World Vision welcomes new aid for Africa

Friday, July 22, 2016

World Vision Australia welcomes the federal government’s commitment of $17.5 million to support people suffering from severe hunger and malnutrition in South Sudan, Somalia and the Lake Chad basin.

More than 60 million people, two thirds of them in east and southern Africa, are facing food shortages because of droughts linked to El Nino in Africa’s worst food crisis since 1985.

The United Nations food agency has declared its highest-level emergency in southern Africa, while up to 4.8 million people are facing severe food shortages in South Sudan due to conflict.

On World Refugee Day, last month, World Vision chief executive Tim Costello urged Australia “not to abandon Africa”, despite the shift in Australian priorities to the Pacific region.

Australian aid to Sub-Saharan Africa was slashed by 70 per cent as part of $11 billion in aid cuts by the Coalition Government over the past three years.

In making the announcement, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said Australia will provide $8 million to the South Sudan Humanitarian Fund and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, to help deliver food, shelter, security, and other vital assistance.

Australia will provide $4.5 million to Somalia, where more than one million people have been displaced by conflict, including $2.5 million to World Vision to help build the resilience of Somali communities and $2 million to the Somalia Humanitarian Fund for assistance including food, healthcare and water.

World Vision is the lead agency on the US$30 million Somalia Resilience Program which increases the resilience of war-affected Somali communities. More than 300,000 children under the age of 5, or one in eight, are estimated to be acutely malnourished.

Australia will also provide $5 million through the World Food Programme for immediate food supplies, livelihood training and nutrition in the Lake Chad basin region, where more than 2 million people have fled their homes and 7.5 million people are facing hunger.

For interview requests, contact Stuart Rintoul 0407 241 492

Media Releases, Food Security, Somalia, South Sudan

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