Figure: A woman holding her malnourished baby queues for food at the Badbado camp for Internally Displaced Persons in Somalia during the 2011 famine in the Horn of Africa. 

IFPRI April 6, 2017

by Suresh Babu and Paul Dorosh

A month after the United Nations called for $4.4 billion for famine prevention, only 10 percent of the needed funds have been mobilized to help 20 million people on the verge of starvation and death in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen. Agencies implementing emergency operations are scrambling for resources.

Unfortunately, the real tragedy is not just the looming threat of another famine, but the collective amnesia of the important lessons gleaned from past disasters, which leaves institutions unprepared for the next round of droughts and famines. When the threat of famine subsides with the first sign of rain, the policymakers, NGOs, the public in affected countries, and development partners who were concerned about saving lives slide back to lethargy and complacency. Many return to whatever they were doing before famine struck—running projects, fighting local political adversaries, etc.—instead of doing the work needed to avert or mitigate the next famine threat. So with each famine, we start all over again. We have seen these “famine cycles” for the past 40 years. Why does this happen, and what can we do differently this time to break the cycle?

Current situation

Humanitarian agencies warn that current conditions could lead to one of the worst disasters in recent memory. In February, early warning systems indicated significant humanitarian aid would be needed for 20 million people in the four severely affected countries. In contrast, 11 million were affected in the last major famine in Horn of Africa in 2011; the famine of southern Africa in 2003-2004 threatened 14 million.

Current relief efforts are not nearly sufficient to meet the needs of affected populations. Ongoing conflicts in all four countries make it more difficult for agencies to deliver aid, and have weakened residents’ traditional coping strategies. Pre-famine conditions were already dire: For example, in South Sudan, 31 percent of children under five were stunted (low height for age) in 2014; 23 percent were wasted (low weight per height) even before this crisis, and the recent drought and civil war have only exacerbated the problem. In general, conflict zones are more vulnerable to famines because they disrupt food systems and divert resources away from the long-term investments required to build food security.

Such problems may appear intractable. But in fact, countries such as Ethiopia that have followed right policy paths in the last 20 years have avoided famines even under severe droughts. This suggests that, with the right combination of investments and policies, over time the threat of famine can be significantly reduced.

See more: https://www.ifpri.org/blog/strategies-preventing-recurring-famines-and-building-resilient-food-systems