$85.4m required to feed 1.9m Malawians
Humanitarian actors, currently finalising response plans to the relief needs of the 1.9 million food-insecure Malawians, require additional $85.4 million, the United Nations (UN) resident coordinator has disclosed.
The Humanitarian Country Team has prioritised three clusters such as food security and agriculture, health and nutrition and protection.
For immediate food needs, the cluster has mobilised $36.1 million leaving a gap of $21 million and a contingency amount of $40 million which brings the total gap to $61 million. The agricultural component requires $13.6 million.
“The total requirement for this cluster is therefore $85.4 million. This gap includes a $40 million contingency,” said Mia Seppo, UN resident coordinator in a statement released on Friday regarding Malawi Food Insecurity Humanitarian Update for October 2013.
The Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Report of June 2013 projects the food-insecure population to be 1 461 940 in 21 districts.
The total resource required is US$70.8 million for 1.5 million and $110.8 million for 1.9 million people.
The food security situation is expected to deteriorate due to a number of factors: green harvesting that occurred among food-insecure households the previous season due to the late onset of rain, increasing prices of food commodities, low supply of maize on the local markets and unavailability of maize in the government markets.
Despite the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security food balance sheet showing a maize surplus of 271 842 metric tonnes in the production season, most market players are reporting huge decreases in maize that is available in markets across Malawi.
