wfn.org | CWS - New survey reveals West Timor's acute food security crisis

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

New survey reveals West Timor's acute food security crisis

Pushed by climate change, malnutrition 'Worse than many regions in Africa'

Church World Service is providing nutrition assistance, sustainable 
agriculture solutions

JAKARTA, May 22, 2008 -- Against the backdrop of a rapidly worsening 
world food crisis, more than 91 percent of households in Indonesia's 
West Timor region are suffering hunger and alarming levels of 
malnutrition because of inadequate access to food, according to a new 
report issued today by global humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS).

In four West Timor districts surveyed, CWS reports about 50 percent 
of infants and young children are moderately and/or severely 
underweight--significantly higher than in African countries overall, 
where 21.9 percent of small children are underweight, according to a 
January report in The Lancet.*

Julia Suryantan, coordinator of the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit 
for Church World Service Indonesia, says CWS is urging immediate 
world attention to the crisis to prevent deaths among small children 
and to lessen permanent developmental damage to children under age five.

The West Timor districts surveyed in the report included Kupang, 
Timur Tengah Selatan (TTS), Timur Tengah Utara (TTU) and Belu, which 
have a combined population of 1.5 million. The survey is a 
collaboration of CWS Indonesia, CARE and Helen Keller International 
and was supported by the United Nations Office for the Coordination 
of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and UNICEF. The group surveyed mothers 
and infants and children under age five, as a barometer of the 
magnitude of nutrition, health and food security problems across West 
Timor's population.

> Food crisis driven by climate change

In the face of a global food crisis that many say is primarily 
market-derived, West Timor is a microcosm of another man-made cause 
of food insecurity: climate change. Crops of family farmers in the 
region have suffered the devastating effects of global warming's 
unpredictable weather patterns for over a decade.

"Due to continued poor food production from season to season and due 
to poverty, households just don't have adequate access to food in 
either quantity or nutritional quality," says Church World Service 
Deputy Director of Programs Maurice Bloem, who until this year was 
country director of CWS Indonesia for the past eight years.

"In the survey, among under-five age children, we found a very high 
prevalence of wasting and stunting**--signs of acute and chronic 
malnutrition," says Bloem.

> The survey found:

- 13.1 percent overall of under-five aged children are suffering 
acute malnutrition, as evidenced in wasting,* indicating a critical 
emergency food insecurity situation.

- 61.1 percent overall of children from birth to age 59 months are 
suffering chronic malnutrition, as evidenced in stunting.*

- 58.4 percent of children three to 59 months are suffering iron 
deficiency anemia, with the rate rising to more than 80 percent among 
those aged three to 23 months.

- By comparison, the world Health Organization estimates that about 
42 percent of preschool children across all developing countries 
suffer from anemia.

- More than half of West Timor's children from birth to 59 months are 
underweight (47.8 percent overall across the districts surveyed, to 
as high as 50.2 percent in TTS district).

- 24 percent of non-pregnant mothers are experiencing thinness--high 
by WHO criteria and indicative of food insecurity--and 35.8 percent 
overall are experiencing anemia. Mothers who are undernourished 
before and during pregnancy are more likely to give birth to 
low-birth weight infants and are less able to care for their children 
or participate in income-generating activities.

CWS's Bloem says the survey also found a high degree of infectious 
diseases, particularly diarrhea caused by poor hygiene, water and 
sanitation, and acute respiratory infection among small children, as 
a result of poor hygiene and low immune system.

For its part, the Indonesian government, through its national health 
system, has established nationwide community-sponsored sub-village 
health service posts or posyandu to provide basic elements of monthly 
maternal and child health care such as growth monitoring, 
immunization, maternal health care and family planning, in an effort 
reduce infant and mother sickness and deaths.

The government has reported a 34 percent reduction in deaths among 
children who received Vitamin A supplements under an initiative that 
provides the capsules to 80 percent of Indonesian children ages six 
to 59 months of age.

But, says CWS's Bloem, "Other solutions are needed as well, to 
respond to the current food security and malnutrition crisis and 
prevent future environmentally-provoked food deficits." The CWS 
survey recommends that the Indonesian government endorse and expand 
use of Ready to Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF) as part of malnutrition 
case management in the country and urges dietary diversification, 
targeted food assistance, and more use of micronutrient supplements 
to decrease malnutrition.

Actions already underway and proposed for speeding up include 
collaborative efforts between the Indonesian government, NGOs, and 
community leaders, ranging from expanded nutritional interventions to 
sustainable agriculture methods and crop diversification designed to 
address the challenges.

In response to the situation in his district, Rafael Aploegi, 
District Development Planning Board in Timor Tengah Selatan, said, 
"To have a comprehensive solution, the support of all parties 
including the international community is needed. So far there has 
been support from the international community, and I thank you for 
that. However, with the existing conditions, overall long term 
sustainable assistance is required, aside from urgent short term 
assistance to prevent children mortality."

U.S.-based Heinz Foundation, CWS collaborating on nutrient supplement program

CWS also announced today it is starting collaboration with the H. J. 
Heinz Company Foundation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for provision 
of micronutrient supplements.

As reflected in programs that CWS already is supporting in West 
Timor, Bloem says, "We're urging broader and immediate support from 
donors and world bodies to establish income generating activities for 
poor households, food or cash for work initiatives, and to help 
provide safe drinking water."

CWS now supports sustainable agriculture programs, education and 
training in the region, such as seed solutions specific to the 
locale, small scale irrigation, and improved drainage to help family 
farmers institute growing methods that deliver rapid results and 
mitigate now-unpredictable, prolonged droughts.

CWS Indonesia's work in West Timor, which began in 2000, includes 
emergency assistance for refugees and internally displaced persons 
and nutrition and agriculture programs in several sub-districts.

In past years CWS received relatively short-term funding but now is 
looking for the longer-term funding necessary to address West Timor's 
acute and chronic malnutrition issues and to continue the agency's 
sustainable agriculture programs.

> 'We rang, no one answered'

"We rang the emergency bell early in the summer of 2006, but nobody 
answered or seemed to be willing to get into next gear then," says 
Bloem. At that time, Church World Service called for urgent action to 
address the West Timor situation, including strengthening of existing 
health and nutrition programs and re-establishing a nutrition and 
health surveillance system to monitor vulnerable regions of Indonesia.

An executive summary of the survey is available at:

www.cwsindonesia.or.id/page/sasando/doc/2008-05-09_executivesum.pdf

Church World Service is a humanitarian agency providing emergency 
relief and recovery, sustainable development, human rights advocacy, 
and refugee resettlement and protection services worldwide. The 
agency is funded by public donations, grants and by 35 member 
denominations in the U.S.

* The Lancet, www.thelancet.com , Vol. 371, January 19, 2008, p. 245, 
"Maternal and Child Undernutrition 1: global and regional exposures 
and health consequences," "Childhood underweight, stunting, and wasting"

** Stunting is the result of extended periods of inadequate food and 
refers to the failure to reach ones biological potential for growth. 
Wasting, or acute malnutrition, indicates significant recent or 
current weight loss and is measured in terms of weight for height. 
Wasting typically reflects nutritional deprivation resulting from 
temporary but extreme circumstances such as famine or illness.

Media Contact:

Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676; lcrosson@churchworldservice.org

> Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526; jdragin@gis.net