29-10-02

Barrett raises questions over Southern African famine

John Barrett, Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West and member of the House of Commons Select Committee on International Development, today raised serious questions over the failure of Government to heed early warnings of the famine in Southern African.

Mr Barrett's actions came during an evidence session of the Select Committee into the causes and lessons of the famine which has left over 14 million people in the region starving. Several heads from the International Development Department (DFID) gave evidence.

John Barrett MP said:

"There are serious questions over why DFID failed to take proper notice of early warnings given by people on the ground as early as August 2001, who predicted the famine in countries like Malawi.

"DFID instead put stock in the poor advice of others, including untrained officials, who gave exaggerated figures on the expected harvest of maize and root crops.

"Clearly, DFID must improve the quality of its data collection to ensure that early warning systems which are in place are effective and guarantee similar mistakes do not occur again."

ENDS

 

Notes to Editors

* 14.4 million people are estimated to requiring food aid in the Southern African countries Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique, representing 25% of the total population. * Approximately 1 million metric tonnes of food aid is required until March 2003.