Ethiopia feeding programme still having trouble

NAIROBI, July 28 (Reuters) - Problems with an Ethiopian programme to help 5 million chronically hungry people by giving them cash and food in exchange for work is creating "a man-made disaster," an Ethiopian government report said on Thursday. Ethiopia's "Safety Net" programme, launched in January with Western funding, is suffering delays in distributing cash and food to beneficiaries who are not receiving emergency food aid they would be getting if not in the programme, the report said. "The inadequate implementation of the (Safety Net Programme) is resulting in a man-made disaster in many areas of the country," the Ethiopian Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Commission said in its report. The programme was heralded as a way to keep 5 million chronically hungry people in Ethiopia self-sufficient and off of food aid, by teaching them how to diversify their livelihoods and paying them for work on projects like building roads. The 5 million are separate from the at least 3 million in Ethiopia this year who need emergency food aid. The report said that by the end of May, only two months worth of food or cash transfers had been sent out to the districts, which distribute them to the recipients. Of that, only 11 percent of cash and 44 percent of food had reached the beneficiaries. In some cases, there is not enough food in local markets to be bought with the money, the report said. A spokesman for the Ethiopian Agriculture Ministry said the problems have mostly been fixed and the benefits are getting to at least 80 percent of the people who are owed them. "The Safety Net is a new programme and with any new programme there are shortcomings but most of these have now been sorted out," spokesman Mulugeta Debalkew said. The programme, which costs $200 million, is funded by Britain, the European Commission, the United States and the World Bank. In April, Ethiopia said the number of those requiring emergency food aid had jumped to 3 million from earlier estimates of 2.2 million because of delays in the programme's roll-out. Landlocked Ethiopia, after a costly 1998-2000 war with neighbour Eritrea, is struggling to feed many of its 72 million people. (For more news about emergency relief visit Reuters AlertNet http://www.alertnet.org email: alertnet@reuters.com; +44 207 542 2432)