Action Against Hunger warns of poor food security in Mongolia

Action Against Hunger opens winter soup kitchens for the poorest

Ulan-Bator, Mongolia, December 23, 2003 - Since the overnight
transition from a command economy to a market economy at the end of the 1990s,
Mongolia, an ex-Communist country, has seen its state infrastructure crumble,
while unemployment in its urban centres has risen continuously.

At the same time, Mongolia has seen several consecutive years of
unprecedented extreme climate conditions, with harsh winters (called "dzüüd"),
followed by dry summers. This has had a devastating impact on the country's
cattle population, thus depriving the rural population of its food security.
This has, in turn, resulted in domestic migration from the rural areas to the
already deprived urban areas that are incapable of catering for the excluded:
"Countless cattle-breeders who have lost their livelihoods are trying to settle
in the towns, mostly in vain. The country is not at all prepared for natural
disasters," says Luc Verna, Action Against Hunger's Head of Mission of in
Mongolia.

Hence, the most vulnerable or marginalised families are increasingly
concentrating in Ulan-Bator. "Living conditions are deteriorating, first in the
rural areas, and then in the cities, with real impoverishment in the cities and
social disintegration."

These parts of the population are marginalised by the country's authorities
and are excluded from the national statistics in order to give the false
impression of strong economic growth (with an increase of 5% in 2003) and not to
spoil the image of an idyllic tourist destination.

Authorities fail to cater for basic needs

Action Against Hunger, which has been working in Mongolia since October 2001,
is aiming to reduce the nutritional impact of poverty in Ulan-Bator and
providing cattle-breeders in the far western province of the country with
resources to enable them to cope with the risk of extreme climate conditions and
natural disaster in order to halt the rural exodus. As this winter is going to
be yet another extremely harsh one in Mongolia, with temperatures as low as
-40°C, Action Against Hunger is once again opening soup kitchens for the
marginalised parts of the population of Ulan-Bator, such as the homeless, street
children, the unemployed and the retired, with 300 to 600 hot meals served every
day until April next year.

Throughout the summer, Action Against Hunger focuses on the development of
market gardens in the nearby outskirts of the capital, a deprived area bordering
on the steppe, in order to diversify the range of food supplies and to generate
a small income to cater for the basic needs of this population. At the same
time, Action Against Hunger runs porridge distributions all year round, to fight
against malnutrition in children.

In the rural areas in the Western part of the country, a programme has been
put in place in order to increase the ability of cattle-breeders to cope with
the harsh winter conditions, by building up emergency fodder supplies and
constructing cattle shelters.

About Action Against Hunger

Action Against Hunger / Action Contre la Faim (ACF), an international relief and development organization committed to saving the lives of malnourished children and families, provides sustainable access to safe water and long-term solutions to hunger. For nearly three decades, ACF has pursued its vision of a world without hunger by combating hunger in emergency situations of conflict, natural disaster, and chronic food insecurity.

Press Contact

Action Against Hunger - USA

James L. Phelan
Senior External Relations Officer, ACF-USA
Contact James Phelan
Direct: 212-967-7800 x108
Cell: 646-265-7796