East Africa Famine

First of all let’s take stock of exactly what has happened. In East Africa this year there was the worst drought in sixty years. Now, the countries of Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti are all facing hunger problems on a catastrophic scale.  The  lack of rain is far from being the end of the story though regarding why this has happened.

One factor that has been mentioned in connection to the famine is the rise in population that has occurred in some of the affected areas. The region has seen a doubling in population over the last twenty four years. This sounds dramatic, but it is doubtful whether you can really call the region over populated. There are for instance less than thirteen people per square kilometre – far less than most of the developed world. When you take into account the low levels of consumption of the people in this region as well, it is obvious that too many people is not the root of the problem.

The rise in the price of food has been a far more disastrous factor than the rise in population. During the ‘80s and ‘90s prices were fairly reasonable. In February of this year food prices hit their highest ever level.  Poor growing conditions contributed to this, but so did other factors, like the cost of fuel and the use of grain to produce bio-diesel rather than feeding people.

European legislation made increasing the amount of biofuels being used a priority. The (presumably) unintended consequence of this has been massive land grabs as well as the turning over of food production land to fuel crops. The high price in food in Europe has also led to much of the food that is being produced going to export instead of the local market.   

Another big problem has been corruption and political instability in the region. The kind of infrastructure that should have been developed to deal with problems such as this simply hasn’t been developed – with the huge amounts of aid being pumped into the region often seemingly doing little but support the corruption.

There is an immediate need to provide basic humanitarian relief. It is estimated that something in the region of 30,000 children have already died as a result of the crisis, and the world cannot stand by and watch this figure increase. At the same time there is a burning need to ensure that real progress is made in taking the region forward to a situation where this cannot happen again.

Oxfam are an iconic presence when it comes to famine relief work. With the East Africa appeal that they are running at the moment there is a duel focus, both on helping to provide the immediate relief, but also in putting on pressure for some systemic changes in the region.

The last quarter of a century of aid and foreign policy has failed. The next twenty five must not be allowed to do the same.