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ASMARA -- Eritrea on Wednesday rejected criticism of a controversial food aid policy that some fear has cut off critical assistance to people in need and left donations rotting in warehouses.
A day after a senior UN humanitarian envoy urged Eritrea to yield to donor concerns and release and distribute nearly 100,000 tons of food aid now locked in storage, Asmara said that it was confident of its current strategy.
In a lengthy editorial, the state-run English-language Eritrea Profile newspaper denounced those who would criticize its so-called "cash-for-work" scheme that intends to end dependence on free food handouts.
"Those who use foreign aid to disguise their political motives and agendas have been trying and continue to try to belittle this progressive policy by distributing wrong and misleading information," it said.
It said that its strategy aims to reduce dependency and the free distribution of food aid and replace it with programs in which Eritreans are paid for development work and use their earnings to purchase comestibles.
"The 'cash-for-work' scheme will reduce market distortion since food assistance will be monetized in a more transparent and direct way," the paper said, adding that the program had "multi-faceted dividends".
"It assures better consumer choice, eliminates dependence, enables able-bodied persons to engage in productive activities and creates no distortion in the economy," it said.
There has been rising concern among diplomats and aid workers in Eritrea about the effect of the policy since the government slashed the number of free food aid recipients by 95 percent in September, from 1.3 million to 70,000.
The move was designed to speed the implementation of the "cash-for-work" scheme but foreign observers in Eritrea say that they have seen little evidence that the program has become operational.
In addition, the often-secretive state has also expelled a number of aid organizations, including the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and left more than 90,000 tons of donated food aid in warehouses.
Diplomats and aid workers fear that some of the assistance may be rotting even as Eritrea, along with other Horn of Africa countries, is suffering from a searing drought that has put at least 11 million people on the brink of starvation.
On Tuesday in Nairobi, Kjell Magne Bondevik, the UN special humanitarian envoy for the Horn of Africa, urged Eritrea to release the aid after making the same appeal to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki in Asmara last week.
Asmara has thus far showed no signs of budging in its insistence that "cash-for-work", as the Eritrea Profile described it, "is the most appropriate and optimal scheme" for the country. source: Middle East Times |
