a solution.”
The Ministry of Rural Development, which is in charge of agriculture and
livestock programmes, declined to comment.
In addition to rural areas, where the majority of food insecure people are
normally concentrated, aid workers say particular attention needs to be
paid to urban areas, where hunger is spreading.
Recent WFP assessments show that the food security situation in the
outskirts of the capital, Nouakchott, for example, have been deteriorating
since 2011, due in large part to the migration of the rural population to
cities in search of food or work.
WFP’s Suvanto said that the organization has been working with the
government and other partners on the ground to build up the safety nets of
the country’s most vulnerable families by distributing food and cash.
Funding shortfalls, however, continue to limit operations.
The current WFP project is just 32 percent funded, with at least $28.1
million needed to continue operations through the end of December. The
current budget allows WFP to cover just 45 percent of needs in those areas
where the work is concentrated.
mk/jl/am
Access report online <http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=101544>
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