Berlin (d.de) – Germany plans closer collaboration with the UN World Food Programme in the Sahel Region of Africa. This was agreed by Germany’s Development Minister Svenja Schulze and the new head of the WFP, Cindy McCain, at a meeting in Berlin. The main aim of the joint effort is to strengthen self-help forces in the region, which according to the Federal Development Ministry the UN see as a new epicentre for Islamist terrorism. The partnership with the WFP is part of the Sahel Plus Initiative, which Minister Schulze proposed in early May.
“We can’t leave crisis regions like the Sahel to fend for themselves. Doing so would leave a vacuum which terror groups will misuse for their own ends,” warned Germany’s Development Minister Schulze. She stressed that long-term success cannot be achieved simply by delivering sacks of grain and water tanks. In Schulze’s view, self-help programmes are more successful, “so people can farm for themselves, make an income and send their children to school.” If it proves possible to make land in Sahel fertile again and bring back agriculture, this would also eradicate the causes of hunger and conflict, she said.
WFP Executive Director Cain also stressed that the long-term stabilisation of crisis regions requires a holistic approach to food aid. The goal was “fighting hunger, strengthening women, keeping children in school and combating forced migration by creating prospects for young people, and supporting smallholders in fighting the climate crisis,” she said.She praised the Sahel Resilience Initiative as “a flagship project which shows how development partnerships in fragile reasons can tackle several crises at once and deliver tangible solutions.”
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