Famine in the Horn of Africa: How have things changed?

How have things changed?

Sep 5th 2011, 17:27 by J.L. | NAIROBI

IN THE worst hunger crisis the world has seen this century, in the Horn of Africa, 29,000 children may already have perished. More are certain to. But apart from hand-wringing, what have been the reactions to the famine?

The world might think it has moved on since the Ethiopian famine of 1984-85. But charities are using the same emotive photos they used then to pitch for money. Television cameras are just as intrusive—perhaps more so. Camera crews have been thrown out of a hospital in the Dadaab refugee camp, in Kenya, in an effort to preserve the dignity of the patients. "Without pictures it is difficult to get action," laments an Ethiopian government official. Even so, the media cycle has changed since the pre-internet days. So has Africa itself.

The celebrity appeal for this famine is coming from Africans themselves. An organisation called Africans Act 4 Africa says it wants to gather together African stars to raise money and awareness. It claims Kenyans have already texted in $2m in donations on their mobile phones. If it continues to have a voice on Facebook and Twitter, Act 4 Africa's bigger influence may be to compel African governments to be more generous. The United Nations says it has only $1.3 billion of the $2.4 billion it needs to assist the 12m people in need in the region. However ambiguous those numbers are, there is no doubting the miserable response of African countries so far. Only a handful have pledged anything. The biggest contribution has come from South Africa. But it has given just $1m and a planeload of food, though its farmers profiting from rising food prices. More positive has been the response of African businesses. Kenyan companies have given $4m in famine relief. Abdirashid Duale, the owner of Dahabshiil, Somalia's biggest money transfer company, has given $100,000. "Just the beginning," Mr Duale says.

The famine has prompted a shift in American foreign policy, for now at least. Robert Paarlberg, a food policy expert at Wellesley College, argues that the American administration has focused on counter-terrorism in Somalia at the expense of investing in agriculture or helping the people. Now the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, says America will not prosecute charities who deal with the al-Qaeda-linked Shabab militia as long as they are engaged in "good-faith" efforts to help the dying. Mr Paarlberg argues that the famine in the 1980s coincided with a drop in official American funding for farmers in Africa. Again, Mrs Clinton seems determined not to make the same mistake. She underlined the importance of spending on long-term recovery in the Horn of Africa during a visit to an agriculture think-tank in Washington. DC.

The Ethiopian and Kenyan governments have been particularly torn in their response to the famine. Ethiopia says it needs more cash from donors to feed 5m of its 82m people. But it is also desperate to avoid being defined again by hunger. Prime Minister Meles Zenawi made a state visit to China last week to extol investment opportunities. A $163m deal by a Dutch brewer, Heineken, to buy up two state-owned Ethiopian beer labels, with ambitions to replace German malt with local malt, is just one example of the bustle away from the famine.

For Kenya, the hundreds of thousands of Somalis drifting into the country is a national security issue. Kenyan officials worry that the Dadaab camp, which already has over 400,000 registered refugees, is going to mutate into a Somali city inside its borders. Fundraising aside, the famine has not been an urgent issue in Kenya. The pressure on food and fuel prices for those in the cities is more politically charged. The World Bank says the price of maize is getting more attention: a competing news story this week was the opening of the first Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Kenya.

The famine has conveniently underlined the existing views of many experts. In inflated prices and stolen food anti-corruption campaigners see proof of how aid rots everything it touches. Climatologists see evidence of climate change. The Indian Ocean is warming up, they venture, and the poorest Africans will suffer the consequences in drought and volatile rains.

Today, in contrast to 1984-85, the argument against deathly images is stronger. Majka Burhardt, a climber and motivational speaker who works to promote a positive impression of Ethiopia, argues for interspersing the negative with positive images. "What would happen if an image of a lush coffee forest was flashed on the screen?" she asks. "A lake? A working clinic?"

For better or for worse, the famine is useful platform. Many of the world's development ministers have made the trek to Dadaab, in part to boost the profile of their ministries. Deborah Doane of the World Development Movement, a lobby for "fairer world trade", points out that donor money only buys half as much food as it did a decade ago. The steep rise in food prices, she argues, is the result of speculation in the futures markets; the famine is a chance for stricter financial regulation. In the end though, everyone looks to the sky. As one World Food Programme official notes, "aid cannot make it rain."

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khmTzic3YT wrote:

Sep 6th 2011 4:17 GMT

I apologize if you have read this before, but this essay is still pertinent.

In 1960, China was experiencing their worst famine in history. At the time, China was overpopulated, impoverished, and running out of resources. People were malnourished, racked by disease and dying in the streets--worst than North Korea or Sudan today.

Africa by contrast, was the future: embracing western education, courting business, and accepting any and all Western Aid. It had oil, fertile farmland, abundant water, forests, minerals, and diamonds. Friendly people. Accepting of science, medicine and vaccinations. And NGO Aid came and became institutionalized. The UN poured resources in by the billions!

The Chinese leaders took a different tact from Africa. They denied any NGO, UN, or private relief organization access. The Chinese refused Aid and more was shunted to Africa. The Chinese suffered the famine and millions died.

But a valuable lesson was learned. Never again. And efforts were redoubled. And instead of aid, China worked on cultivating sustainable trade. Being a low cost producer for cheap trinkets for gum ball machines, cheap footware, clothing and housewares. Factory jobs, dirty jobs, tedious jobs--they sought the business at cut rate prices. They learned and moved up the value chain.

And China lifted 300 million from absolute abject poverty into sustainable working class. This is the single largest poverty reduction program in the history of the world! Probably the most significant Social Event of the 20th Century.

And today China is the 2nd largest economy in the world, growing faster than 90% of world economies, and poised to become the largest by 2016.(IMF 2011)

Africa has declined in the worst nightmare way. Accepting Aid, brought dependence, corruption, lack of accountable government and overall a learned helplessness. Civil war, guerrilla warfare, genocide, major recurring natural disasters, piracy.

NGOs are present not for acute crisis but for decades if not generations. And their presence perpetuates their need for future generations. Aid came to Ethiopia and Somalia in the 60s. It was another drought that brought them in again in the 80s. And now it is another emergency in 2011.

What is the long term success of current relief aid programs? It is an endless cycle of aid dependence and perpetuation. Your great, great, great grandchild will be solicited to donate to African Aid relief.

International Relief Aid is at best a mixed blessing. We do not need celebrities with occasional telethons or African Aid Relief Concert Tours. Fashionable, Poster Child of the Month, only to be dumped a few months later because our patience has grown weary. Why are they still hungry?

The Market is the best social program. And we should learn from the Chinese example. The Africans deserve better.

Africa

Baobab

Famine in the Horn of Africa

How have things changed?

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