Poor rains push Djibouti's hungry pastoralists towards the city
07 December 2012 15.17 GMT
People are migrating towards Djibouti City but urban areas are experiencing
high food prices and unemployment
Successive years of poor rains have eroded the coping mechanisms of
pastoralists in <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/djibouti> Djibouti's rural
regions, as high food prices and unemployment rates afflict the country's
urban areas. These factors are increasing vulnerability to food insecurity
and spurring <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/migration>
migration.
The area of Balbala, about 10km outside 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 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
17,000 refugees. "I don't know how they are getting along. What we need most
is food," he said.
About 70,000 people in rural Djibouti are food insecure. More than 60% of
household food supply is being met by food assistance in the north-west
pastoral zone, according to an October 2012 to March 2013
<
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/food-security> food security
outlook by the famine early warning systems network (
<
http://www.fews.net/pages/country.aspx?gb=dj> Fewsnet).
In the south-east 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, 43% 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%.
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 droughts. To cope, Farah
has split up his family - two of his children are staying with relatives in
Djibouti City.
Unemployment and high prices
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 ($28)
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, according
to Fewsnet. Water is also more expensive. A jerrycan of water sells for 150
francs, up from 50 francs last year, according to Balbala residents. "The
water companies say 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%, 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% of the land
in Djibouti is arid and the ecosystem fragile; the country also has few
natural resources. These and other factors force it 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, although 98% of nursing mothers in
Djibouti breastfed their infants, only 24.5% did so exclusively, Bachir
said. "The challenge is: how can we narrow the gap between the 98% and the
24.5%?"
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%," he said, adding 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 organisations 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 the WFP;
<
http://data.worldbank.org/country/djibouti> Djibouti's population of about
900,000 is mainly urban. The WFP is 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 to some professional training, for example," Touchette said.
During the country's lean season, from July to September, the WFP, alongside
three local NGOs and the state secretary for national solidarity, provided
food vouchers to around 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 Switzerland.
Djibouti is among the Horn of <
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/africa>
Africa countries that endorsed the Intergovernmental Authority on
Development
<
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> 2010-11 drought. IDDRSI aims to help to end drought emergencies
through long-term development initiatives focusing on the region's arid and
semi-arid areas.
Received on Fri Dec 07 2012 - 22:36:23 EST
