Feb 21 2013
Noting "[t]he 2013 Sahel Regional Strategy (.pdf) calls for $1.66 billion to help meet humanitarian needs and build up resilience among vulnerable groups -- an identical figure to the 2012 crisis appeal -- even though aid agencies estimate the number of Sahelians at risk of going hungry this year has dropped 44 percent to 10.3 million," IRIN examines "why the ask has remained constant." The news service interviews a number of aid agency representatives, including Allegra Baiocchi, head of the U.N.'s West Africa Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA); David Gressly, humanitarian coordinator for the Sahel; Cyprien Fabre, European Union funding body ECHO's West Africa head; and Elise Ford, Sahel advocacy lead at Oxfam. "'It's not just about malnutrition and food,' said OCHA's Baiocchi. 'These are multi-dimensional problems with multi-dimensional solutions,'" the news service writes (2/19).
|
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
|