16 June 2008

Lome, Togo: The UN recently met in Rome  to discuss the global food crisis, and the World Bank has allocated funding for six countries in particular distress. One of these is Togo, where a UNV volunteer has helped launch an impromptu programme to meet immediate needs.

UNV volunteer Arnaud Blazy, a French national, is in charge of the World Food Programme (WFP) office in Lomé (supervised by the WFP country office for Benin and Togo). He is involved in a food distribution project in conjunction with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and CARE, an international NGO. The aim is to support a recovery initiative in the country's northern region that will prevent 20,000 people from consuming seeds they have been given by donors.

A deficit in Togo's rice, maize and sorghum production means it must import some cereal commodities, which inflates food prices out of the range of many people. Due to other factors such as poor harvests, stockpiling and economic circumstances, since 2004 some prices have tripled and people are resorting to eating seeds intended for future harvests.

Guided by a nutritionist and his line manager, Mr. Blazy's team created 'food baskets' for 4,000 households. The baskets contain a corn and soya blend (CSB) reinforced with extra protein, plus vegetable oil laced with vitamins. The baskets should provide each beneficiary with 300g of CSB and 20g of oil per day for a two-month period. Prior experience with similar programmes has shown the combinations to be very nutritionally effective and popular with the Togolese.

Since about 18 bags of CSB have to be shared around an average of five households, local people have become involved in the process, which started on 6 June. Women are often the heads of households in the villages WFP is working with, Mr. Blazy explains, so frequently act as focal points during the distribution.

Experienced in logistics, Mr. Blazy is also responsible for the design and implementation of the project, preparing budgets and supervising staff in coordination with local authorities and CARE. "It's a bit of everything," he remarks. "There's lots of responsibility and a lot of work. It is very challenging, but I am glad that with UNV and WFP I have the chance to do this work."

Mr. Blazy further explains that the food basket activity was not originally planned in the country office programme. "We had some food stocks left over from a programme we implemented for flood relief back in 2007... WFP finalized a food security study in the northern area during March and April 2008 and found that the June to July lean season would start early, so we decided to put the stocks to use," he says.

The distribution will be finished by around 17 June, but Mr. Blazy points out that more still needs to be done. "We would like make a more general distribution to vulnerable areas, and we are working on securing funding," he adds.