|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
More than 9 000 people died and nearly 3 million were left homeless when Mitch cut across Central America between 26 October and 1 November. Floodwaters and mudslides swept away buildings and roads. Fields of maize, beans and sorghum were laid waste. Honduras and Nicaragua were hardest hit, with Honduras losing more than half its staple maize crop. Losses in coffee and other export crops added up to an estimated US$ 480 million. The region faced both an immediate humanitarian crisis and a long-term threat to food security.
The international response was swift and effective. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) sought US$ 150 million for relief and rehabilitation. The World Food Programme (WFP) responded immediately with food aid. FAO organized the distribution of seeds, fertilizers and hand tools to help farmers in the hardest-hit rural communities feed their families as soon as possible.
Work has now begun on rebuilding the agricultural sector. Improved farming practices are being introduced that will reduce environmental degradation and vulnerability to future disasters. Hurricane Mitch could not have been avoided. But manmade factors greatly increased its destructive impact.
The most deadly mudslides swept down slopes denuded by deforestation and cultivation of marginal lands. Flooding was aggravated by poor watershed management. The most affected countries are attempting to address structural problems that contributed to the disaster by examining land tenure practices, supporting reforestation projects and providing training in watershed management. International financial institutions have made commitments to provide up to US$ 5 300 million over the next four years. While more deeply rooted economic problems are likely to persist, the recovery programme should prevent increases in food insecurity and vulnerability throughout the region.
Even as hope takes root in Central America, severe flooding in several countries of east and southeast Asia and withering drought in the Near East have threatened to set back progress toward the Summit goals. For the Near East region as a whole, production of cereals in 1999 is expected to fall 16 percent below the previous harvest. But the losses from the worst drought in decades will be far greater in Iran, Iraq, Jordan and Syria. Several thousand farmers, small-scale herders and landless rural households who have lost their means of livelihood will require assistance to tide them over until next year. As in Central America, however, there is currently no evidence to suggest that these setbacks will be more than transitory in either Asia or the Near East.
Factors that
bring about change
War and
complex emergencies strain aid
resources
Financial
crisis undermines Asian progress
