Hunger Crisis

The rankings: Who is most committed to reducing hunger?

Oct 20th, 2011 5:19 PM UTC
By ONE Partners

Lawrence Haddad is the Director of the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex. He is an economist and his main research interests are at the intersection of poverty, food insecurity and malnutrition. This blog post was reposted from the Development Horizons blog.

Last Sunday was World Food Day.

It is usually a time when lots of measures of hunger are updated and released. All of these measures use an out of date methodology for assessing hunger (based on food balance sheets which are estimates of food availability, not access or utilization) but that is another story.

More importantly World Food Day is a time to reflect on — and redouble — efforts to reduce hunger around the world.

 

But how do we know who is taking hunger reduction seriously?

It is vital to separate hunger outcomes from hunger reduction efforts and effort has to be contextualized by the resources and capacity available to a country.

The Institute of Development Studies (IDS), together with NGO partners, has developed a Hunger Reduction Commitment Index (HRCI) to try to measure who is making the biggest effort to reduce hunger. Using secondary data (9 variables covering anti-hunger spending, policies and legislation) we ranked 22 developing countries and 21 donor countries.

This is the kind of thing the FAO should be doing, and I hope they eventually take it over, but for now we are committed to developing it further.

The index ranking is still a draft (it is being peer reviewed) but the initial results are striking:

1. The top countries are Malawi (best), Guatemala, Brazil, Senegal with Ghana and Ethiopia tied at 5th. The bottom are Guinea Bissau (worst) Zambia, China, Nepal, with Lesotho and Bangladesh tied at 16th. China is the big surprise, coming in at 19th. It is a surprise because it usually ranks at the top of indices about who is doing well on hunger, but once we take out its hunger reduction numbers, the explicit commitment to hunger reduction does not show up in policies, spending or legislation. Of course if you have that level of hunger reduction (fueled by economic growth), explicit commitment probably does not matter so much. That is why it is important to cross-reference commitment with hunger levels and resources available.

2. Once you cross-reference the commitment levels with hunger, wealth, administrative capacity and voice and accountability scores, several off-diagonal situations are highlighted: high hunger and low commitment (notably Guinea Bissau, Zambia, Bangladesh, but also Nepal and Lesotho), low wealth and high commitment (e.g. Malawi, Ethiopia, and Tanzania), high administrative capacity and low commitment (e.g. Lesotho and China) and low public accountability and voice but high commitment (Ethiopia). This contextualization makes the HRCI more than an index, but helps it play a diagnostic role, guiding action from different stakeholders (governments, civil society, donors) to where their efforts can make the biggest difference.

3. On the donor countries, Denmark does best, with Switzerland worst. The UK comes in at joint 5th with France and Norway. South Korea, the new kid on the donor block, comes in at 12th — higher than Japan (13) Canada (14), the US (18).

We also collected primary data on 10 indicators in 3 countries (Zambia, Bangladesh and the UK) from in country “expert” panels (of around 30 people in each location, selected for as wide a range and balance of perspectives as possible) to give those governments a steer as to where these expert groups think they are relatively strong and relatively weak. For example in the UK the panel felt the UK government was strong on using evidence to inform policy but weak on working in a whole of government way.

I am a fan of relative rankings. I believe they provide positive motivation for action. Our hope is that civil society will find this index to be a useful addition to their toolkit in terms of putting pressure on governments to do something about hunger rather than simply talk about it.

We are developing the next phase of this work and will continue refining the index, updating the secondary data scores, updating the primary data collection while expanding the number of countries, working with civil society partners in country to help them use the index to support mobilization against hunger and to set up a baseline for evaluation of the index.

The full draft report can be found here.

Progress – Thanks to you

Sep 27th, 2011 3:50 PM UTC
By Stuart McWilliam

Thanks to the action you took on fighting famine in the Horn of Africa, world leaders are responding to public pressure and coming forward to help stop the starving.

220,000 supporters who signed our petition calling on governments to provide full, immediate funding to the food crisis. Since our campaign launch two months ago, an additional $700 million has been committed for the crisis, and a further $970m promised, including increases from Australia, Germany, the European Union, African countries and others.

This past Saturday, our CEO addressed the UN Emergency Summit and submitted the petition you signed. “While drought may be act of nature, famine is not. More than 200,000 of our members have added their voices to a global petition calling for world leaders to act now,” he declared.

(ONE CEO Michael Elliott addresses the United Nations meeting)

But we cannot lose momentum. ONE will continue to campaign on this vital issue. We’ll increase our pressure on leaders of wealthy countries when they meet at the G-20 Summit, demanding that they keep their promises to ensure people across Africa are hungry no more.  Watch out for this new phase of the campaign being launched next week with some high profile supporters.

 

Famine in Somalia: Never again, again

Sep 5th, 2011 5:31 PM UTC
By Jamie Drummond

This blog post originally appeared on AfricanArguments.org

It’s over a month since famine was declared in Somalia and alarm bells clearly rung about serious food shortages across Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia. 12 million people in the Horn of Africa are in desperate need of food, clean water and basic sanitation and we are all asking: how can this be happening again? In this past month we have seen differing responses locally, regionally and globally to the crisis. Already there are lessons we must learn about how to stop famine happening again.

As Richard Dowden noted previously on this blog there are many political factors that complicate the situation in Somalia. Any lasting solution will require a regional roadmap out of the Somali cycle of failed statism. Eritrea and others must be brought around a table with other regional governments, and representatives from wide cross section of Somali civil society. Maybe this famine will reenergise the too often stalled process. However politics is not the only factor here and there are other lessons to learn.

The response from the international community has been slow. As my colleague Adrian Lovett explained, in a recent Huffington Post blog, leaders such as the UK, US and Sweden have made substantial contributions to the appeal but other governments languish behind. The UN appeal remains $1 billion short of what is needed. Traditional European donors such as France and Germany are not pulling their weight. Nor are many of the Gulf States who have tremendous wealth generated from high oil prices and could fill the appeal gap with ease. That these global players drag their feet while children die is shameful, though the recent pledge from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to the Somalia appeal is a step in the right direction.

The response from Africa has been mixed. Last month ONE and Africa Gathering hosted an informal discussion with African diaspora leaders and international NGOs about the adequacy of the response to the crisis. The participants called for African leaders to step up more to lead the response. African countries and institutions including South Africa, the African Union (AU) and Kenya are contributing and yesterday’s AU pledging conference was unprecedented and raised a decent sum – though some nations could still do more. Donations from many African governments – Nigeria for example – or wealthy individuals have been modest. Africa has a number of billionaires these days as the advocates of the ‘Africa rising’ narrative rightly keep reminding us. African civil society also has a crucial role to play. Influential figures, not just from faith communities but also from the artistic, musical and sports world have real sway over the youth. The group AfricansAct4Africa is already bringing together many musicians and artists to bring attention to this issue, and leaders like Youssou N’Dour and Somalia’s own hip hop artist K’Naan are leading a new generation of African artists in this effort. This is a hugely positive development.

This is an assessment of the emergency response but if we are to stop starvation returning we must find long-term solutions. The famine early warning system should have been noted earlier higher up the political food chain. Plainly it is media attention that gets political attention, and the media only tune in once the images are shocking enough – which is too late. Any review of this crisis has to factor in the role of the international media as watchdog in these situations and help them play a more proactive role. I could imagine an emergency-prevention TV team charged with finding ways to tell the stories of slow-burning crises for prime time, in ways the audience won’t tune out but before the children start dying. This may seem far-fetched but it’s a creative challenge many in the media industries might relish. Call it a global community service for recovering media hacks.

Long-term investment in agriculture is also vital. At L’Aquila in 2009, G8 leaders promised $22 billion to agricultural development but with just one year to go until the deadline only a fifth of the money has been delivered. African governments also made pledges at Maputo in 2003 to invest 10% of their budgets on agriculture. So far only seven African nations have kept the promise, including Ethiopia. This is part of the reason why the situation in Ethiopia while very serious, is not as bad as it could be, or as bad as it was back in the early 1990s or mid 1980s. If we are to prevent future droughts becoming future famines long term investment in farming and food security infrastructure across the continent is essential.

The famine we see today was avoidable but it could also have been even worse. While it is too late for tens of thousands of children, there are hundreds of thousands more who need our help right now. We can’t just blame politics for their fate while sitting by and doing nothing. We must deal with the politics embedded into the way we deal with the crisis – the local issues that turn drought into famine, the regional complexities that make response slow and difficult, and the global neglect that means promises are rarely kept. We must learn these lessons and in the name of those who have died, declare this time for real: never again.

‘A poor man shames us all’

Aug 25th, 2011 2:23 PM UTC
By ONE Partners

Elizabeth Wright of Concern Worldwide explains the way of life of pastoralist communities living in northern Kenya — and how they have been affected by the drought.

For pastoralist communities of Northern Kenya such as the Borana tribe, cattle and rain are as vital to human life as air. Their herds are not only their primary source of food, but also inseparable from centuries-old cultural traditions linked to marriage, health and the naming of children. Cattle are at the heart of their way of living, and each are highly valued.

Pastoralists in the arid and semi-arid lands of Marsabit, northern Kenya, move from place to place about four times a year to find water and rangelands for the herds.

Men care for the animals, and the women build and pack portable, round huts made from grass and branches when the community moves from place to place with their herds to find water and pasture. They depend on two rainy seasons a year to provide the minimal resources they need to keep their livestock and families alive.

For the past two years in a row, the rains have totally failed in Northern Kenya — and the lives of pastoralists have been violently disrupted. In fact, rains have either failed or been insufficient for five of the past seven years. In 2011, the worst drought in six decades in East Africa has created the world’s worst food crisis, endangering the survival — and way of life ― of millions of pastoralists.

Buke Pulacha is feeling the pain. She is a Borana, living in the arid and semi-arid lands of Marsabit. Her husband left her many years ago to manage on her own with five children. She became one of the poorest in her community.

Buke Pulacha’s entire herd of cattle and goats was stolen by rustlers from a neighboring tribe, leaving her with no source of food or income.

But Buke says that the Borana have a saying: “A poor man shames us all.” The tribe will not let anyone go hungry or live without animals to tend. In fact, this culture of sharing is so strong in some communities that a person who refuses to help someone in need among them is stigmatized, along with their family, sometimes for generations. Buke’s brother gave her animals, and taught her sons to tend them.

Resources in Marsabit are always scarce — and cattle theft along borders of tribal lands is not uncommon.

Drought has killed the majority of cattle in Marsabit, and people are desperate. There is very little water or food, and this has intensified violence and cattle rustling among tribes.

A few weeks ago, as Buke’s brother and sons were returning home with their animals after grazing, rustlers from the neighboring Gabbra tribe ambushed them, armed with guns. They shot her brother in the arm, and stole most of the livestock, including all of Buke’s animals.

Buke Pulacha at the site where she buried her five-year-old son, Wario, who died from causes related to malnutrition

From one day to the next, Buke does not know where she will find food.

She says, “To get by, I am begging. I have received food from the Borana Area Chief, but he is also taking care of other families who have lost everything.” Her community is devastated, and no one has much to spare.

Buke has lost weight, and says that she fears for herself and her children. She walks a few dozen yards from her home to a pile of rocks surrounded by branches. This is where she buried her five-year-old son Wario. He died recently from causes related to malnutrition.

Buke says help must come soon. “I fear that my other children will suffer. I am putting all my hopes in the rains, but I pray that help will come before that.”

Indeed, if help does not arrive soon for drought-stricken communities in Kenya, it will be the shame of us all.

Concern is launching an emergency nutrition program and an emergency livelihoods program in the remote arid and semi-arid lands of Marsabit to provide lifesaving assistance to pastoralist communities devastated by drought.

-Elizabeth Wright, Concern Worldwide

Interview with the Wall Street Journal’s Roger Thurow

Oct 21st, 2009 10:06 AM UTC
By David Cole

A few weeks ago Roger Thurow, Wall Street Journal reporter and author of “Enough- Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty”, dropped in to the Berlin ONE office for a discussion with poverty activists. He also made time for a brief interview with ONE staff member Andreas Huebers…

Your book “Enough“ describes the global food crisis as consequence of political failure. What, in your opinion, are the most important political actions necessary to overcome that crisis?

Political will is most important…the will among the world’s leading politicians and statesmen to make a major assault on hunger. They must reverse the neglect of agricultural development in the developing world, particularly in Africa.  Investment in rural development and agricultural production has declined drastically over the past two decades, leaving the farming infrastructure in wretched shape in many countries. Also, as we point out in the book, Europe and the U.S. must get their policies right, namely that their agricultural subsidies don’t harm the farmers in the developing world and create trade imbalances.

As part of an American initiative, the G8 decided to invest $20 billion in agriculture. Do you think this is the right approach?

This is the first step in reversing the neglect of agriculture development.  First, the G8 governments must actually deliver the money that they have promised.  Then, as we say in the book, there must be a policy framework that allows these investments to flourish.

How do you think we should channel resources in order to effectively contribute to an improvement of global food security?

The investments would be best tailored to help the small farmers who make up the majority of the population in many African countries.  So many farming programs that we take for granted in the U.S. and Europe have fallen into grave disrepair in Africa: agricultural research, extension services to carry information to the farmers, irrigation systems, rural roads, market structures…The best investments, as we illustrate in the book, are those that bring incentives to these farmers to grow as much food as they can and then market any surplus production.

Are there positive examples – even in times of a food crisis – that demonstrate ways of overcoming the crisis?

One of the most positive examples is the life of Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution and Nobel Peace Prize winner, who recently died at the age of 95.  He showed how determined individuals can make a huge difference in the fight against hunger.  He also showed us that boosting agriculture production and reducing hunger in a time of increasing population is possible.  He gave the world the knowledge and the tools, and the moral imperative to attack hunger.

We have other positive examples in the book, such as Eleni Gabre-Madhin who has established the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange to increase the marketing opportunities for Ethiopian farmers.  And we describe how other individuals, be they in churches, corporations or community organizations, are making a difference in reducing hunger.