New report criticises response to food crisis

The Ethiopian government and humanitarian agencies have been criticised in a new report on the massive food emergency in the country. The study, by the acclaimed US-based Feinstein International Famine Centre, also condemned the “wait and see” approach that preceded one of the worst-ever food crises to befall the impoverished country, affecting 12.6 million people. “The crisis of 2002/2003 can be characterised as one of the most widespread and severe emergencies ever to strike Ethiopia,” said the major study released this week. It said a lack of response by the government and donors to previous emergencies in drought-prone Ethiopia had exacerbated the current crisis. The report also estimated that 21,000 children have died from lack of food or related diseases in a study of five million people. Furthermore, the 240-page report expressed concern over the “little commitment” to building the ability to respond to future emergencies in the impoverished Horn of Africa country. “Given the depth and breadth of the current crisis, a coordinated strategy to combat famine malnutrition morbidity, mortality and destitution, does not appear to be in place,” the report said. More often than not, it added, famine-type disasters are related to “social, economic, political and environmental processes” rather than the vagaries of nature. The report, entitled 'Risk and Vulnerability in Ethiopia', is the largest and most comprehensive study of the current food emergency that has hit the country. “What we are witnessing today in Ethiopia is in part due to the inadequacies of the humanitarian responses both locally and internationally to the warnings of the crisis in 2002,” it said. “In addition it has its roots in the combined government and donor failures to fully assist disaster-affected populations to recover from the cumulative effects of previous crises.” The study, which has been released to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and the United Nations, follows three months of research in six drought-hit regions of the country. While it praises efforts to combat food crises, it emphasises that both the government and humanitarian agencies must promote recovery – looking beyond just tackling droughts. “Much more can be done to immediately reduce the impact of the current crisis,” the study said. And while it welcomed the generous food aid response, it condemned the almost total lack of non-food response which, it said, hampered relief efforts. “It is of major concern that current relief practices of Ethiopia do not always meet the standards that its own history has served to evolve,” it noted. [For more about the Feinstein International Famine Centre click here: http://famine.tufts.edu/]