Eritrea: Small Country, Big Needs

(USAID keeps African state on its "radar") (620)
By Sarah Bloxham
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Even though Eritrea has a small population, its vital
food security needs are not escaping the notice of the United States
Agency for International Development (USAID), says Lauren Landis,
Director of the USAID Office of Food for Peace.

"Not only is Eritrea not falling off our radar screen, but we are
watching the screen very closely," said Landis, who oversees more than
$1,500 million in food aid to over 100 countries. She was speaking to
the Washington File only two weeks before President Bush makes his
first trip to Africa July 7-12.

On June 26, USAID announced an additional 26,000 metric tons in food
assistance, worth $10.6 million, was being sent to Eritrea.

Landis said this close attention is possible through a USAID-funded
service called the Famine Early Warning Systems (FEWS) network that
monitors and reports on food insecurity conditions in 18 countries in
Africa.

Eritrea appeared in the "Urgent Action Required" section of the June
15 FEWS weekly overview, which reported: "Serious and widespread food
insecurity [in Eritrea] persists despite emergency relief operations.
Below average and patchy azmera rains in April-May negatively affected
planting and germination of long-cycle crops, which critically depend
on good performance of the Kremti rains between June and August."

"FEWS gives us these alerts and tells us how each set of rains is
going," said Landis. "We are among the first to know what might be
happening and what we need to do in terms of assistance."

USAID has contributed 144,680 metric tons of food aid to the
drought-affected Eritrean population in 2003, which is about half the
total food aid the World Food Program estimates the country will need.
More than 1.4 million of the country's 4 million people need relief
from the impact of the drought.

Landis was positive about assistance to the small African country.
"The really good thing about Eritrea is that you sense that things
really work. When you send in a metric ton of food aid, you do not
fear that metric ton will be pilfered and lost," she said. "There is
also a really good sense that the Eritrean people do not really want
to be on food aid. They will tell you, ‘We need it now, but we don't
want food aid. We want to take care of ourselves.'"

The Food for Peace director also noted some of Eritrea's advantages
compared to other African countries. "Markets work a lot better in
Eritrea than they do in Ethiopia. That's really critical."

In a trip to Eritrea and Ethiopia last October, Landis noticed that
the children in Eritrea appear to be suffering less than their
counterparts across the border. "However they have done it, they have
been able to keep the population more together, maintaining a few more
assets and keeping the children from getting so malnourished," she
said.

Eritrea does have policies that could be improved, according to
Landis, including its requirement of universal military service. "The
problem is that the military service takes a lot of productive assets
away from building the economy and from building food security," she
said. She also mentioned the waste of resources resulting from the war
with Ethiopia.

Overall, Landis was optimistic about the future food security
situation in Eritrea. "We strongly believe that we won't be delivering
food aid to Eritrea for the next 20 years," she stated. "They're on
the right track. We want to help them out when they need assistance,
but we feel that the will is there to make their population food
secure."

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)